The Orphange

Today we spent time at two orphanages. In the Morning we visited a baby home. The minute we walked into a crowded room with all of the babies, they literally attacked us. By this, I mean that tackled us. They grabbed, pulled and jumped on us. I was so overwhelmed....................the children would actually push, bite and pull one another to fight their way to us. The top picture is shown for a reason. Notice that I am holding two children and a 3 wants to come on board. In the morning at the baby home the women had us carry firewood to the cooks. It was interesting because most of the baby workers were sitting in the play yard watching us work while they sat and did nothing. They hardly interacted with the children and when they did many of them were abusive. The children did not wear diapers, so within 5 minutes of being there one of them peed on my mom's lap. When the children wet themselves they get a clean pair of pants and put them on them. That means that there is urine all over and you just mop it up. Mid morning the children were filthy from snot, urine and the red dirt that they play in. So, after a mid-morning snack they were all stripped and put on potty's. This is the time of day that they are supposed to have a bowel movement. When they do that they are put into a large sink and washed then they walk outside, are rubbed down with oil and put in clean clothes. I participated in all of this. Well, by lunch, they were filthy again, but we went into a room and they age maise (porridge) with some kind of gravy. This is the only time that I saw them drink water, now mindyou it is hot! After lunch they whole routine of cleaning them and changing clothes happens again. Then they all go for a nap. The food is cooked on an open fire and I put a picture at the top. The thing about the orphanage is that there are no toys. I mean, not even 1. The children play in the yard in the dirt, find bags, toilet paper rolls or whatever waste is on the ground and play with it. They are severely deprived of things that we in the states take for grante, yet they seemed to have a few decent meals which was comforting. Today there was little boy named Patrick and he wanted my attention so badly that he began beating, and biting another child. The problem was that I had two children in my arms and one on my back so I proceeded to ask Betty a worker for some help, boy was that a mistake. She took poor little Patrick, pulled down his pants an beat his bum very hard. He was crushed and wouldn't look me in the eye for 5 minutes no matter how hard I tried to engage him. I felt terrible. The children were absolutely filthy and so by the end of the afternoon we were so dirty! It was a mixture of many undesirable things all over us. But, you figured out quickly that you just have to get over it! Anyway, it was a very difficult thing to see, but I'm glad I can play a part in stimulating these children if only for a short time.