A GHA Volunteer Experience:
 
A Beautiful Chain - Five Degrees of Separation

 
Yesterday morning I took a bag of clothes to an orphanage just outside
of town. I left them with one of the women who cares for the children.
This morning I went back and found at least five of the children
running around in the clothes from my bag. It was beautiful - seeing
their smiling faces in the clothes I’d brought them. Only the clothes
weren’t from me. They had traveled, from one orphan to another.
 
The bag of clothes was given to me by a friend visiting from the
States. I met him about a month ago in Costa Rica. He was supposed to
return to San Jose to fly home the following day, but after flipping a
coin decided to head to Panama with me. After three weeks of traveling
together, he returned to the States. One week later he decided to
return to Panama. He knew I was volunteering at an orphanage and
asked what he could bring from home. He flew from LA to Mexico City to
Panama City with a bag of his younger sister’s clothes. We carried
this bag with us across Panama to the Kuna Yala Islands in his pack,
and then transferred it into mine, which I carried to Boquete once he
left.
 
If you look back a bit further, the story is even better. His younger
sister is from Russia. She was adopted into his family last year.
His parents flew to Russia to adopt their baby girl, giving
her a new chance and a new life. The clothes his mom packed in the bag
were the clothes his sister had worn and outgrown.
 
Now the clothes that clothed one adopted baby girl are with a whole
new set of orphans. Hopefully, the children who now wear these clothes
will eventually have a new chance and a new life as well. For now,
they have a new set of clothes - from me, from Chris, from his mother,
from their adopted baby girl from Russia. The five degrees of
separation that comprise this chain link one orphan from Russia to a
group of orphans in Panama. Turns out that making a difference can be
as easy as flipping coin.

 -Rebecca Noreen, Volunteer for goGHA