Sarah and Claire enjoy orphanage life in India

Voluntary work placements in Indian orphanages

Hi there- a report as promised!
 
After a 10 hr flight wih British airways and “Sex and the City” we arrived at the smelly, hot and humid Chennai airport. Even at 4.30am there was a sea of excited brown faces awaiting our arrival at the gate! We were taken to our hostel in Egmore and given time to aclimatise to the surroundings and the variety of new sights around us.During the next couple of days we were taken by minibus to see Spencer Plaza (a large shopping mall that provides us with hours of entertainment every week!), a small church of St. Thomas and even a model village so we could see how each religion affects the style of living of each family. We found this very interesting but were more enthralled by the huge platters of food we were given ranging from bland chutney to stupidly spicy orange stuff (yes thats the technical name!) We drank from coconuts and moved on to Mamallapuram to see some temples and the Shore Temple. Morag wasn’t feeling too great so we didn’t sdtay long but fully intend to return at some point…I hear there’s great shopping there too!
On the Friday of that week we were all taken to our individual placements. We arrived at SOS and welcomed by an elderly man who has now ecome a grandfather figure to us. He speaks very good english and has a great sense of humour. He has even given us a wide range of books including a murder mystery, book of horror stories, an erotic novel and a spy CIA novel. How interesting. I don’t quite know what he thinks we read normally but I can’t say the choice was particularly overwhelming!
I (Claire) noticed soon after returning to our house (yes our own house!) that I could not find my phone. I had left it at the hostel but even with Krish’s authority none of the cleaners would own up to having seen it. I was very unhappy as I had only just purchased it and the sim card had a lot of money attached to it. Not only this but we had t o give 3 passport copies to the shop and so anything the phone is used for has my name on it! I have recently had the SIM card blocked. Not a great start to the trip.
At SOS there are 15 houses. 1 of these of Christian and the others are Hindi but the children all share in the same prayer and rituals daily. I guess this is so there is no division and also they get to celebrate twice as many festivals!! Each family has a mother figure and anything from 7-11 children. Some children are blood relatives but every child in the family is treated with the same love and loyalty as each other. There are some children who have been here since a very young age and some very recent like one girl called Savitha who has been here just 6 months. I am told alot of the children were brought here after the Tsunami. There appears to be no mentiopn at all of past family and there is a councellor on site, although I’m not sure how often she is used! There is also a health centre on site, a small playgroud, the auditorium which is used for prayertime and meetings, a primary school consisting of 5 small classrooms, a kindergarden building and a computer room. There is also the office where there seem to be alot of people but we’re not quite sure what they actually do all day!
Our normal weekday is as follows: Wake up and get ready for the day at 7.30 (well 7.35!) Breakfast at the guest kitchen with the cook (I’ll tell you about her later!!!) and then we head over to kindergarden (KG) at 9am. We take one small group of children from LKG (around 3/4 yrs old) fro 1.5hrs and then another smallgroup before lunch. In this time we read stories in english, teach something new and then play some games using that new knowledge…in theory. The younger kids don’t wquite understand ut we get thepoint across eventually without them knowing! We take LKG on monday, wednesday and friday and UKG (upper) on tuesday and thursday. We prefer the older ones as they have some idea what we are talking about!!! The language barrier is quite large so we have taken to making exotic sounds and shake our heads in a bobbing like manner like the rest of the Indian popultaion. It is a general reponse meaning yes, no, maybe, and I don’t know. It works!
W ethen have lunch in the guest kitchen which usually consists of chipati and vegetables in some strange sauce. It varies from day to day but at first it was very monotonous. I struggled alot with the food while Sarah seemed very comfortable with it. Perhaps this is because she is vegetarian and eats similar food at home? We then head over to the primary school where we either sit in on a lesson or we take the class. At first the kids just saw us as new platmates but  think now they are realising that we are supposed to have some sort of authority and are starting to actually work. Our discipline methods are very differnet to the Indians mainly in that we don’t dfind reasons to smack the children with the back of our hand or with whatever we can lay our hands on. A couple of days ago Sarah and I found it hard to hide our disgust at the behaviour of the teachers. We were horrified that they seemed so brutal for the smallest iunciodences when children were ripping the ears off each other the others ide of the room. We have been advised just to turn the other way and ignore it but it is very difficult. We have taken a more passive way of teaching the teachers about our disciplin methods and have taken children outside the classrooom to talk to them privateky or stood them in a corner. When the etachers see this working they acknowledge it and I have noticed them using soe of our techniques. This is great to see.
Playtime is after lessons at 4pm and then prayer time at 5.30. We eat dinner in the family homes atrting from house 1 up to house 15. This is a good time to get to know the families and the Indian style of living. We have been offered some cooking lessons and have already lerant a few methods including how to cool milk!
The water only comes on for 30minutes at 6am and 9pm so we have to be at the house at these times…altough it is uinreliable and sometimes is late or stops early (just when we’ve shampood our hair normally!) and sometimes it doesn’t come on at all which is very frustraing. We are filthy by the end of the day and although we have to wash under a cold tap it is very refreshing. Having said that I dream about a hot shower or a foot soak…..Okay snap out of it!  The electricity is also urealiable and powercuts and very common!
We have found a small supermarket so we can buy milk and biscuits and tea so we are very happy about that and there is an internet cafe just 4 and a half minutes away..very convinient!
We have had a couple of very eventful trips into Chennai and far too many neard eath experienece to keep  count. The traffic is outrageous and everyoe seems to have a death wish! There are no lanes…basically the rule of the road is that there are no rules! If theres space you can have and if there isn’t space…make it! I have been bumped by a couple of rickshaws and Sarah was brushed by a motorbike. It is very scary but you just have to look confident and pray for dear life!!!
 
We have a few good prosepcts ahead of us icluding a stay at the adoption agency in Chennai and working in a community centre. Hopefully I will also be getting some experience working in the Physiotherapy field. The director at SOS is very accomodation and eager to get us involved in as many new experiences as possiole.
We have been to two weddings this week. The first was very large and impersonal and the second at SOS so very private and intimate. The colours are incredible!
We are hoping to spend a week in Bangalore travelling in November as we have been asked to vacate our house for a large conference week. Not a problem at all!
At the moment we are preparing for Diwali which should be a huge festival anmd 2day long party! We hope to eat very well!
Apart from the smell, the beggers (some very disturbing and heartbreaking) and the mosquitos we are having a great time and really settling well in our new home. As we see it this is our home for the foreseeable future and we treat it that way. We are both well despite my funny turn last week inwhich I was taken to hospital once late at night and the health cventre 2x with 2 injections in my backside (nurse had never seen such white skin!!) and half a pharmacy of drugs! We are both very happy and enthusiastic to do as much as possible fopr a s many people as possible. We both have great support from friends and family too which is sooooo helpful. I don’t think they realise how vital they have been especially to me.
Thankyou for your ongoing support and prayers. They are very much valued.
Will keep in touch.
 
Claire and Sarah