Are You Laughing at Me or With Me?

As my nine days at Wings of Hope comes to an end, I think about how absolutely rewarding this trip has been.  I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Some of the ridiculous moments:

• Boys will be boys.  Though they can not feed themselves, two of the boys with cerebral palsy mustered enough control to use their respective wheelchairs as bumper cars and push one another out of position to change the tv station.  I knew I should stop the fight, but I kind of wanted to see what would happen.
• That wasn't rain.  I was standing in the alley behind the house when I felt a drop of wetness hit my head.  I looked up and realized I was standing underneath the boys' balcony.  One of the boys was looking down at me with a huge drip of drool hanging out of his mouth.  (Awwww...mmaaannnn!!!)
• No thanks, we are NOT that hungry.  Since the older children were often still hungry after their light dinner, I decided to share my chocolate protein bars with them one evening.  They were all very excited at the "bonbons."  After one bite of a Lunabar, Sadraque returned his portion back to me.
• Again, no thanks, we are NOT that hungry.  Not knowing what to expect, one of the volunteers, Michael, bought Spam and Tang at the grocery store.  I asked him if he consumed these products back at home.  He said, "No." (?!?!)  I am going to bet that there will still be Spam and Tang in the kitchen cabinet when I decide to return to Wings of Hope next.  There's something to be said about food products that have a longer shelf-life than you.  

• The Ramp of Death.  Each day of classes, we would help take the children with wheelchairs down to the first level.  Since the house isn't designed to be wheelchair accessible, the wooden planks on top of the stairs were relatively steep.  One of the children, David, would make a special request for me to take him downstairs because he thought the look of fear in my eyes as I wheeled him downstairs backward (using my shins as a brake) absolutely hilarious.  *Note the scuff marks on the wall.*
• Big wheels, not just for kids.  We brought out the big wheels and bikes with training wheels for the children to ride around on the patio one day.  By children, I mean us volunteers.  By us volunteers, I really mean me.  I hadn't seen a big wheel in years.  And man oh man...if I didn't do some knee cartilage damage while banging myself up against that steering well.  It was a training exercise in my pursuit to be reigning queen of that patio.