First Day at the Orphanage

Well today was our first full day volunteering and it was terrific. My group went to the Social Center first where we play with and entertain about 10 kids from the ages of 3 - 15. These kids are in a facility with about 200 other people who vary in age from infant to elderly. I played catch with two kids for a bit, then we played Hide and Seek for an hour! After that, I was in the infant room with about 10 babies. We all take turns playing, feeding and changing the kids. They don't wear diapers normally - just baby clothes. They are often in their metal cribs but sometimes (and always when we are around), they get out on to the tile floor to hang out. They are all developmentally behind American kids their age. We'll try to get them to crawl (most aren't there yet despite being 8 - 18 months old). roll a ball or just feed them a bottle. Many of them were very animated. They smile and laugh when you give them attention.

After the Social Center morning, we had lunch at the Vol. House and did some brainstorming for the upcoming orphan competition happening on Sunday. The able body kids will be competing in singing, dancing and drawing. In addition to them being taught a Vietnamese song by their teachers, we started teaching them the Hokey Pokey tonight! It was a riot!! They speak very little English but it was a lot of fun and I'm sure they'll have it down pat by Sunday!

After my mid day run around the tiny lake across from the house, we all went to the "Malnourished Center" for our afternoon assignment. These kids aren't necessarily malnourished but they do have some learning disability or have been abandonded. Mostly under 4, these kids were a lot of fun. They are relatively healthy and fiesty. We played with the older ones, then help feed both the infants and the toddlers. After dinner the tods get an unsupervised bath!!About 5 of them were in buckets in the bathroom with water pouring out of a hose from teh sink. They were sitting in little red buckets and just having a grand ole time!! One even doused me with a bucket of water and laughed himself to tears!

Now I'm back at the house and it feels like 120 degrees at 9:30 PM. It'll be tough to sleep tonight. Did I mention we don't have A/C here? Whew!! OK - if the kids can do it, I can do it.
Thanks for all your well wishes. More to come soon.