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Friday Jul 03, 2009

A word on the actual work!

Holaaa, I was reading through some of my other posts and realised I havent really talked very much about what I actually do at the orphanage yet! Well, its my day off today and its raining just now so I thought I would give a brief run-through:

On normal days I turn up at the refugio a little before 3.30pm, and head down to the courtyard type area where most of the kids usually are, on weekdays there is only the very young ones as the others head to school during the afternoon and return around 6. So I go in and bascially play with them, sometimes on the junglejim and in the den-house, sometimes just carrying them round (Alejandro demands this nearly everytime I walk in, as does Michelle and even Teresa...who really is a bit big for it now, but I guess I can view it as a workout), I also often just sit and try to talk to the children, mainly in Spanish as they take great joy in trying to teach me and I can understand a lot of what they say now...though I can rarely answer properly! We also do lots of art stuff, mainly just drawing and colouring in though as theyre not often allowed to play with glue or paint as the nuns (who run the place overall) tell me it is too messy, though I think they are rather strict and it is also just part of the discipline!

At 5 the kids get their dinner, which can be anything from bread with sugar toasted on top, to chocolate cake, to soup! They have some very strange dinners, often sugar-filled, but I guess as they run on donations it depends on whatever they have been given, and whatever they can afford to buy for each meal. The kids do also get  lots of milk and fruit though, so it isnt all bad. After that its playtime for the kids again as the volunteers help to do the dishes, wipe down and stack away the tables and chairs (mucky wee pups they are!) and also sweep and mop up the floor, before heading out to interact with the kids some more until its time to start getting them bathed. This part of the shift can be a nightmare, getting them in to the small bathroom, stripped and into the large sink we use to shower them, out of there again, dried and put into pyjamas (and almost all of them wear nappies too which surprised me). This may not sound so bad, but many of the kids start wailing as soon as they are in the bathroom, and try their very hardest not to cooperate in the slightest in the whole process...also Pearlita will often decide to grab the shampoo and pour almost half out before rubbing it in her hair, which then takes ages to rinse out, meanwhile Jose seems to love grabbing the shower hose and soaking all the volunteers! A shock I wasnt expecting the first time I bathed him! The lucky volunteers will be upstairs at this stage bathing the 5 youngest children, a much easier task!

Then its time to watch tv for around a half hour, and many of the kids will come and cuddle you and sit on your lap and fall asleep then before being taken off to bed at 7.30...

So theres a bit more insight into the work I have been doing here! Not a long shift, but pretty tiring! Especially in this Mexican heat... Anyway, thats all for now, I am in my last week at the orphanage now so will soon update on my last few days and those final goodbyes which are going to be so hard! Fi.

Posted by Fiona ( 7:41 PM )
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