Monday March 9th, Part Two of the Day

All I can say about the afternoon of this day is: REFRESHING! Oh wow, what a tough, tough morning, and I don't know that there was a clown in our group eager to get back out there and entertain. We were all drained and deflated.

That changed shortly after we arrived at Pajaritos Azules, a special needs orphanage. It is for kids with special needs whose parents have either died, abandoned them, or don't have the necessary means to take care of them properly. A volunteer there told me that, fortunately, some of the children are there only temporarily, while their parents work to make money and build stability in order to bring their children back into their homes.

As soon as we stepped out of the cars and the taxis, we had children with smiling faces eagerly awaiting us. They joy was radiant and contagious. The children were fun and cheerful and wanting to play. And oh how we played!

The children were dispersed and we were able to move in on them in their natural environments and clown. We started ina general room, we all played for a bit, and then began to spread out into different areas. I personally hung out with the youngest lads there for about an hour. I played with Linda and Carolina, both approximately two years of age. Carolina was shy and didn't have the ability to talk. Once she warmed up to me though, her facial expressions and her sound effects did all of the talking. I gave her a little bubble ring, some foam beads borrowed from Kristen, and she helped me blow bubbles. She was precious. Oh and Linda was just a bundle of joy and excitement. She ran around and laughed and played! She was affected with Down Syndrome and something else, but wow you couldn't tell it. She loved every bit of play we had to offer. After a while in there, we left to play with the bigger kids.

Some clowns were in a little exercise class "arriba, abajo!". I stayed in there just a minute, it was great, the kids were loving it. Then Trey and I went outside and played with bipassers with our bouncy balls. That was fun, and they got really into it. Then we encountered Helen, the young lady I think every clown fell in love with. I should actually call her Wendy since Wendy and Helen swapped names. But she played a"tap us on the back and then hide" game for a while. It was entertaining!

It was a wonderful ending to a heart wrenching day. In our post clown meeting we reflected on the day and came to a very important conclusion: We went to the orphanage to ease some of these children's suffering, but we were the ones who left healed. These children mended the broken hearts of clowns.