Diary

2008-05-15 - Pitkänen family's feelings on the eve of departure

One Sunday morning we finally had the long waited Love House Olympics, which was indeed one of the most unforgettable days for us. We took all the children to one of the fields near the orphanage and divided them into four groups by their age. There they all got own numbers on their front like in the real Olympic contests. We had four events; long jump, javelin, sprint and target throwing. The children competed seriously, but the best part still was to cheer the others. After all the events, everybody got some drink and cookies. In the afternoon after the lunch and naptime we had fancy ceremony with prizes for the winners. In total, we handed over sixty diplomas and medals which mean that nearly everybody got a prize in some event in their own age group. After all this they got some lemonade which is rare thing for them and therefore something special.

We got great and generous donation when a lovely young couple from USA stopped by in Phnom Penh on their trip to Southeast Asia. Before their trip, they had collected some money to the Love House to be donated through Children of Cambodia (NGO), to the children of Love House. With this money the children were able to get, for example, the following items; soaps, shampoos, new underwear, drawing equipments, toys and games etc which were all highly needed.

We leave from Cambodia with lots of incredible experiences. We feel good of fulfilling the goals what we came here for, but on the other hand we are thinking; was there something more we could’ve done? Was there something else we could’ve given? This must be something one so easily ponders in this kind of situations. However we have to be happy of the things we accomplished and keep going to the next challenges, with the children of Love House drawn deeply in our hearts.

Liisa and Ville-Veikko Pitkanen