Thursday, 13 September 2012

Sad Orphanage and Happy Festival

I told them to smile and these are the smiles I got...
I went to the most awful orphanage the other day. I went there with the Japanese group just because I wanted to see an orphanage which doesn't have as much money as the one I'm working at. We took a tuck-tuck (?) for an hour and ended up in a very rural area close to the borders of the national park. When we arrived we got to meet the children leaving there. They were 12 children in total and most of them were in year 3-5. We were told that most of these kids had been left by their mothers who had been raped by army men guarding the national park. I don't know if we were told the whole truth but one thing was clear; this orphanage did not have the same resources as the one I'm volunteering at has. 
The orphanage
On our way to the orphanage




The orphanage got their food from families in the neighborhood and had to fight really hard in order to collect food for the kids. When I was there I got almost the same feeling as when I went to Auschwitz a few years ago. I know it's not fair to compare but the feeling I had was still similar. I felt rally sad and almost depressed, I just wanted to help them but it felt like I could do nothing at all for them. It felt hopeless. Still, it was clean and the staff seemed caring and good with the kids. It was just a feeling of sadness that overwhelmed me. Maybe it was because the kids didn't smile or show any emotions at all or maybe it was because the where so quiet and shy, I don't know. It was just so different from everywhere else I've been in this country, where kids scream, laugh and wave to you wherever you go. 
"Note book action", the Japanese group's project
Julia showing videos on her camera 










The only kid who could write a full sentence in English
We were told that it is hard for this orphanage to collect money because the military doesn't likes criticism and one of the aims for the organisation running the orphanage is to change the laws of the national park to create better conditions for the women in the area. It is a bit complicated to go into details but the result is that kids have been left alone in the jungle and then been taken care of by this orphanage. The staff don't know the exact age of the kids since they were found without any family or anyone near them who knew when they were born. In the orphanage it was the first time here that I really felt like I want to work hard and change their situation. It felt like a good place but they really lack money. I talked to the Japanese group and we are going to keep in touch and see if we can do something together for this place. Feels really good that I didn't go there on my own. Hopefully I will be able to go back there in a week or two and maybe I can help out there for a bit, the only problem is that no one there speaks English...

A more uplifting things that has happened in Rampur this week is that there are a lot of volunteers here now! There is Julia from Germany, who works in school with me, Sam and Sarah from the USA who works with planting food for the orphanage and two Australian girls who work at the orphanage with me. It feels great to have people to talk to especially this week when there has been a strike 3 days out of 6 school days. Me, Sarah and Sam are probably going back to the national park on Saturday morning and maybe we will sleep in a tower inside the jungle, that would be amazing! We wanted to leave tomorrow, but tomorrow is strike (probably) and that means that no taxis or buses are running. 

Thikka (rice in red colour) for everyone!

On Tuesday next week is the real Women's festival, this week was just some kind of warm-up apparently. I'm really looking forward to the festival since the warm-up was great. I have included a few pictures from the temple were we've been dancing and singing for three days in a row this week.The teachers even texted each other about me dancing so when I came to school the day after everyone knew that I had danced. 

Host mother dancing dressed as a man

In the temple
Dancing (everyone is watching the weird westerner of course)




1 comment:

  1. Härligt att se dig ! Vi är lite oroliga att du magrar av och inte får tillräckligt med näring. Kram mamma

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