My Experience at Treasures Of Africa Children's Home

My Experience At Treasure Of Africa Children’s Home

By River Bryant - student volunteer, age 16 years

The kids at Treasures Of Africa Children’s Home were happy and friendly. I quickly found out that they love to play soccer and I was immediately impressed with their skills. Often times they’d pull off some ridiculous trick that would leave me standing there without a clue as to what had just happened, so I stuck to being the goalie!

As many of you know, I taught drum classes, one for the older kids and one for the younger kids. The first day to my surprise, both classes were able to keep good time. I found myself acting more and more like my High School drum instructor, as I went around helping each kid individually. After the first day of drum class, the older kids closed the communication gap quickly. I was able to get them to copy me and to continue even after I would stop playing. It enabled me to correct the problems some of them were having as they repeated the same rotation. Even though there was a language barrier, I felt a real connection and understanding between us during the drum lessons. The older kids and I would practice playing for close to three hours at a time, they really wanted to learn. As for the little ones, they just loved to hit the drum!

Another project that I co-led for the kids at TOA was to Tie Dye t-shirts. Having prior experience in my youth group back at home was a big help! It was hard at first to communicate to them that they could do whatever design they wanted, but their creativity came out and all of the shirts the kids made turned out great. Everyone had a wonderful time.

I really don’t know how to describe the feelings I experienced while I was at Treasures of Africa. God’s presence was so strong there. When I was alone, I would just begin worshipping and singing praises to the Lord. Those were special times with the Lord.
I had the opportunity to go out to a Masaai village several times. The kids were sweet there too, but they live in such terrible conditions, sometimes I just had to look away. They were always happy to see us, but there was a feeling of helplessness that hung in the air with the multitude of flies that covered their faces. It was the exact opposite of life at the orphanage. It made me realize how blessed the children at TOA really are, receiving good care and a lot of love.