So today was the first day that we were going to the aftercare home. We had our usual morning (breakfast, devo time, IJM office morning routine) and then we were off to Sanlaap (which is one of the homes-we didn't go there last year). It is a little bit outside the city and so we had our same driver from a few days before so he was determined to get us there as quickly as possible.
We arrived a little after 11 and started to get set up. The director of the home told us that we were going to be split up into 4 groups, one for each of us (Julia, me, Leslie, and Kelly), which is not what we were expecting at all. In fact, none of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing exactly besides Julia so the fact that we were all going to be split up was a bit of a surprise. Julia and Madhu (an IJM worker) were going to be in the receiving house where the girls who have just come into the home are and they are essentially locked in the house and are like pad locked into this half outdoor/ half indoor area that is just really sad. I was with a group of 19 girls in an outdoor 'pavilion' of sorts, Leslie was in a room with oriental rugs (random), and Kelly was in a makeshift classroom. We did painting of picture frames, which is a huge hit with the girls and their frames are just so awesome and colorful. I am always surprised when I see them because they are so great! After that we had some lunch of rice and potatoes and a hard boiled egg. I thought it was good, but then we were told that the girls eat the same thing twice a day every day which I can imagine gets very old. After lunch we worked on having the girls do self portraits, that actually turned out to be just the girls making an oil pastel picture of whatever they wanted, which is obviously fine. They seemed to really enjoy making pictures though and used up every bit of our paper.
After that we realized that we didn't bring all the materials for doing our dreamcatchers so we decided to have 2 groups do them and 2 groups just play games for about an hour. My group decided to play games, which turned out to be quite the hot mess. At the beginning of the day I had a girl with me who spoke English but after lunch she was no where to be found, so I essentially used sign language to try and tell how to play some games. Turns out they did not like the idea of human knot, or this other game where you criss cross hands and slap them on the ground. Then this man who works there came over and the girls told him that my games were boring :) and so I needed to come up with something else. It was the man who actually thought of "speak fast" aka telephone. I thought that was a great idea, except that I wasn't really thinking I would be playing but turns out I played the entire time. We started playing in Bangali and I messed up the word almost every time, and so much so that the girl next to me started saying it 3 times in my ear...it was hilarious. Then they tried to start playing in English but I still thought it was Bangali so I even messed up English words. It was a really funny experience and nice to laugh and joke around with the girls.
Julia's and Leslie's group made the craft and Kelly played games with her group as well. They all have really funny stories about trying to do all of that and we had a funny time explaining it all to each other on the ride home.
Post playing those games we were served some tea and chips (usual) and we headed back to the hotel. On our ride back our trusty driver was driving crazy per usual and was talking to Madhu about how traffic laws did not apply to him because he wasn't from here ( I was unaware of that rule), but that really explains how he was running red lights past cops and driving on the wrong side of the road to beat some traffic. I will hand it to him though because he does get us where we want to go in rapid time. Its totally crazy that we haven't hit anyone/ been hit.
When we got back to the hotel we decided on dinner and headed straight there because we were all tired. We had another great Indian meal and talked all about our day with Chris and shared stories and such. We came back to the hotel and realized that we didn't have enough dreamcatchers for the craft tomorrow so we spent the next few hours working on a way to make that situation work out. So after all that...it was finally time for shower/blog/email time.
We are going back to the same home tomorrow so I will follow up tomorrow! Some pictures from our day.
We arrived a little after 11 and started to get set up. The director of the home told us that we were going to be split up into 4 groups, one for each of us (Julia, me, Leslie, and Kelly), which is not what we were expecting at all. In fact, none of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing exactly besides Julia so the fact that we were all going to be split up was a bit of a surprise. Julia and Madhu (an IJM worker) were going to be in the receiving house where the girls who have just come into the home are and they are essentially locked in the house and are like pad locked into this half outdoor/ half indoor area that is just really sad. I was with a group of 19 girls in an outdoor 'pavilion' of sorts, Leslie was in a room with oriental rugs (random), and Kelly was in a makeshift classroom. We did painting of picture frames, which is a huge hit with the girls and their frames are just so awesome and colorful. I am always surprised when I see them because they are so great! After that we had some lunch of rice and potatoes and a hard boiled egg. I thought it was good, but then we were told that the girls eat the same thing twice a day every day which I can imagine gets very old. After lunch we worked on having the girls do self portraits, that actually turned out to be just the girls making an oil pastel picture of whatever they wanted, which is obviously fine. They seemed to really enjoy making pictures though and used up every bit of our paper.
After that we realized that we didn't bring all the materials for doing our dreamcatchers so we decided to have 2 groups do them and 2 groups just play games for about an hour. My group decided to play games, which turned out to be quite the hot mess. At the beginning of the day I had a girl with me who spoke English but after lunch she was no where to be found, so I essentially used sign language to try and tell how to play some games. Turns out they did not like the idea of human knot, or this other game where you criss cross hands and slap them on the ground. Then this man who works there came over and the girls told him that my games were boring :) and so I needed to come up with something else. It was the man who actually thought of "speak fast" aka telephone. I thought that was a great idea, except that I wasn't really thinking I would be playing but turns out I played the entire time. We started playing in Bangali and I messed up the word almost every time, and so much so that the girl next to me started saying it 3 times in my ear...it was hilarious. Then they tried to start playing in English but I still thought it was Bangali so I even messed up English words. It was a really funny experience and nice to laugh and joke around with the girls.
Julia's and Leslie's group made the craft and Kelly played games with her group as well. They all have really funny stories about trying to do all of that and we had a funny time explaining it all to each other on the ride home.
Post playing those games we were served some tea and chips (usual) and we headed back to the hotel. On our ride back our trusty driver was driving crazy per usual and was talking to Madhu about how traffic laws did not apply to him because he wasn't from here ( I was unaware of that rule), but that really explains how he was running red lights past cops and driving on the wrong side of the road to beat some traffic. I will hand it to him though because he does get us where we want to go in rapid time. Its totally crazy that we haven't hit anyone/ been hit.
When we got back to the hotel we decided on dinner and headed straight there because we were all tired. We had another great Indian meal and talked all about our day with Chris and shared stories and such. We came back to the hotel and realized that we didn't have enough dreamcatchers for the craft tomorrow so we spent the next few hours working on a way to make that situation work out. So after all that...it was finally time for shower/blog/email time.
We are going back to the same home tomorrow so I will follow up tomorrow! Some pictures from our day.
At the home they have this black lab as a pet...needless to say I made fast friends.
Some of the girls frames
The sign that clearly our driver pays no mind to
Our late night crafting
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