June 16 2009

Our time at orphanage #2
For the last 10 days the school that we have been working at has been on a break. Because of this I asked Uma (our coordinator ) to set us up in a different orphanage for a week so that we would have work to do and get a small taste of different orphanages in the area. The orphanage that we have been working at has 24 children and 10 of them are 10 months to around 2 years old.
The first day that we were there we just played with the babies and helped to feed them. They eat what looks kind of like oatmeal and kind of like lentils it could be both I don’t know it smelled pretty good though. The workers there gave me a bowl that was completely full of the mush and a spoon and I fed which ever mouth was nearby that was not eating. It was kind of crazy because you have no ideas which kids have eaten enough and which have not because it was not monitored. All of them looked like they were well fed and cared for though. The diapers that they use here are just a cloth that is folded into a triangle and tied to the babies when they pee it soaks right though. I leave at the end of the day covered in snot, pee, and slobber. A lot of the time the children run around without anything on their bottom half at all. Most of the children are potty trained though and they each have a small training potty that they set up in the hallway outside the recreation room that they spend all day in. They would set up the children on the potties and leave them all sitting there for a long time just chilling in the hall sitting on the potty. It was kind of cute actually. One little boy who was one of the oldest of the children there is named Surje. He is a serious handful he is defiantly the biggest trouble maker but very fun and playful and super smart. He would sit on his potty and play with all the shoes that sit outside of the rec room and then he would throw them down the stairs. At the end of every day I was always looking for my shoes because they were never where I left them. I started taking them off right when I walked in the building so that I would have a better chance of them not escaping from me.
The 2nd 3rd and 4th days that we were there we helped a girl named Amy who is here from Canada with the organization volunteer abroad paint the rec room. The first day we just painted the ceiling white. The second day we did a second coat of paint on the ceiling then did a first coat of cookie monster blue paint on the wall. The room was originally a light minty green it was really gross looking. When we were done painting the walls blue we had to clean the paintbrushes the cleaner that the paint store gave Amy was some kind of petroleum that was put into old motor oil bottles. I did the cleaning and when I went to clean the paint and oil off of my hands I found that there was no soap anywhere to use so I walked home with bright blue hands. The area that the orphanage is not in a great place of town it is very poor and so there are not a lot of tourists in the area very often so when I walk the streets I get looked at a lot anyway because I look out of place but with blue hands I got even more looks than normal. A lot of people on motorcycles would drive past and look at me and then take a second look because my hands were so blue and have to quickly turn and swerve to avoid hitting one of the potholes that are everywhere on the road. It was so funny. When I got home Uma and Nabina were laughing so hard and we had to go the little store down the street to buy motor oil so that we could get the paint off. To buy it you have to bring your own bottle and they fill it up for you from a big tank of the stuff. We brought along an empty 1L water bottle. Nabina scrubbed my arms and hands until the stuff came most of the way off. (Almost a week later now my finger nails are still blue around the edges). On the 3rd day of painting we arrived a while before Amy so we got to play with the babies before we began to paint. They were so excited to see us when we arrived. The room looks so good now. It just needs some touch ups and someone else is going to be working on them. The room is so much brighter and happier looking. The 3 staff members really loved it they kept coming in and dancing around they were so happy with it.
The last 3 days we have been just going any playing with the children. On Sunday and Monday the older children that live there were also home because they had no school because it was a “holy day” (I don’t know why because their holy day is normally on Saturday and they go to school the other 6 days of the week. It was really fun to be able to experience another orphanage situation here in the Kathmandu valley. I really appreciate where we are and the opportunities that our children have. The children where we are, are so well behaved and smart. They know when to stop what they are doing and they understand what we are saying most of the time.

I think that there was probably more that I was going to write but I started writing this almost a week ago and never finished so if it seems incomplete and like it ends abruptly that is why. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. Miss you all.

Amanda