Our first week of work has come and gone. The first few days were just visiting everywhere we would work so that we could get a feel for it all. We also had to decide our fates for the summer on Wednesday night.
By fate, I don't mean anything bad, just permanent. From 9-12 in the mornings, there are various rooms in the orphanage that we work in and we stay with the same room and the same kids all summer. After spending approx. 30 minutes in each room on Wednesday morning, we had to decide where we wanted to go. Honestly, that meeting lasted forever because no one wanted to claim a spot in a room if someone else really wanted it. As Caroline would say though, even if you didn't get your first choice of place, wherever you end up will be where you're meant to be for the summer. I ended up with the room that I wanted the most.
My room for the morning is called Mickey 1 (at least by us, for differentiation). It has 15 kids in it with mostly moderate disabilities. Most of the kids are under the age of 8(?) I would say. I haven't had a chance to figure out how old all the kids are yet.
FYI: Due to privacy concerns, I am not allowed to post the name of the orphanage, the names of the children, pictures of the children, or anything detailed enough to identify the children.
At some point, I will hopefully get nicknames for the all the children to differentiate them for you.
My children are lovely and I am proud to say that I know all their names after just two days at the orphanage. I love them all already as well (honestly, I love every kid in the orphanage), but I also have a couple favorites all ready. My boy is normally fastened into his wheelchair, but the workers are good about letting me take them out to hold, and I got to hold him for an long time on Thursday while the more active kids were outside. He is such a sweetheart and he just soaks up the attention. My girl is very similar. She is also in her chair most of the time and she's bigger (so I have to sit to hold her) but she is just the sweetest thing. I was holding her at the end of the day on Friday, and I didn't want to leave because I'd have to put her down.
There is one downside to holding such big kids for extended periods of time - they are like electric blankets! I'm also going to have some serious muscles by the end of the summer from holding them so much because I never want to put them down.
In the afternoons, the work hours are sometime between 2-6 depending on what work you are doing. I'm going to be alternating from day to day. Every other day I will be in the hospital from 2-5 holding and playing with children who don't have parents. The other days, I will be working from 3:30-5:30 in a satellite apartment of the orphanage. The satellite apartments are a kind of transition home for children waiting to be placed in foster care. We visited the apartment I will be working in on Tuesday, but I don't start working there until this Tuesday. If I remember correctly, there are 6 kids in the apartment.
After working in the orphanage, I think I have found a job harder than being a mom. I'm not trying to say anything against moms, but what those workers do is amazing. The sheer number of children and their special needs... I don't know how they do it. They are so good at taking care of the children and they do their best. I have so much respect for what they do.
Sometimes, I feel somewhat superfluous because workers are so good at doing what needs to be done. I think that is why I gravitate to the chair kids. They just want to be held, and that's something that I can do.
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