2009 Day4

Today was a tiring day! We started at 9am and we spent the morning bathing all the girls in group 2. There are 9 girls in this group and they suffer with a range of different disorders.  All of the girls are confined to wheelchairs but one girl, Alexandrina is learning how to walk – she’s 6 years old. Bathing the girls is hard work. The process involves lifting them from their chairs on to a table, getting them ready for the bath, lifting them into the bath, washing them and their hair, lifting them on to the table, drying them, dressing them and lifting them back into their chairs. My back is killing me but I feel grateful to be able to feel it at all. My favorite part was drying their hair and giving them a nice hair style. They love French plaits and all of the clips and shiny bobbins that I brought. A few girls in other groups were queuing up outside the room so that I could do their hair next. Only problem now is that I can’t go anywhere without doing a few plaits on the way!

After bathing the girls we brought them all for walks around the complex. At this stage the sun was splitting the stones so it was hard work pushing wheelchairs around the place. Not complaining yet though! We had a coffee break at around 12 (I think) and then went to feed the girls at 1.30pm. I was feeding Irina again. This time she wasn’t too happy to eat her food. I think the bath completely wore her out. She was so tired that she couldn’t keep her head up straight. Any time I managed to hold her head up and actually get some food in, she’d just drop her head again and the food would dribble out. Disaster. One of the nannies helped me eventually and we got about half her dinner into her. Then it was time for our own lunch.

After lunch we went for activities with the girls. I had no idea what this meant until we actually got there. This time we were with group 5. There are 19 girls in this group, all with very different disabilities. They are all able to move around on their feet though. We weren’t really sure what to do when we met the girls. They were sitting on the grass and it soon transpired that the idea was to entertain them – kinda hard when you don’t speak the language. Thankfully our interpreter had come equipped with bubbles, nail varnish and a few jigsaws. I grabbed a jigsaw of Cinderella but not one of the girls had any interest. Bar one who tried to eat a piece. So I put the game away. A few minutes later, one of the girls picked up the jigsaw and wanted me to do it with her. A few more minutes later she had absolutely no interest and started pointing to her nails. I think she just grabbed the jigsaw because she thought that I liked doing them but all she really wanted was for me to paint her nails. I was happy to oblige.

We then went and played with group 9 for a while. There are 20 girls in this group and they’re all able to walk around as well. This group was particularly hard. Some of them wanted to hug and kiss you. Others didn’t want you to talk to anyone but them. In the end we just threw a ball for about half an hour. They loved this, especially when we threw the ball up really high in the air.

By then it was almost time for dinner. So we went to meet group 16 to help wash their hands before their meal. Sounds like a simple enough task right? Wrong! Have you ever hear 19 girls screaming with excitement in a tiny bathroom? My ears are still throbbing! They were great fun though and the task was complete in about 20 minutes. They loved us so much that they made us promise to come back after dinner.

Then it was time to feed the girls again so I went to meet Irina for our usual date. This time Irina was wide awake and munched up all of her food. I was so relieved.

We couldn’t find group 16 when we went back. Eventually they showed up and started running wild! One girl, I think her name is Nicoleta, ran in the opposite direction to everyone else. I think she was trying to tell me that she was running away. She’s around 7 or 8 and she has downs syndrome. She has a crazy imagination and full on personality that’s for sure! I followed her to make sure she was ok. She managed to chew on a few twigs during our walk but she went ballistic every time I tried to take them out of her mouth.

When we turned the corner of the last building we met a crazy site. One of the older girls, Maria, had climbed up the apple tree and was shaking the tree violently. She had gathered an audience of about 30 girls during her antics. Next of all, what seemed like hundreds of apples started falling from the tree and the girls all erupted into laughter. I’ve never heard anything like it. So much joy in one space. They were just so excited with the apples. It was lovely. Some of the girls were trying to hoard as many apples as they could. They were scooping them up in their skirts, t-shirts, wheelchairs – all the while eating two at a time! But they weren’t greedy. Every girl made sure that everyone else got an apple too. When all the apples were consumed we brought a very happy bunch of girls back to their rooms.

And that brings the day to a close. I’m fit for nothing but my leaba. Apologies if this is full of grammar and spelling mistakes – I’m too tired to re-read it! Night night.