When we heard from the founder a week and a half or so ago, he mentioned that he had visited a particular orphanage here in town and that if any of us were interested, it was a good thing to do. Fortunately, one of my classmates took it upon herself to email the group and ask if anyone was interested in going. She then contacted the woman that runs the orphanage and arranged a visit.
So around the end of last week, she had a list of people who wanted to go (I think there were 14 of us, including two trainers, one with his wife, and their labrador, Sparky). She started asking us if we wanted to pool some money together to give to the orphanage. Some people put in money, some preferred to buy things the kids needed and brought them. I put in what I thought was in line with what people were giving, and told Rachel about it. She asked me how much I had in my wallet and told me to put it all in. She’s just overflowing with goodness. I think I’ll marry her. I do happen to know that someone put in a lot more than I did, so if you are reading this, thank you.
So the 14 of us piled into cars, auto-rickshaws, bikes etc and headed to an area nobody (including the locals) really knew. It took us a while to find the place, but when we got close, we called and the woman sent a couple of the boys to get us.
I really didn’t know what to expect. I had some really bad visions of what it might be like, but I suppressed them because going seemed like the right thing to do.
Wh
at we found there was (I thought) really amazing. There were maybe 35 or 40 kids. It was hard to figure that out, because they were in constant motion. It reminded me of the TV show Meerkat Manor, with bodies constantly squirming, jockeying for position, looking over here, over there, whatever, just moving. When we first walked in, they all sat on the floor in the room, and we all sat on a bench along the wall. My very first impression of the room was that it looked exactly like the set of a production of Oliver that I once saw at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Something with the loft and the beds, I guess.
For a very long minute, we all sat there staring at each other, trying to figure out the situation and size each other up. Then one of us started introducing themselves to the kids, and I decided I would be a lot less scary if I were sitting on the floor too, so I did, and before you knew it there were introductions, handshakes, smiles and waves. Then we all introduced ourselves once at a time, saying where we are from. The woman in charge pointed out if any of the kids had the same name as any of us. One little one’s name was Benjamin, so I held out my hand a
nd said “nice to meet you, Benjamin!” I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more worried face. I then found out that Benjamin is not his first name, and he goes by something else. Then she had the kids sing us a song, which was great, they were so smiley while they were singing! They sang one in English and one in one of their other languages (either Kannada, the local language, or Hindi… I can’t tell the difference… yet). (See Video) Then we felt it was our turn, so we sang and taught them the age-old classic of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. An oldie but a goodie. They hadn’t heard it before, but were totally with us by the time we were done.
When the woman in charge told us that they t
aught them English, Kannada and Hindi, I knew that it was a special place. You could hear in her voice how much she cares for the children, and how proud she is of them. And they all seem to be thriving! Sure, they were doing just about anything for our attention, but it’s hard to be an individual when you live with a few dozen others. Their ages ranged from maybe 2 or 3 to 11 or 12. They seemed happy and well adjusted. They played well together, socialized well, and didn’t hesitate to interact with us, once the ice was broken. After our little song session, they put on some music (American Hip-Hop), and some of the boys danced for us. It was pretty funny. Then we showed them the stuff we had brought them. We had some sports equipment, a big bag of fun size candy bars (which I brought for the office, but figured the kids would enjoy them more), and an electronic keyboard that some of the people had bought. They were very excited about all of it! Then we decided we should all go out and play. So we all filed out and joined up in different games. Some were playing football (or soccer for the Americans), some were playing cricket, some were playing a game that was kind of like Duck, Duck, Goose, but different, some of the girls were playing hand games, just like they do all
over the world, some were playing jump rope. And some were just running around.I should set the stage a little bit. While the kids were in good shape, the grounds and orphanage were by no means luxurious. The building had basically 2 main rooms and a couple smaller rooms (office, bathroom etc.). There were beds pushed up against the wall, and beds up in lofts. I assume one of the big rooms was for the boys, one for the girls. The woman made sure to point out to a few of us that ThoughtWorks had previously donated 6 of the beds. She sounded genuinely thankful. By my count the beds were shared by 2 or 3 kids, but I don’t think that is unusual over here. In fact, when trying to arrange accommodations for this weekend, I had to explain why we each wanted our own bed.
