Thursday, August 19, 2010

Delkanda Girls' Orphanage

Monday 16th August

There are roughly 140 girls at Delkanda orphanage of all ages from 2-17 years.  Not knowing what to expect, I thought the orphanage was quite big with a large yard for the girls to play in, but the dorms that the girls sleep in are anything but with not even enough beds per person. The girls seem to get on well with the matrons though and some of them seem quite passionate to look after them. They seemed quite wary of us at first which should change as they become familiar with us.

We split the girls up into age groups and take one every day.  Although this makes them more manageable, it makes it harder to get to know them, after time though I'm sure the cheeky ones will stand out!

This morning we had the 2-5 year olds, an age hard enough to control when you speak the same language! so it was pretty tough, but we sang songs like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and did the Okey Kokey (does anyone know how to spell that?) with them which they loved and which helped to calm them down.
One of my biggest worries that came with my first impressions of the orphanage was how to relate and get into the mindset of teenage girls who have experienced more than you despite being older than them.  As a 17 year old, the last thing you would want to do is be pushed to learn English from a group of foreign strangers not that much older than you. At first, we found this very hard but last Thursday we decided our lesson would be conversational so we talked and teased them about boyfriends (inadvertently making them describe in English!) which they found hilarious and they seemed to warm to us a lot more. I hope this is the foundations of their trust.

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