Girls orphanage

Yesterday I still hadn't been allocated to a new orphanage, so out of slight boredom I joined Amy, Violeta, Rachelle and Harriet to their girls orphanage. What a different experience to the boys one Robbie and I had been to! It was so relaxed. The girls actually sat down for the whole time (well, mostly), did what they were supposed to do, didn't hit each other, and most importantly: I wasn't sweating at all. Normally when we come back from the boys orphanage it's hard to find a dry spot on our t-shirts.

It was interesting to see how the others were teaching, and I learned from them. Positive reinforcement for girls doesn't involve high 5, rather stars and "well done!" written down on their papers after they'd finished an assignment. That could easily work with boys as well I reckon.

I wrote earlier that they didn't hit each other, and they seemed quite friendly. However, after a while I noticed that the bullying amongst girls much more subtle. Whispers and giggling behind other girls' backs and so on. Hadn't encountered that before with the boys (just make them stop hitting each other and make them say sorry), but here you don't know what they're saying about them, so they could just claim that they were innocent. Instead I paid more attention to the 'targets' and much less to the bullies, and that seemed to work fine, the 'targets' lit up, and the bullies got bored after a while and continued with their assignments. A completely different experience yesterday, but nevertheless rewarding.

The entrance to the girls orphanage was so much nicer as well

Today we went with Amy to the boy's side of the same orphanage. All lovely boys, and very similar to the ones we had in Dehiwala. It feels good to have started getting afternoon routines. More about the disabled centre and youth teaching soon.