The Nkoaranga orphanage

Hello everyone! This is Laura. I know some of you have asked that I write about the orphanage where I am working, so here it is.

The orphanage is called Nkoaranga, and it is part of a complex that includes a hospital and a school. There are 24 children at the orphanage from 3 months to 4 years old. When they turn 4 the kids are taken to a boarding school where they will attend primary and secondary. When the kids reach that stage the foundation that runs the projects looks for sponsors to help pay for their education. When they complete secondary school they are returned to the nearest relative they can find. They kids are fairly well taken care of, they have clothes and foods, and a few toys to play with. The clothes are all donated and quite old, most of them have holes. The food is abundant but not very nutritious, mostly rice, beans and porridge (milk and corn?). Once or twice I have seen them eat pasta, and some vegetables, but that is the exception.

As I volunteer I have taken the afternoon shift, there are other volunteers from different organizations that go there in the morning. My job when I get there is to get them out of bed, since they nap from noon to 2, and change them. That is quite the challenge because they still use cloth diapers. The orphanage does not have wipes or baby powder, so most of the volunteers have brought some of these items to use. After waking them and changing them it is play time! The older ones entertain themselves fairly well, but the 1 and 2 year olds want nothing but for you to hold them. There is always someone crying, either because another kid hit them, or because nobody is paying attention. We try to split our time so all the kids get some loving. Around 4 pm they bring out dinner. We usually sit three or four kids in front of us and feed them all at once. The little babies require a bottle, so that takes a little bit more time. The 4 year olds feed themselves. One of the funniest things is that they have a TV with a video player and their favorite movie is, bar none!, the Lion King! They refer to it as Hakuna Matata! which is funny, because all these kids speak swahili so that is the only sentence they understand of the whole movie.

After dinner is more play time. They go to bed around 6:30.

A few of the kids are really sick, with pnemonia or malaria. One of them, Baraka, has totally stolen my heart and the poor little guys is in and out of the hospital with problems. Another child, Hussein, has a problem with his legs, he is 2 and still doesn't walk. We have arranged for him to go to physical therapy. In one of the pictures you can see him strapped to a board learning to walk. This kid is the happiest kid ever, though. Always smiling and laughing.

By now the kids already know me, and are very happy to see us. The sad part is when we leave, since most of them cry. The other sad part is only being a part of their lives for such a short time, you have to imagine that they get attached to the volunteers and then we leave. There is always new people coming and going, so that is hard.

Jeremy also has a new post right below.