The Kids

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Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post a quick blog with some pictures I have taken of some of the kids I have met or come across here in Indonesia.  Wherever I go, I find the kids to be happy, gorgeous, engaging, entertaining and friendly.  They are always clean, smiling and do not look underfed, at least as a general rule.

Many of these kids have never seen a camera and certainly never seen their own photo so I always show them any picture I have taken on the back of my camera and their response is always wonderful.  They often point, squeal and laugh and just want their photo taken again and again and again..  You can see their reaction in the photos attached.

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I have also attached some photos of the kids I met in the orphanage on Thursday.  This is a government run orphanage and as such, its quite large, clean and well kept.  There are about 60 kids in this one, aged between 0 - 6 years.  These kids are separated into babies under 4 months, little ones from 4 months to about 2 years and the older ones who are about 2 - 6 years.  It's the middle group we spent the most time with as these are the ones that still can't feed themselves and who need to be fed and changed a number of times a day.  There were nearly 20 of these kids in one room and only 2 staff to look after them so a couple of volunteers to help them during one of their feed times is obviously very helpful.

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I enjoyed the time with these kids and I will definitely be going back.  I can't this week as I'm going down to Bali again for a couple of days but I'm expecting this to be a regular Thursday morning thing.  I know I can't do much in just a couple of hours a week but I do know that in this couple of hours, these kids get something they wouldn't normally get and that's usually just a little extra attention and a cuddle or two.  They are generally very undemanding (I think kids learn that pretty early in an orphanage - there just isn't a lot of attention to be had and all the squalling in the world isn't going to change that) but very responsive.  I wish I could have captured some of the smiles I got that day!! They are just priceless.

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There were also some sad cases there obviously - most of the kids are given up by their parent/s for one reason or another, perhaps hardship at home, perhaps they have a deformity of sorts or perhaps due to the situation of their birth their mothers just can't keep them but I have to say I found it a very positive experience rather than a depressing or negative one, both for me and for them.

Most of the kids there are little boys (even though as you'll notice some are dressed in little girls clothes - as long as they're clean it really doesn't matter).  Most of the little girls there are adopted back out pretty readily (there were only about 4 girls amongst the 60 kids there) but many of the boys stay until they are 6 then move on to an orphanage for older kids somewhere else in Jakarta.

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I'll get some more photos next time I'm there and continue to share some of these experiences with you.  Enjoy the pics..

Thinking of you all..

Robyn & Denis