Our First Days

We have started our volunteering and it is definitely a new experience for Kayla and me. We were not really sure what to expect coming in and it is a good thing that we did not try to picture it as we never would have pictured this. The home is set on a plot of land about 5 hours away from Denpasar. About 6 buildings make up the entire children's home. There is a prayer/yoga/study hall, the main office building (which has an attached outdoor kitchen,) a boys dorm, a girls dorm, and a bathroom/bathing building. They have enough land to have a soccer field, basketball court, and farm land. The school grows most of their own fruits and vegetables including papaya, bananas, corn, eggplant, and chilies.There are 60 children and 1 adult that live at the home. There are 2 other women that work as cooks for the home but they do not live on the premises. The children range in age from 2-19. The home functions like a big family. The older children help the younger children with homework and all of the children have daily chores. Kayla and I were amazed at how well behaved the children are. There is a schedule that all of the children have learned and no one argues about it. The children put themselves to bed at night without having to be told....which as a babysitter in the U.S. I did not think was possible.

The children all seem to be very bright. They are all in the process of learning English. The older boys and girls are almost fluent and there is one girl that has become fluent in German as well. Aside from their daily school work the children have learned to play instruments like the guitar, xylophone, and drums. They also really enjoy yoga and dancing. Kayla and I have had the opportunity to watch them do yoga in the evenings and even the 2 year old is better than we are!  Today we worked one on one with a little girl named Mina. She is in the first grade and can count and write her numbers through 100 in English, can say her ABC's in English, can write her name, and spell/say her colors. We also worked with grades 7-11 and were amazed by their math skills. They know all their multiplication tables and compete to see who can do them the fastest. Some of the problems they did in their head Kayla and I had to use a calculator to check the answer! (example: 345x27) We are excited to work with the younger kids today.

One of the most interesting/scary things that has happened since we have been here is that the children have killed 2 snakes! We were playing hide and seek when one of the children spotted the cobra in the grass. She let out a scream and yelled for the boys. Not one of the children even thought about getting an adult, they knew what to do. They surrounded the snake and one boy speared the end of the snake with a stick while the others threw huge rocks down on it. It took all of 30 seconds for them to kill it and present it to us dangling from the end of a stick. While we were walking to dispose of the snake they spotted a green viper and the whole process was repeated. Kayla and I will be watching where we walk and checking under our bed every night.

The food here is definitely interesting. So far we have either rice or noodles with every meal accompanied by some sort of vegetable and water. Needless to say we will probably be leaving here skinnier and well hydrated!

We will take pictures today and hope to post them within the next few days!