So today was my first day working at the orphanage. It was me & Kathleen, my roomie. Plus the house has 3 staff people who clean, make the food, and help with the babies as well. And there are social workers and the people who run it just popping in throughout the day to play with the babies as well.
There are 8 babies right now, ranging in age from like 12 weeks to almost 2 years old. Although most of them are a lot smaller than they should be for their age due to health problems, and developmental delays and things like that. We know for sure that one of them is HIV positive. However, what I learned today is that South African law prohibits testing kids for HIV unless they are being adopted or if they are having serious health problems. Can you believe that? So really, all of them could be HIV positive and we just don't know; there's a good guess (just based on size and being sickly) that at least 6 of the 8 are infected. What's a bit scary is that we don't take any extra precautions, such as wearing gloves or anything when changing them...I may ask about this, but what I do know is that I've read that things may be different but it's the way they are here and that we can't just run in and know a better way, you know? So anyway, it's just like working in the day care again. We come in get them out of their beds, get them dressed, and start the routine of feeding, napping, and changing. At the end of the day we give them baths too and start putting them to bed for the night nurse to come in. They are all adorable and have stories. I don't know all the stores yet, but here's a few: 2 of them are brothers whose mother is a prostitute, they have an older sister in the system and the mother is pregnant again, and they both show some signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, one of them is ok developmentally but has health problems and the other, well you can tell he'll likely never recover or be completely normal. Another baby was raped. I don't know how that's physically possible, but it's a problem here. Another was left at a hospital. A couple are dustbin babies--they literally are just thrown out. Some have just been handed over as the parents knew they couldn't care for them. It's crazy. But, this is a great place for them and hopefully they'll find foster homes or be adopted.
Some funny things about this project---before I started I was just being told left and right how busy they are and how they need more volunteers and how exhausted you'll be from the 12 hour shifts.... there are 8 babies and at any given time you could have 2-5 people caring for them!! You're not that busy really :) And yes 12 hours is a long day, but we only work 2 days then we're off 2 days, etc. OR we'll work 3 days then be off 3 days...so that's very doable as well. What I figured out is 2 things: most of the people here are in college between the ages of 18-21...so they've never had full time jobs before! So yeah, it's kicking their asses. The other thing is that I did work for 5 years in a nursery...so this isn't new to me. I'm not having a hard time remembering things or learning new things or whatever. There's only very subtle differences. I found myself a little bored at times, but I'm also not complaining. It is my summer and I'd rather not kill myself you know?
So anyway, that's about it for the work stuff. Tonight there was a volunteer BBQ for all the volunteers from both houses & the staff to mingle. It was nice. Still going on actually with some, and some are going out but I'd rather type this, talk to people, and get to sleep!! I have homework to do too. I"m still in classes for another couple weeks and then they'll be done until I get back home (YAYAYAYAY!) So I work tomorrow and then am off Friday & Saturday. So I'll be meeting with our volunteer coordinator to set up all my tours and things I wanna do while I'm here!!!
Later. And be sure to email me if you have any questions or comments or whatever!
