Top 10: #6

    There is no better feeling in life than going up to someone who is all alone and befriending them. My entire life I have loved sitting with that one kid at lunch who was all alone, playing with that one kid who had no one to play with at recess, and just being friends with the "outcast." The first day we got to Nicaragua, we got to play with the kids. Most of the kids dive right into playing with the crazy white Americans, but others are unsure of who we are, especially those who have not been at the orphanage for a while.
   I was sitting on the bench, watching some of the kids and my team play volleyball (because I cannot play volleyball!!), when I noticed a group of boys sitting and watching with me. I tried to talk to them with the best of my ability, but like always it was hard with the language barrier. I tried to convince them to go play, but nothing was really working. So then, I tried to talk to one boy in particular, Rodon, and from there a friendship that will last a lifetime bloomed.
  I saw him looking at the frisbee's that one of the girls brought from home, so I motioned to them and asked if he wanted to play. We started playing and soon the game grew, and we played for what seemed like hours throwing this frisbee around. We always knew how good they were at sports, but it was crazy how amazing he was compared to us. None of us could continually catch the frisbee and every time he or one of his friends went to catch it, they got it with one hand. Their abilities astonish me every time I go there.
   After frisbee died down, I started teaching him a clapping game that we learned on move. He caught on quicker then I thought he would, and it was a lot of fun to play such a universal game. After all of that, we were just messing around and came up with a handshake. I am still unable to understand why, but this handshake made me so happy. I was elated to have this kind of connection, and only on the first day, with a boy I met hours before. Every time we saw each other for the rest of my time in Nicaragua, we did our handshake, and sometimes just walked away. It was a feeling that we acknowledged each other, but we did not need to say a lot.
  When Rodon was playing with the other boys, I got to talking to another American who had been at the orphanage for awhile. He told me that Rodon had not been there for more than a couple months. It was interesting to hear this, because it explained why he had a hard time communicating with us in Spanish. His main language was Miskito, the native language in Nicaragua. He had improved a lot in the months that he had been there.
  From that day on, every time Rodon saw me, he ran up and gave me a hug and then we did our handshake. I loved that I made such a huge impact on this boy within the first months he was in the orphanage. I will never know what his home life was like before the orphanage, but I know that I made an impact in his life because of the smile on his face and the hugs I got. I loved and love this boy with all my heart, and cannot wait to be reunited with him again soon.