I am simply amazed at the flexibility and determination of our team of volunteers who were only trained a week ago.  The orphanage has very strict rules and limited staff and have given us only  two hours each evening to hold the camp.  However, the two hours are broken up by dinner in the middle and many of the students have homework to finish from school during the day.  We have had to adapt and adjust on the fly and the team has stepped up to the task.

Each Tibetan name is long and unfamiliar to our Chinese volunteers and so they ate lunch with their crew to help them learn their children’s faces and names and get to know them.  The children are for the most part very friendly, but behind the smiles there is a lot of pain.  For many the loss of their parents is fresh from the earthquake.

Opening Assembly

With limited time to run the camp the first day was quite frustrating as we had to wait for local officials to come and give speeches at the opening assembly.  After waiting for close to an hour, the officials never showed up and we decided to press forward with the camp anyway.

Game Station

The obstacle course was made out of odds and ends lying around, a piece of wood, a desk, some wash basins.  The children helped each other go through blindfolded, reinforcing the idea that “I am not alone”

We continued the use of the hygiene station that we developed for Haiti.  I cannot tell you how great it felt to see the layers of dirt come off of those little hands.  Over five days they will also learn to brush their teeth and receive a toothbrush and paste, learn how to keep germs from spreading and learn how to clean and bandage a wound to keep it from getting infected.

Craft Station

The craft station is located in a blue disaster tent and the children got to color their nametags.  One little girl showing signs of trauma already is very withdrawn, unwilling to participate in most activities and when she colored her nametag used black to mark out the entire picture.

Adapting to the time-constraints we conducted two stations before dinner, gave the children some time to do their homework and then opened up the session after dinner with a mini-assembly to remind the students of the theme, “I am not alone” and teach them a song.

We are working through the issue of how the children can both do their homework and attend the camp.  Our camp director and myself listened to the children recite Tibetan scripts and Chinese texts to help them not be distracted.  If they do not finish their homework they are beaten at school, making it an extremely difficult situation.

Our team from Haikou will continue with this camp until the end and then start training volunteers for the next camp in an even more remote village.  Please remember all five of the teams conducting OpSAFE camps in various settings and circumstances.

… to be continued

Jonathan Wilson

OperationSAFE

http://opsafeintl.com