Sharing Is Caring

You don't waste food when you live in an orphanage. You don't know when you'll get more of it.

But it IS acceptable to pawn your cast-offs to someone else.

You can tell when the kids are getting full because they start giving away what's on their plate.

It also turns out that, truth be told, neither of the older kids on this trip like beans. They ate them the first day in their rice, but they've picked more and more out of their rice as the week has gone on. And the look they get when they find a nasty bean in their beans and rice is priceless.

It's amazing how having options gives you the ability to have opinions.

Now that the kids have played together more and are more familiar with us, Malot and Destina are playing together and talking to each other. It's adorable. Destina was pretty quiet at first but she chats up a storm with Malot.

Last night during dinner we were able to watch an interesting exchange. Both kids ended up with similar sippy cups (they like to be able to carry water with them).

I put some soda in Malot's cup and the rough English translation of what happened next is a bit like this.

"Destina, look. I have SODA in my cup."

(Destina's eyes get big. She didn't realize that the ingenious design of the sippy cup would carry other liquids besides water. The water is emptied from her cup and then she convinces her mom to help her pour the soda she has in the hotel's goblet into her sippy cup)

"Malot, I have soda and ice in my cup."

(Malot's eyes get big. He quickly holds his cup up to the light and performs an inspection. No ice!! He manages to indicate to his mom that he needs ice in his cup. Mom puts a piece of ice in Malot's cup.)

"Destina, I have ice in my cup, too."

(Destina picks up her cup and shakes it. The ice in Destina's cup makes a glorious noise at it hits the sides of her cup. Malot observes this with wonder. The cup makes NOISE! Will miracles never cease! Malot shakes his cup and quickly deduces that the lousy piece of ice his poor excuse for a mother gave him doesn't weigh enough to smack delightfully against the sides of the cup. He gestures to Mom to get help to rectify the situation.)

"Destina, I have lots of ice, too."

(Both happily shake cups)

(Destina can actually take the lid of her cup, so she does and shows Malot. Malot cannot take the lid of his cup and uses the phrase that Mom can't repeat but has learned to recognize as "take the lid off this cup, woman")

It continued like that for some time. Please note that there's nothing mean spirited about the entire exchange. The wonder on their faces as they discover things together and mimic is wonderful. We try to pretend we're not watching them because then they get shy and stop but it's fun to watch them interact with someone that "speaks their language".

Destina is the sweetest little girl. She loves to eat ice. LOVES it! But she pulls out pieces on her fork and we caught her feeding it to Malot off her fork yesterday. She just wants him to have the good stuff as well.