So I’ve reached the end of my 2 weeks here. Its been really cool! We took some cakes, snacks, and party poppers into the class today and just had a party with the girls. It was quite sad saying bye to them, but not as sad as it was in Goa. The girls I’ve been teaching here are much better off, their parents have decent jobs, and I’m sure they’ll be ok whereas in Goa, the girls in the slums and the orphanage there had nothing. It was so hard walking away wondering if they would be ok and wishing there was more I could do to help them. I think I had it pretty easy in Jaipur compared to some of the other volunteers. The orphanage here sounds even worse than the orphanage I was at in Goa. Its just a concrete room with no toys, nothing except a mat on the floor. The children tear bits of string out of the mat to find something to play with. The volunteers are not allowed to take toys for the children because the women who work there just take the toys home for their own children. It would be heartbreaking to work there and see that everyday. The volunteers find it quite rewarding though. Being able to give the children some much needed love and affection and play with them.
We have a really nice group of volunteers here. Its been good fun living with them all. The 15 of us on the 3 week program leave at 7am tomorrow morning for a week travelling before we leave India. It sounds pretty fun, but there is a lot of travelling involved. I’ll post updates about the places we visit. Here are some pictures of the girls I was teaching here: