There are a lot of orphanages.
We visited a small orphanage and school by the village Gbondoi, About an hour and a half from where we live.
A young man named Jesse, who is the clerk in the mission presidency had collected some money from donors in America to buy some food supplies for the orphanage. He asked us if we could transport the supplies to the village.
There are about 18 children in the orphanage. We brought 12, 50 pound bags of rice, a large bag of beans and a large container of cooking oil, along with a bundle of blouses. The children sleep on the floor of the school. Some of them sleep on mattresses and some of them just sleep on the cement floor. Jesse is working on getting them some mattresses.
The village was really in the middle of nowhere and quite cut off from what little civilization there is in the area. You could tell that by the quality of the children's toys. Everyone here is a subsistence farmer.
This is the market where we went to pick up some of the supplies. It's full of a lot of shops along the sides and small vendors that are on the street. Eventually the vendors envelope the entire street.
I took out my cell phone to take a picture and Jesse stopped me and told me to put it back in my pocket. He said that people will come by and just rip it out of your hand and run away with it. He stood guard as I took this picture.
This guy is carrying our supplies to the truck. He has 165 pounds on his head. He did this three times. Everything is carried on the head in this country. Kids will walk to school with their books on their head. People who sell things on the street will carry them in baskets on their head. Usually they do it hands free.
These are really a group of hardy people. They live out in the rural villages where there are no stores and electricity is by generator only. Interesting people. The Ericsson have ten children and elder Hanks just retired as a professor of Economics at the University of Utah.
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