Monday 1 February 2010

What happened to January?

And here we are in February - temperatures in low 30s (celsius) dropping to 28 at night. Bit different to the UK I gather.
Had a fairly relaxing weekend. Went to the Children's home on Saturday morning with 10 other volunteers and sat with the children making masks or colouring sheets we took with us.
 Many of the children who live here have come from the street kids centre, others have families who are unable to look after them for a whole variety of reasons. Most will not go back to their families. They are lovely kids, very calm and appreciative of the few bits we bring to pass some weekend time.


The children are well looked after and seem to be very happy. They live in large dormitories and there is some outdoor play space , but not much. I'm not sure what belongings they have to call their own, but they are extremely good at sharing and working together. We had a group of about 20 children. Some of the volunteers were giving extra English lessons to a small number of students - but guess that non - mandatory Saturday morning classes are not that popular.We stayed with the children for a couple of hours before returning back to the centre.

Saturday afternoon we are timetabled to go to the street kids drop in centre or the children's village, but both had other activities already planned, so we had an unexpected afternoon off! Spent some time in the swimming pool and then did some shopping and laundry - exciting stuff eh?

Sunday went to the local church for 8.30 mass ( said and sung in English), very strange singing well loved hymnsin a very foreign country.The church has an excellent choir who were able to do fantastic harmonies and a couple of musicians on guitar and electric keyboard too. Felt quite emotional as the packed congregation belted out 'Shine Jesus, shine' at the end of mass.

In the afternoon spent some time in the orphanage and then went for a long walk with a couple of other volunteers.

I wonder what this next week will bring ? Will now get my worksheets prepared for the daycare centre.Tomorrow it's duck and dog !

6 comments:

  1. Hi Lynne, Woke up to snow this morning but sun is shining now. Getting Dehli belly is cheating when you are on a diet but glad to hear you are better. My non alcohol diet lasted till the weekend, but back on the straight and narrow today. Pictures are great. Children look well occuppied. Your getting plenty of ideas for songs. How about One man went to mow;Sing a rainbow; Macdonalds, Macdonalds Kentucky Fried chicken etc. Ps dont swallow the water in the swimming pool. Carol J.

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  2. We're off to Towersey tomorrow till late Thursday---more 'babysitting' as James is busy skying in Switzerland and Fliss is at work and Ben is finding life difficult to cope with--new drugs on the way. May I'll do a little sing song with them!!!
    Off to London Fri for Annie's Confirmation--a big family gathering at Sarah's. So no more comments from here for a few days.
    You seem to be coping well the kids look lovely, hope they look after you! We all send our love

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  3. Lynne looks like you're having an amazing experience (minus the Dehli belly!) Will try and get some songs for you. It snowed again here last night seems to be a familiar story struggling for an hour or more to get to school in morning, but all is good. Those children could break your heart! Your pics are great look forward to the next installment. Look after yourself. Talk soon.xxxx

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  4. Anonymous is Tarah...Can't work out how to use this hi-tech stuff properly !!!! hahaha. Look after you honey....Def out for lunch when you get back xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  5. Hi Lynne,
    very jealous of your winter temperatures. We're wearing thermal underwear here. Hope d..d..d..d goes well tomorrow - don't forget the actions - actually what are the actions? Tarah? Those masks are great - I'll be doing them for my next no-notice lesson. Would the children's home be a good project to raise money for? Anything in particular? Enjoy your planning - ha ha xx

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  6. Hi Lynne,
    Now this thing about when you walk into the classroom and all the kids go calm and attentive ... I never quite mastered that little bit of the job!
    You are clearly enjoying yourself despite the discomforts mentioned. It must be very rewarding but emotionally stressful too. I'll bet you'll do this again and again.
    Keep up the blogging but don't forget to look after yourself.
    Geoff.
    P.S. A quick refresher course on teaching reading when you return please!

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