Rodney On Earth

Allow me to indulge for a moment, so you understand my thinking, before continuing the read this blog post:

No, I’m not in the picture. :p

I used to watch an American TV show called “Good Times.”  The TV comedy was centered around a very poor African American family, The Evans (picured above), who was stuck in “the ghetto” (a very run-down, dangerous, inner-city neighborhood).  The show chronicled The Evans’ constant struggle with “trying to make ends meet” (American slang for: pay for all things they needed, with extremely limited money).

James Evans, the father, was eventually was killed in a work accident (“killed” on the show, not in real-life).  The youngest boy, Micheal (a black rights militant) was reminiscing about lessons of life that his father taught him.  One saying James told Michael was “We must play the game in the uniform we are given.” (Meaning: we must go through life with the skin color we are born with, and deal with life as it comes to us.)

Just as we must live life with the skin color we are born with (unless you are Michael Jackson), children must live in childhoods based on their parents’ decisions.  Sometimes the choices parents make are hard for the child, but for the child’s own good.  Sometimes the choices parents make are purely out of selfish reasons.

My photographic projects, whether special interest or humanitarian, are always focused on unique sub-cultures.  One current project is focused on the lives of orphans.  This weekend I spent some time at one particular place that I am focusing on.  For most westerners, orphanages are places for children who do not have parents due to death, and the kid has no other family.

Actually, I am such a child.  My father was unknown, and my biological mother–a Jane Doe: an unidentifiable woman–died during childbirth.  I was adopted at 6 days old by my parents (non-biological parents).

In the West, children given up for adoption by their biological parents are technically orphans too, but westerners never think “giving up child for adoption” is the same as “make the child an orphan” as parents are still alive.  I am learning very fast is in 3rd world Asia most “orphans” do not fit the Western paradigm of what an orphan is.

The vast majority of orphans in the 3rd world have living biological parents, who have either abandoned the children out of selfish reasons (such as not wanting to be looked down upon for having a non-perfect baby), or the parents willing gave the child to a orphanage in hopes to give the child a better future than they could provide it.  Some parents even give their children to the orphanage with an informal agreement it is for a limited time only, until the family can support the child themselves.  Only in a very few cases are the children truly without biological parents in 3rd world Asia.

So, these orphans are dealing with the circumstances they are put into.  This particular orphanage is extremely well ran, with caring staff and a clean environment for the children to live, learn, and play in.  The children have a range of issues, from mental retardation, to physical deformities such as permanent blindness.  One 2 year old boy has permanent brain damage due to high fever while fighting the flu.  He lays in bed shaking and moaning.  He has very good health care, thanks to plentiful donations from Europe to the orphanage, but he seems to have little human interaction at the moment (he’s still sick with flu).

The children all have heart-twisting stories, but one stands out: a blind girl that I will call Angel (I’m not giving her real name, to protect the child).  Angel is a 4 year old, Indonesian-European mixed girl.  In addition to speaking Indonesian, she speaks fluent Dutch!  The orphanage does not know her origins; she was merely given to the orphanage.

Angel has already gone to Singapore so doctors there could determine if there was any treatment for her eye condition (her blue-gray eyes are covered with a cataracts-like film, giving her a ghostly appearance).  Doctors said there is nothing that can be done for her.

Some believe Angel’s Expat father and his maid conceived Angel, and when he left the country he abandoned the mom and child, and the mother could not cope with a blind daughter.  Some others believe she might have been the result of a “contract marriage” (where woman is married to guy for a specific time)–I’m still trying to understand contract marriages.  All of these are theories only. On one knows Angel’s true story.

She loves constant hugs and to be carried, even though she gets around the orphanage fairly well on her own.  Every time she bumps into a person, she enthusiastically puts her arms in the air to be picked up.  If that does not work, she tries to climb the person.

*~ We all had a fun laugh when this happened to our shy driver.  After several failed attempts to be picked up by the driver, Angel tried to climb him like a tree, ending up with him standing there with her stuck in mid-air with her arms and legs wrapped around his legs in a wrestling death grip. hahaha ~*

She has no surprise-from-touch response, for lack of a better term.  Meaning: if she is walking, and bumps something, like water she just flows around it without breaking the song she’s singing.  If you touch her hand or suddenly speak to her in a quiet room, she is not the least bit startled.  She must have been blind for most of her very young life.

I could not hold her for long, out of fear of adopting her hahaha. She is so sweet and adorable, she ripped my heart out when she called me “Papa” when trying to get me to hold her.  I would have given her one of my eyes, if that was humanly possible (and I am not kidding).  My friend, Yensi, spent a lot of time carrying Angel around the orphanage, singing with her as they went along. Angel’s extremely smart: she will be amazing one day.

Surprising was the fact the orphanage does not have an immediate need for money, as several organizations in Europe provide the majority of their monetary needs.  What they do need is food items, such as Ovaltine, baby diapers, etc.  I will help them with that each month.

Anyway,  the kids make me rethink life.  Maybe “the uniform i was givien” is not so bad to have received…

Take care!