Volunteering in Jaipur

So, after my disastrous last day in Delhi things could only get better. Full of s*** blockers I boarded the train to Jaipur at 5.30 am. This is itself was a great achievement as Simon hadn't let me carry any of the bags on previous trips so I did not know how I would cope!

As soon as I arrived my driver was waiting right outside my allotted berth so there wasn't any chance of me getting lost or harassed at the train station and by 1pm I was at the shared house that the volunteer company runs from.

There was only one other volunteer on the day I arrived, Claire and luckily she is on the same programme as me. Another volunteer called Megan arrived a couple of days after and she is on the women's empowerment programme.

The three of us share a bedroom which has three bunk beds - we all take the lower bunk and the upper bunk stores all our dirty clothes..which don't stay there too long as there is not much to do around here. We also have a TV room (but there are no channels so we can only watch DVD's) , with a computer (but the internet has been down for 3 days) and an attached dining room (but the cook hasn't turned up for the last day and no-one knows why!). It's about 46 degrees at the moment but we are only allowed the AC on in our bedroom between 2-5pm and 10.30pm to 6.30am, so that determines what we do and where we do it. I don't need an alarm clock because as soon as the AC turns of I'm awake and after lunch we hide away in the room until 5pm after which we may decide to go out as the sun is going down and bed time is usually 10.30pm as soon as we are allowed the AC on!

We have to make our own breakfast which is proving to be difficult. I brought my box of Chocos all the way from Delhi but the milk is yucky and you have to boil it before you use it, which is all too much hard work so I am eating them dry! I am desperate for toast but there is no toaster - just a frying pan and oil which in turn makes fried bread -not toast.. So I have been eating dry bread with butter and jam and maybe a mango or banana to go with. Luckily I found some peanut butter so that went down well this morning!

Lunch is already prepared by the time we get home at 1.30pm which is good as we are all starving by that time. The food is similar to what I would have for an evening meal at home - so chapattis, veg and rice and we always have a nice mango or banana lassi. Dinner is for some reason a much smaller affair so I always make sure I have a snack before hand. I hope the cook comes back soon though!!

So in terms of the location of our house we are 20 minutes away from the centre of Jaipur and our orphanage. The orphanage is on 2 floors and is in a rectangular courtyard setting with all the babies and younger children on the upper floor and the older girls on the lower floor. We look after about 25 kids all aged between 1-7, of which about 5 have a disability. There is a separate room for the little babies of which there are around 10, but we aren't allowed in there incase we have germs.

Our day starts at 8.30am, and when we arrive the kids are usually in the middle of having their daily wash - which happens in the corridor outside the kitchen. One by one we dry them and dress them from a pile of odd job clothes which are all clean but have old stains, broken zips and buttons and lots of holes!

There aren't usually enough bottoms to go around so some of the younger kids have to go without for the day. They then have their hair oiled and we put talcum powder around their necks. As soon as the last child is dressed they have their morning snack which is also their breakfast. It's usually 5 Parle-G biscuits or a banana followed by a glass of milk. We feed the small kids and the disabled kids because if their share isn't finished at the same time as the older kids it will soon disappear, It's survival of the fittest..not just in the Orphanage but all over India. The cleanliness of the children does not last long after their bath and by this time they smell of stale milk and mashed up bananas.

They then get moved to a play room or to their school room where they run riot until their teacher Ramila Didi arrives. Although the word 'teacher' is used very loosely. She is a lovely lady but all she does is recite numbers with them up to 100 and sings the same couple of songs every day. After about half an hour she sits them in front of a DVD whilst she disappears and then pops back every once in a while to see what is going on. At this point we are concentrating on the disabled kids and the younger ones, but it's hard to give 8 kids all your attention at one time and to make sure that they are all happy. It's so hot at the moment so there is a lot of water drinking and hence pants changing, and by pants I mean trousers as they do not wear underwear.

At about 12pm it's lunch time and it's a standard meal everyday of 2 rotis, yellow dal and a small spoon of vegetable. Again we feed the ones that need help - but it's a pretty hard job as the young kids only like to eat dry rotis and hate the dal and veg. There is always a didi (lady who works in the orphanage) who helps us but her method involves beating the child around the head whilst force feeding it so it's a sight that I turn my back on. After cleaning them up it is time for us to head home, and I am so tired it's all I can do to not slide onto the floor of the rickshaw instead of sitting on the seat.

Some days the kids are such hard work - usually on the days when this mysterious 'wicked' didi as I call her turns up for the day. She bosses all the other didis around and lords it over everyone whilst sitting in a chair swinging a pole or cricket bat in her hand -anything she can hit the kids with. It's on these days that the kids are at their quietest but also when they pee and s*** in their pants the most.And when she is not there they are equally as hard work as they run wild! The older kids are worse than the younger ones - hitting etc, but even though we do not share the same language one of my looks usually does the trick!

I have two favorite kids, one is called Akshay and he seems to be about a year old and he is HIV Positive. The other one is called Sagar and he is a couple ofmonths older at a push. I am not sure if Akshay is on any proper medication - it doesn't seem as if he is and when I hold him I can feel the catarrh in his body when he breathes - which can't be good. When I was cutting Akshay's nails the other day the 'wicked' did gave me some wonderful advice " Don't make him bleed, he's got AIDS", oh thanks for letting me know, anything else you want to tell me! I am teaching him how to walk and he now pulls himself up against my legs and he can walk a few steps whilst holding my hands. He can also say 'Didi' now which is just gorgeous to hear.

Sagar on the other hand is like an old man trapped in a little mans body. He walks unaided and sits in class with the big kids, and he needs very little help in eating - and almost eats the same amount as the six year olds. He never smiles though and he either has this gormless look on his face or he is frowning, and not a word comes out from his mouth.

I would definitely bring back either of them if I could…………………

That's it for today's ramblings, on a good note whilst I have been typing the cook has re-appeared! On a bad note did I mention that once the tummy sickness was over I got a cold/swine flu - I still have it and it has been a whole week already - if I still have it by next week I am definitly going to get checked out!So for me the city of Jaipur will always be remembered as the place that I always fell sick in!