Sunday, June 1

After more than 2 weeks working in the orphanage, we now know all the names of the 24 older children. And besides their names, we know their characters a bit. Some are quiet and play on their own, some are naughty but really sweet 5 minutes later, some are busy and never want to eat their food. But in the end all of them are adorable!
Sometimes we have to be quite strict with them; when they have to eat all their food and not just half their plate, when they fight with each other or take toys from one another, when they don't want to go to bed. Then they can get really angry with us, screaming, crying, and sometimes trying to hit us, but then 5 minutes later they come running towards us and give us a big hug!
What is really difficult, is giving them enough attention. Very often, we're with only 3 volunteers for 24 children, so you can not give all of them attention at the same time. Sometimes you're picking up 1 kid, who's very happy about that, and than another starts to cry and you have to attend to that one as well. So than the one in your arms looks really disappointed and walks away :-(

But don't get us wrong; We very much enjoy working with the children! We like how they greet us enthusiastically when we arrive, how their moods can change within minutes, the angry faces Sara can make, how cute sister and brother Bianca and Marco take care of each other, or how excited they get when they think there is a witch running outside their playground!

The kids seem to be happy most of the time. But what we realise is what they miss the most: privacy and something of their own. They never have a moment for themselves: they play, sleep and eat together always. And they don't have anything of their own: no picture, no doll or fluff animal, no toys. There is enough but the kids have to share everything, including clothes. We are there to play with them, but sometimes it seems they always have to play, they can never have a quiet moment.

Normally, the oldest kids (5-6 years) go to Kindergarten in the mornings. But last week was a bit complicated. Monday was a prolonged national holiday from Sunday, Tuesday was Mother's Day, Wednesday all the civil workers were on strike, and Thursday was Teacher's Day. All those days, there was no Kindergarten, so all 24 kids were home. When they play outside, that's fine, but in the mornings they stay inside and then the room is too small for so many kids. They start to fight, don't want to share their toys etc. That's hard work! Rumour says this coming week there will be 2 more days of strike, so we're preparing ourselves for some more tough days ;-)

What else do we do besides the orphanage? When the kids go to bed at 12.30, we have free time until 15.00 when they wake up. We go for lunch then, usually an "almuerzo familiar", which is a set lunch, for only 8 Bolivianos ... 80 Eurocent!! For that money we get a decent 3-course meal including free lemonade! After that we sit on the main plaza, relaxing and reading a local newspaper before returning to the kids.
Today, Sunday, we went to a town 1,5 hours from Sucre, where they have a really nice market on Sundays with all kinds of handmade weavings, bags, gloves, etc. They also sold the traditional hats and blankets the people wear themselves here. So we got our share of Bolivian souvernirs here! Besides all this we enjoy the sun, which is there every day. In the sun, it's really warm, but in the shade it's time for fleece sweaters and hot chocolate.

Tomorrow is a working day again and we look forward to it! Below you find some more pictures of the kids and of Sucre and today's market.