Thirty Five!

    Yes, thirty five.

    In one house?

    Yes, in one house.

    Who cares for them?

    A woman and her sister.

    How... I mean thirty five children in one house, that’s.... How old?

    The ages are from a year old to fifteen years old.

    How many rooms are there?

    There are four rooms, the girls sleep downstairs and the boys sleep upstairs.

    Wanna see?

    I smiled, sure.

    The orphanage my sister was referring to was in Natal, Brazil. A simple home that took in the abandoned, unwanted and unsheltered and cared for them as they would their own. I hoped to be able to photograph the children and then give them a copy of the photograph for their own. Many had never seen a picture of themselves before. I packed a backdrop and some clamps. On the way there we would pick up some supplies for the orphanage. My sister had found out that they were low on drinking water and was hoping to have a local store deliver 5 gallon jugs on a regular basis.

    We had stopped at a neighborhood store and purchased all the milk they had on the shelves and bags of plain biscuits to bring with us. I grabbed some of my favorites- chocolate milk and chocolate cookies,

    Are you out of your mind?, my sister yelled.

    They’re kids why not?

    Because there’s thirty five and it will wind them up into a sugar frenzy that’s why. The woman said, milk and biscuits.

    I put the chocolate cookies back and reached for the plain cookies,

    These okay?

    Much better

    A young man put a 5 gallon jug of water on his bike and pedal off towards the orphanage to deliver it.

    When I set up the backdrop 20 children went running behind it and made a fort out of it. It was something to play with, in a courtyard that had an old broken broom and a plastic pail. My tripod became the favorite as they had no idea what it was for or how it worked. They ran around in the small courtyard, screaming, punching, chasing and pushing one another and trying to get our attention. One by one with my sisters help I lined them up for a picture. Seeing the image on the small screen made them howl! Again, again, telling me to show their pictures over and over.

    I turned my cameras off and covered the lenses. A pair of arms reached up for me, tugging at my vest. I sat down on the wall in the courtyard. There was something more important than my pictures. They came over and climbed up in my lap. I hugged them as tight as I dared as some began to cry. Some refused to get down, their small arms locked around me. And thousands of miles away from home I realized that here too what really matters is knowing someone loves you and cares for you.