hi! the first real placement has taken place... cotlands hospice today, as i reckon most days i'm there, i was working with gemma - a really nice 23 year old girl who has been travelling and working EVERYWHERE over the past 2 years! we were picked up at our uni at 8 o'clock, yes i did manage to be on time you know suprising as it may seem lol, and we were driven to cotlands. we were then introduced to the place again which i have to say was actually quite useful cos having seen so many places i'd kinda forgotten the details of each one! we then left our bags in the staff-room and we given these unltimately sexy bibs (well the double things that go over your head and cover your front and back - lovely and green and plastic... mmmmmmmm) which did prove to be very useful. when we arrived we were slightly dubious i must say as dineo hadnt contacted them saying that we'd got our forms etc etc so they weren't expecting us but wahey we were allowed in but at first were given really awful jobs which included: cleaning ALL the toys with disinfectant (they obv have to be very careful cos of transfering hiv etc) and then washing all the walls of the activity room as well and we were beginning to think OMG if this is what its gonna be then HELP! but we went and got a really nice lunch at the mall, which is only like a 10 min really simple walk away so even i wouldnt get lost lol, and were more rallied up. wen we returned it was about 2.30 and the kids were meant to be coming to the end of their nap time but in fact had already woken up if not gone down at all and were causing havoc so we were asked would we mind going back and giving a hand... ofcourse we said YES!!!!!!!! that was more what we'd signed up for lol... so the children :oP well there are about 15/20 i reckon and i didnt get/cant remember many of their names as lots are african names which are impossible to say or remember anyway but regardless they were all Very cute!!! with some of them it is obv that they are ill, one little girl (i think - its hard to tell when theyre so young and you dont recognise the name) inan had awful sores all over her face and body and lots of them had runny noses and distended tummies (and some were just fat lol) and all sorts but they all seemed happy... minus the usual baby crying that u get! we had to play with all of them, feed them, burp them (thats where the oh so sexy aprons came in handy), confort them, put them to sleep etc. i came away with a dead right wrist and arm from carrying about 3/4 babies round and round getting them to sleep lol, they are all absolutely divine with their huge eyes that stare up at you and their gummy smiles that appear when you play/tickle them etc. the youngest is a little girl who only just came in a couple of days ago who will be 2 weeks old on friday (she was blissfully unaware of what was going on around her and we didnt see her that much cos she was asleep out cold lol!) and the oldest was 4 (but mostly they are no older than 2/2.5) i wont try and describe all of them cos i dont have time and as i said i have a dead wrist which isnt making typing very easy lol... plus i've gotta go and get ready to see the two kt's auction themselves off!!! (i'll explain another time) as per usual, miss you all, love ya lots and cant wait to hear from you lotsa luv emily xxxxxxxxxxxxxx