One of the placements I did in Nepal was at an orphanage, the Buddhist Child Home in Kathmandu. Before we got there I wasn’t sure what to expect, I’d also been teaching at a school in Kathmandu but was more nervous stepping into the orphanage because there wasn’t a specific structure for what we should be doing. When we first got there all the children were getting back from school and apart from a few of the boys they were all really shy and to be fair so was I. Slowly but surely things started to thaw out and soon we were helping them out with their homework and when the little ones realized we could be roped into swinging them around the courtyard they were hooked. It was so rewarding when the girls finally warmed up to me and could be convinced to get a little silly & break out some dance moves.
There were two little boys who I nicknamed the Two Stooges because their antics were hilarious! They would both be doing the same homework, one would slide over, look at the others work and then start laughing at it. The little one getting laughed at was NOT happy about this, he would let out a loud “Harumph!” and then wack the offending party with a pencil until he sidled away to nurse his wound. This EXACT same process would repeat over and over again with both boys taking on both roles. It was both incredibly entertaining and cute which made it so much harder to be the responsible adult and stop them!
When the kids discovered that one of the volunteers had an iphone, they were hooked. When they got FIFA downloaded on it and could play football games it got even worse. We tried to convince them that we were worth playing with too but the boys were all constantly vying to play with the phone. Bribing them with the phone was a fail safe way to make them finish their homework and we even got them all to play stella-ella-olla as a way to win the privilege of playing…even the 17 year olds! Once I found some colourful string and we all made bracelets, none of them actually wanted to have to go through the motion of making it and tried to guilt me into making one for them. It was so cute to see the little ones struggle to both make bracelets and untangle themselves from the string as well as see the older boys really getting into making friendship bracelets.
I had an amazing time and really didn’t want to leave at the end. It still makes me wistful when I look at the pictures and a large part of me is hoping I can make my way back there soon!