Seriously?

Wednesday began with a tour of Layla.  Dawit, our driver, picked us up around 9 and took us to Layla.  One of the volunteers gave us a tour of the facility.  We began in the kindergarten, pre-school room.  Talk about overwhelming.  The kids swarmed my dad and could not stop giggling.  They were all so amazed with his beard!  They just kept touching it and giggling.  One girl took my dad by the hand and began walking right out the door with him.  We had no idea what she was saying, she just kept repeating the same phrase.  (Later we asked a housekeeper at the Hilton–who loved Baby G and frequently stopped in to play with him–to translate.  She said the little girl just kept saying “Welcome….welcome, daddy”  which of course made us all cry)  When he asked her what her name was there was some talk amongst the kids and they suddenly broke out singing “There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-0″ in English!!  We went back to the baby room that Baby G was in.  I was able to get his pictures with some of the nannies.  We also saw the rooms with the smaller babies.  The newest arrival was quite tiny and fragile looking.

Next we saw the courtyard where the kids played, the dining hall, some of the older kids bedrooms, classrooms, the library, etc.  I’m not even sure how to describe everything.  One thing I did notice was how much more organized the girls kept their rooms than the boys.  I guess that’s a universal trait  

It was also laundry day and there was laundry EVERYWHERE!!!  And I seriously mean everywhere, every rail, wire, open piece of ground.  I am definitely in awe of these women who were smiling and laughing as they did by hand what I complain about doing with our machines… 

We didn’t get to see many of the older kids as they were all in class.  We did get to see the PE class as they were exercising.  After a quick tour we headed back to the Hotel for lunch and to get ready for our Embassy appt.

Apparently we had misunderstood what time we had to go to the Embassy appt as the volunteer called and was waiting to pick us up before we were anywhere near ready.  We very quickly got dressed and gathered our stuff and were downstairs ready to go.