Adventure Time with Keri!

Monday, March 11, 2013

I forgot what exhaustion felt like…until today. 

I experienced my first taste of public transportation today here. It wasn’t as scary as I thought. We’ll see how I fare by myself after this. Wanchai came this morning to help me get the hang of things. Thank goodness for him, or else I’d probably be on the other side of who knows where by now. After taking the bus we got off and then I got to take a motorcycle taxi! I’m pretty sure I’m going to die on one of those things at some point. It’s frightening watching them weave in and out of traffic when you’re in another car or bus…it’s another thing to be ON that motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic (and trying desperately not to fall off). I tried to memorize all the turns we made but to no avail. I was so lost. Thankfully he knew where he was going and I found myself in the front of a really nice building. This organization was funded and patronized by one of the Royal Princesses, I believe the King’s sister. 

We went up to meet the volunteer coordinator who happens to be the only guy amongst all women. Haha. Everyone was so friendly and the kids were hyper as usual. They introduced me to all the staff but we all know I have a horrible memory so none of it stuck. Lol. Unfortunately only one or two of the teachers there know English, so it’s a lot of pointing, hand signals, and motions.

So where am I volunteering? It’s basically a daycare for kids from the slums. These are kids whose parents have low paying jobs and since most of them have migrated to the city to find work, they don’t have that network of family like they would have in their villages. Therefore they are forced to either take their kids to work or leave them with other kids that are not even old enough to take care of themselves. They were saying that there are kids that have been tied up to a pole or something with food nearby so they couldn’t go anywhere while their parents were working. These are kids whose lives will probably never get better because of the vicious cycle of life. This center provides them with the proper care they need during the day while their parents are at work so they can develop healthily in these crucial stages of life. Plus, they also go to the slums to teach give health education to their parents. That’s the part I’m interested in, not that I don’t love the kids, I really do, but health education is along the lines of what I want to do (Public Health) in the future so I’m really hoping to be part of that…but we’ll see. =)

Anyway, back to what I was saying. They thankfully stuck me in the class that has the teacher who speaks English. There are about 30-40 toddlers in this particular class and I think they’re about 3-4 yrs old. But I’m really horrible at guessing ages, so I should probably ask next time. Lol. There was one main teacher of the group (the one that speaks a bit of English), two assistant teachers, two teenage volunteers that are locals, and three little girls that are just a few years older and like to play “big sister” to the group of kids. 

 

I entered the class just in time to help teach them English with those bit laminated posters that have pictures and words on them? Yeah, those. We went through types of transportations, opposites, and the alphabet. I’m pretty sure it’s not quite translating from the song to the actual letters. Lol. Oh well. We’ll get there.  They have so much energy and had to be reminded constantly to either sit down or be quiet. Since I have a horrible memory, this will probably be out of order, but it won’t make a difference to you or to me in 10 yrs. Haha. There was snack time and then play time outside, both as a group, and on the playground. Lunch time…some of the kids are half out of it (or just really shy…or something) and you have to feed them to get them to eat at all. Shower time…now THAT was a production. There’s a small bathroom/shower/sink area in the room itself and they all use the toilets, someone helps them shower and rinse off, someone dries them all off, and someone puts their sleeping clothes on (they all have “uniforms” that are put on them when they first get there). Then it was nap time, which was almost a horror. It started off well enough. This is when all the staff ate lunch. But since nap time is supposed to be 2 hrs long a few of the kids were getting restless and weren’t sleeping. I was the one watching the kids while they were supposed to be sleeping. There were a handful that weren’t, of course. So they were getting up, using the bathroom, trying to read the books I was looking at (which, btw, were horrid b/c they were “moral” books and everyone ended up dying in the end…and these were children’s books…hahaha), and antagonizing each other. One of the little boys was yelling and running around and I couldn’t scold him effectively enough. Lol. Thankfully one of the assistant teachers came in, took him out and either gave him a good spanking or hosed him down, or both, b/c he came back crying and soaking wet. LOL. He’s so rambunctious and naughty b/c has the MOST adorable smile ever. Kids. 

After nap time they had another meal time and then got changed to their clothes they came in (I think they had another bath time…which means that the first bath time was earlier…told ya I had a horrible memory). They were all super excited and running around all over the place and was even more excited when they were told they could finally go to the playground to play while waiting for their parents. The playground is where, today, I was the “lift me up to the monkey bars b/c I’m too short to reach them myself” person (and then they’d just let go b/c they aren’t strong enough to properly use monkey bars) and the “push me on the swing b/c I don’t know how to pump my legs” person OR the “come with me to the swings to get rid of that one girl that’s hogging the swing” person. Lol. It was fun though. To be able to make someone’s day a little bit better, it’s worth it. 

Today I should have been starting my clinicals for Medical Laboratory Science, but b/c of a career change, today I started volunteering in a foreign country. God has a sense of humor and I'm ok with this.