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Published: March 18th 2007
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First day of work today and Louisa and I actually managed to walk there without a) getting totally lost or b) being incredibly late. A pretty good start if I do say so myself! We´re working at Adinea, a school for disabled kids, in the mornings and at an orphanage in the afternoons. School´s ok but can get a little boring as there is already a university student, Maro, on work experience there so there isn´t a whole lot to do. Me and Louisa are in different classes, I´m with Greta who is incredibly vague. At break the teachers just wander around the playground talking to each other while we are left to break up the very frequent and really quite brutal fights. The kids are gorgeous but so physical whether it´s hugging you or hitting you. Most just have Down´s Syndrome or severe learning difficulties.
We finish at 12.30pm and walk back for lunch. The orphanage is about 10km away but luckily our dad can drive us halfway as it´s on his way back to work so we only have to get one bus. The orphanage really is in a windmill! Totally random but I love it. Even better they have a kitten! Sounds crazy but I am so missing cats out here - everyone just has dogs which are usually more guard dogs than pets. Our family has two rat-dogs called Camilla and Millie - enough said really! Don´t know what use they´d be if we got burgled but they do come and yap at us incessantly whenever we´re trying to get into the house.
I LOVE the orphanage. Me and Louisa are working in the ´cunas´(cots) which is the under-twos. There are fourteen kids in total in the cunas, eleven in one room and the three youngest in another. These three are only three months and one was brought in at twelve days old!
Bit of a shock when we first arrived as all eleven kids were in one big room in cages. Basically cots with really high bars, and we were not allowed to take them out until it was time for food. Apparently the nuns don´t want them getting too emotionally attached to the volunteers (which of course is far worse than them never being held and subsequently being emotionally detached for life!)
Only down-side to this placement is the other volunteers who are from Utah, have the most irritating accents ever and never know what we are talking about. Frankly, if I understand what a diaper is, they should be able to know what a nappy is. One had hysterics when I asked if the bibs were in the wardrobe - she had never even heard the word before and had no idea what I was talking about! Utah must be even more remote than I thought(!) They also like to sing the babies to sleep by indoctrinating them with songs about ´receiving the holy spirit´! What happened to good, old-fashioned nursery rhymes instead of Mormon songs?! (No offense to any nice Americans out there - I just needed to rant!)
Still, Thursday was really good as it was their day off and it was just me, Louisa and Maria who works there for all fourteen kids. The nuns who run the place are great too and have no problem singing and dancing for the kids. I´m even getting used to the nappies although they are the gross, cloth ones!
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Ellie
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Of cabbages and kings . . .
No cuddles, Mormons *and* cloth nappies?! Oh dear . . . you're not going to go all broody, are you?