A day in the life............

Sorry there hasn´t been an update for a while, Steve has had a sinus infection and has spent a few days in bed.  This post will be updated over a few days to allow appropriate spelling editing by Petrina or maybe  not so sorry for the mistakes.  (The spell check is set for Spanish)

So as promised a little more about the orphanage.
The orphanage is amazing, so upmarket compared to their initial location that didn´t even have running water.  It is on a large block (just under an Acre) with high cement walls at the front and side, with two big automatic gates at the front, typical security for Mex.  (It is located in central Tapachula, only 5 min walk to the centre of town).  The house is made up of separate sleeping areas with the parents retreat in the middle.  The older girls have a wing off the side and all the boys and the rest of the girls are separated by mum and dad´s area and a few locked gates.  (The older boys live upstairs in a loft area overlooking the younger boys. ) There is an attached kitchen and dinning area with nice gardens and a kids play gym.  There was a small grassed area around the side but that is currenlty being dug (by hand) into a pool.  It will be a pool with attached music room and kids washing failities.  This all should be completed by Christmas or the New Year. 
Our days are broken up into two shifts shared among five volunteers, with more help arriving soon hopefully. 

Pool, dug by hand, being formed ready for hand pouring

Morning Shift - 5.30am - 2.30ish:  This involves getting the kids ready for school, quite a lot harder than it sounds and walking a few different groups.  The kids go to many schools in the area, some of them have scholorships and others go to public schools. The best part of the hectic morning is walking the two little ones to Kinda.  Everything is their playground and they must stop to look in the creek to see what is floating past.  Then the rest of the shift is spent around the house with a few kids who go to school in the afternoons or with others who don´t have school for the day.  The days involves cleaning, raking, gardening, tidying, organising or playing games with the ones who are left.    It is then time to pick the kids up from school and get them ready for lunch which starts about 2pm.  Schools finish before lunch to allow people to have a Siesta, i like this idea, if only the kids would have one though.  Lunch is their main meal and would typically involve Rice, Beans, Meat, Tortillas and a Salsa.  After lunch it is shift swap time. 



Afternoon Shift....
This shift is a little more full on.  After lunch it is lunch chores, they don´t seem to like the chores even though they know they have the jobs as its the same each week.  After chores it is homework time and then play time before dinner.  At 5.30 it is time to get the younger ones showered, another near impossible task.  Dinner is held over three meal times and dinner is Pan (Bread), the same each day.  It is a mix of sweet breads that gets delivered at 5pm each day. 

After dinner it is chore time again before bed time, starting at 6.30pm for the little ones.   Another difficult task.  Then its just the older kids who hand around doing their chores until about 10 or 10.30. 

All up very tiring. More shift stories and photos will appear in future blogs.