El Refugio

Today was me and elens first day doing our volunteering at the orphanage or el refugio as its called. alli and hyunjin took us over there and as soon as we walked in all the children were shouting tio and tia and holding our hands and pulling us all over the place to show us things. i brought some stickers with me because we were told they like stickers and they were stolen off me and run off with as soon as i got there. there was a girl whose laces had come out of her shoes and she didnt know how to get them back in so i laced them for her - my retail experience coming in handy..- then we all took the kids down the poli which is a nearby park. we played ¨it¨ and generally ran around like maniacs. then a girl called Michala, who has extremely short hair, presumably she had to have it shaved off because of headlice or something nasty, taught me a dance routine shed made up and she was really sweet.
theres a little todler called Gabi who wanted to play with the skipping rope when me, Michala and Hyunjin were playing and Michala didnt want her to so she ran off with it, Gabi started to cry and was pointing at the rope and michala so i picked him up and went over to Michala. i tried my hardest using spanish to explain that gabi wanted his turn and that shes not being very fair and she just laughed and ran away, wanting me to chase her, and quite obviously just some attention. so i told gabi we would go and play by ourselves until Michala was going to behave. he doesnt speak yet but i think he understood. we sat on the floor and rolled limes to eachother until michala came over and hit gabi trying to get more attention and then again running off with the skipping rope. i made it clear to michala that that is the wrong way to get attention but she misbehaved for the rest of the day, biting jumping on and hitting me so i continued to ignore in the hope of teaching her some manners. we´ll see how she is tomorrow..
it was really sad to see all the children wearing clothes that didnt fit, were dirty and had holes in. there was one boy wearing just trackie bottoms which were filthy and had a whole right on the bum and he didnt have any pants on and i was just thinking can they at least not get him some underwear? also hardly any of them have proper shoes, and they dont have specific pairs for each person they just have big piles and they just grab which ever pair is less wrecked. they also have a habit for asking for things you have on. i was wearing my st. christopher necklace that aunty jenny and uncle peter gave me, and literally about ten of them just said ¨can i have that¨and they would just try and grab it. alot of the time i just had to stand up and tell them no you cannot and look angry before they would leave it alone. the children really stank aswell as if they hadnt been washed in about a week, but it must just be because they play in the dirt alot because when we got back to the house after the poli the older girls were washing all the children with a hose in the garden.
we work monday to friday from 9 til 12 and have our afternoons free. this afternoon me and elen went along to the boys project - playing football with kids to get them off the streets. we sat on the sidelines and cheered and then we were convinced to join in a passing game but the one time a boy kicked the ball to me - i had asked them not to- my shoe flew off with the ball so they learnt their lesson. it was really funny because Marcel told us after that the boys really enjoyed having female coaches and please can we go back tomorrow hahaha. i think we are going back with oranges to give out at the end and deck chairs so we dont have to sit on the grass. so that should be fun :P
its flipping hot here and i already i cant remember what¨it feels like to not be sweaty haha. ive already got into the habit of having a siesta aswell and am starting not to have that sicky groggy feeling after waking up from a midday sleep which is good. when i get back to england my sleep patterns will be all over the place i bet.

Love,
Bethnal x