Really Long

So I decided I should write to you guys about what living in the orphanage is like.

For starters, I am so exhausted. My body feels like it is still asleep and I am trying to drag it along. I guess we can start with my room.

My room is a good size, not enormous but big enough to hold a couch, dresser, coffee table, double bed and mini fridge. Also there is a toilet and shower that have running water....sometimes (as I discovered this morning). Still it is a lot better than before. I am out of toilet paper though so I need to go and buy some. I know that from my description my room sounds HUGE but it is all very close together. I am on the second floor of the guest house and I have two neighbors (I already knew them). One is a pastor and his wife and kids. Then the other is a young man (Ghanaian) that is living there and I think working at the orphanage part time?? Who knows. Anyway, back to the room: I am on the corner of the house so I have to walls that have windows on them. No sign of cockroaches yet and hopefully there will never be any. My mini fridge is amazing because I am now having to supply my own water sachets.
How I am feeling about it: The room is lonely to be honest. I think it is just going to take some getting used to. I feel very safe but it is still very different from living with a family. My friend Edwin (a volunteer that sleeps at the orphanage sometimes) has been keeping me good company. He has helped me be creative in setting up my mosquito netting because there was no hook on the ceiling. My first night I slept horrible. There was a huge storm and so I couldn't sleep and normally when this happens I have a roommate to talk to but instead I called home and talked to my brother for a decent amount of time. Fell asleep at 3:30am and got up at 6:30. There is something unique about living at the orphanage though. Yesterday I walked out of the house at 7am and all the kids were getting ready for school. They all ran up to me and were so happy to see me which was refreshing. I then walked out to the road with Edwin to find some porridge (tasted sweet) and some bread (that was fried like a donut...very good). I sat with Alfred (one of the boys that now has a job at the roadside) and I shared my porridge with him and Edwin.

I went back in and helped out with the babies for a little while and then the toddlers like I normally do. I only ended up leaving for an hour yesterday until the night but it felt nice. A lot of the older boys are at the home during the day now because they just finished their exams and are waiting 5 months before they go back to school. Having them around during the day makes a big difference and I am also helping of the boys with his English. He is not attending school right now because his mother told him that she was going to come back (and the home doesn't want to have to leave school) so they just never enrolled him. Last night I took one of my old roommates to the airport and then went back to the home where all the boys were waiting up for me. I actually got a phone call while I was gone and it was Yakubu asking me where I was and when I was going to be home. I have more parents at the orphanage than I did at my host house. All the little boys came out and said goodnight to me before they went to sleep and told me they would see me in the morning before school. As I was falling asleep last night I could hear someone yelling my name in my window.

This morning I was out of my room by 7am and hung around for a little with some of the little boys. They had an empty suitcase that they were playing with and so I showed them how I could fit inside of it (they thought that was pretty funny). Then two of the boys (Junior and Yao (older Yao)) sat in the suitcase next to each other and I rolled them around the compound as they pretended they were flying. Once I was done with that I felt pretty useless and so I asked one of the Aunties if I could help out with anything and so she gave me a lot of different chores. I helped serve the kids breakfast (porridge and bread). I helped clean the dishes from breakfast. I helped feed one of the special needs kids and cleaned him up. Then finally I got to watch how the little boys get ready for school and remind them of anything they had forgotten. They are trying to teach them how to get ready on their own and so they just watch them and tell them steps they miss. All the things they need to do are: button up the uniform and tuck it in properly, make sure the collar is in the right position, rub oil on their skin and hair (not sure why), brush their hair, eat their breakfast, get their biscuits, pick up their lunch, take medicine (if they have it), and then get their books and walk to school. They are definitely taught with tough love but it clearly works.

I am good and I am happy but it is very different. I am tired and worn out. I get lonely and find that I am using more phone credit than I ever did living in my host house. I love being with the kids at all times and they love me being there. It is going to take some getting used to but it is overall good. As for food-- I will buy street food and try and limit my spending.

Sorry this is so long.