The place was not clean like we would say clean in America, but it was neat and well kept. All of the stuff was taken care of. The kids have a TV, DVD player, and a foosball table. There was an abundance of teddy bears on shelves, and one big rack full of all of their shoes (which they weren’t wearing) outside.
The building is part of a small horseshoe compound of buildings within a wall. At the back is the orphanage, on one side is an old-age home for men, and on the other side an old-age home for women. Many of the residents spent the whole time we were there sitting on their porches watching the kids play, and it occurred to me how nice it might be for them.
The courtyard area had a small vegetable garden, but was otherwise basically a dirt field. It was versatile enough for any sport! There were some trees for shade and birds. Also, the buildings were all one story, so it didn’t feel closed in at all. Protective, but not stifling.
Sadly, I stressed my knee a little bit playing jump rope (which I must say I did well at!), so I’ve had to take a week off from the running I had been doing. A good estimator of how well you know me is how loudly you gasped in shock at the fact that I was running.
One of the things they enjoyed most was having their picture taken. Lucky me! Maybe I should clarify… it wasn’t so much the taking process, as the seeing themselves on the ba
ck of my camera. I would take a picture, and then turn it around so they could see. They crowded in so much that it knocked me over! I still have some little handprints on the viewscreen. One little one in particular, who couldn’t have been more than 3 years old, just loved seeing himself. He would look at the camera, then up at me, and thump himself on the chest to check with me that I knew that he knew that it was him! Then he would make me take another one. When I tried to set up a shot, they would all crowd into the frame and go in front of each other, getting closer and closer to me until I couldn’t see anything in the picture. I tried drawing a line in the sand, but that didn’t work. I had to have someone else help me keep them back, and even then it didn’t work so well. When they looked at the pictures, they would first look for themselves, and then point out all their friends and name them and then point to them in the field. We taught the kids Duck, Duck, Goose. For those of you from Minnesota, you might know this game as Duck, Duck, Grey Duck! They loved it! Within minutes they were changing it to make up their own rules. (See Video)
I can’t tell you how full of energy the kids were! By the end of a couple hours of play I thought I could have slept for days, but they obediently filed in when it was time.
I keep mentioning the woman who runs the place. Her name is Sabina, and apparently her father started the orphanage back in the day. She has 2 boys of her own that are teenagers and help her out a bit. Her husband passed away a few years ago. The love in her eyes when she looked at or talked about the children was overwhelming. She and the orphanage are Christian, and I believe the prayer is part of their daily routine. Interestingly, in a country of Hindus, the Christian orphanage is in a very Muslim neighborhood. As we left we heard the muezzin calling people to prayer from the mosque.
I should also mention that the kids aren’t all necessarily orphans. Many of them had one parent pass away, and the other is too sick or unable to care for them.
Oh, interesting was that they all called us Uncle or Auntie, which is I guess kind of like saying Mr. or Ms. in a more friendly way.
In addition to the little gifts we brought, we gave a cash donation as well, and while it was a decent showing for our little group, it was by no means huge. However, someone had asked earlier in the visit how much it costs to run the place, and we were told about 20,000 Indian Rupees a month, about $500 USD. Happily, our collection came to somewhere right around that, and we were able to feel like we were really helping.
I really hope I get a chance to go back before I leave India. I’m not sure who got more out of it, me or the kids, but it was definitely a win-win. While it seems like it should be a sad situation, and it is in many ways, it was so good to see the love and care that filled the small rooms, the smiles on their faces, and the family they have in each other.
Please take a few minutes to check out the pictures of the kids in “Bangalore Three” and check out some of the videos.
