Placement

My placement is at an orphanage in a poorer area of Salvador. There are 25 children ranging in age from about 6 months to 17 years. I started yesterday, Tuesday, and have mostly been with the 1 baby and 3 toddlers who are all girls. They kept us busy! And yes, myself and the other volunteers all wanted to adopt a child who was there within the first 20 minutes of arriving.

The kids are all extremely excited when we show up at about 8:30 am. They yell and come running to the gate (we can barely get in) and hug and jump all over us (right now there is a total of 6 volunteers at this site). And today, my second day, when I went in the baby\toddler room the girls all smiled and laughed when they saw me.

We were advised to try to interact one on one with them as they don´t get much individual attention, and to help out with the routine and whatever the staff wanted us to do. I first changed the sheets and then held and played with the girls as Mara, the childcare worker bathed them. When the girls were all ready we took them to another room and spend the rest of the time playing with them, feeding them etc until I get picked up at around noon.

Some of the little girls that I have been with seem to have some developmental delays. One can´t walk very well and the baby is not able to sit up or hold her head (the staff say she is 6-7 months old). They all need alot of affection. We were warned that we will see things that may be different than how we would do things or that contradicts our training. Sure enough, I have already seen alot of things that contradict both my instinct and training (just like I´ve seen in Canada), but we are not to interfer -- but where possible be a role model. For example, they don´t want us to pick up crying children (or even comfort them), juice is given in a bottle, and there is some force feeding. But overall we can tell that the staff are committed and love the kids.

This is going to be a great experience for me!