Hola

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Well I'm still here. Happy in my little flat.

Started working in the orphanage on monday. There are 21 kids ranging between 2 months and 9 years. There are 5 full time volunteers or tias whos are amazing, they gave up their entire lives and sold everything they owned to keep the orphanage standing. We work for 4 hours a day, it doesn't sound like a long time but it is a LOT of work. There is always something to do. We leave here at 7.30 and arrive at about 8. We go in a "bus", more like a tiny van with seats called a combi. They will fit as many people in as possible. It costs 60 centimos, about 13 cent each way. The kids go to school very early so there is only the very small kids and the babies. The small kids go to play school at about 9. Then we help the tias with ironing, washing, cooking and other house holds chores. But we spend a lot of time with the babies. There are 3 babies and often you'll be left in charge of two, and I swear they have it pre-planned to start crying when the other one stops....
But they are very content babies despite their troubled backgrounds.

The orphanage itself is still quiet new, its only been open for two years. But it is a well oiled machine. While it's misleading at time you can think its a "wealthy" orphanage you quickly realise that it's not. There are bedrooms for 21 kids, very small rooms at that. One of the rooms is for the babies so the rest of the kids are in 2 rooms. They don't have hot water so the kids have cold showers and all of the clothes have to be washed in cold water and EVERYTHING has to be ironed to kill bacteria, and you can imagine how many clothes there is for 21 kids. They run out of nappies and milk for the babies a lot. Also they have a fridge that frequently doesn't work so any food they do get often goes rotten.

But with all of that said it is a really nice place and the tias are wonderful especially lillian who runs the place, a very sweet older lady who has put so much into it and really cares about the kids.

Other than all of that things are wonderful here. I'm getting on really well with everyone. We spend a lot of time together and we're like a little family almost. It's really nice to have them, its made this whole thing so far so much easier.

Ok I'm off for now but I'll update at the weekend

love
Madeleine

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