Ti Pwason

For our weekly outing we went on a walk through the area behind the orphange. I've walked there many times, and thought the kids would really like the change of scenery. As soon as we headed out the gate, the kids told me that we were going the wrong way. I said that no, we were just going another way today. We headed past a bunch of little mud and stick houses, and then everyone stopped when James looked back and said "Gade, lakay nou!!" which means "look, our house!". Few of the kids had seen the house from that side, and were amazed at how big it was compared to the rest! We continued with our walk and soon our troop grew as the village children started to tag along. We stopped along a little stream, where the kids were enthralled with the "ti pwason" "little fish", which were actually minnows. We stood on the bank for a long while, watching the activity in the water and interacting with the village children who kept giggling when our kids said "whoy, pwason!"

We then continued on our way, and as we headed around a tall cornfield, David said, "we need to go back!" I asked him why and he said he didn't know where we were going. I explained to him that I had already walked this way before and he got this really cute look on his face, like "why didn't I think of that", and then ran to the front of the line. Along the way we would catch glimpses of the house, and the kids would cause a big clamor, and we'd have to shoo them along.


They had a great time seeing new kinds of trees, especially the ones with the picks on them to keep animals away, and many other new sites along the way. As we walked towards the river we came across a cow who had recently given birth and was eating the afterbirth. Try explaining to a bunch of concerned children that, no, the mama was not eating the baby!! We also got to see a cow being milked, and a few had some concerned looks on their faces when they realized that was where milk came from!!
They were nice and wonderfully tired out when we got back, and a few of them announced that we would be going that way every week!

Gade! Pwason!

Shannon and some of the troop