DAY 4

RAMIS

Laundry time

How many despairing stories can one take in such a short term as one week ?

There is this little boy , ,named Ramis at the ECD center . He is 6 years old , although , physically , he looks like 4 years old . Ramis wears dirty pajamas every day to school . His parents are local farmers of the lowest caste , non - educated . They don't like the idea ,that their son is every day attending the school .

Ramis is the most humble child i ever saw . He is a loner at his class . First time this kid saw me , he went hiding under the table , and it took me longer than one day to get him from there . He looks and he acts just as a Maugli . Every time you try to give him a pencil ,he just hides in the corner . Teachers gave up on him , saying that he is lazy , apathetic child , whose parents never have money to buy him a pencil or exercise book ( they call it ,, copy -book '' here ) , so there is no time or energy to waste on the case like that ... Well , i wouldn't really agree on that one , cause this ,,savage '' is anything but not a laid - back ,when he hears any kind of music . He claps the hands and swings into the rhythm with such an enthusiasm , suddenly forgetting all his shyness .

Back from school at 13 .00 ( the lessons are shorter each friday ) . The first thing orphans are doing after the school is washing their uniforms for the next week . 5 - 6 years old children , washing clothes with a cold water on the floor of their ,, shower room '' with no detergent - this i will never forget ( i won't take the laundry machine for granted anymore ;)

During the game hour ,Kusum ( the disabled girl ) crawled to me , grabbed my hand and started to cuddle it , saying that my hand smells so good . Had to leave the room immediately to hide the tears .

Tomorrow is the DAY OFF . Hurrah!!!!

Thamel , warm shower , and maybe a bottle of beer ... :)

ARRIVAL to an ORPHANAGE

The cab driver pulls over just in front of the orphanage . At a doorway of tiny hutch i notice a couple of curious faces of children sticking out . Trying to ignore not very overwhelming odor in the yard (which, i guess, is their playground ), i try to make an amicable smile to kids. Unlucky for me , i don't cause a stir for very long time ,looks like they have a better occupation than observing strangers . What that could be? Curiosity leads me straight into the house to find out , that the centre of attention of 21 orphans sitting in lotus pose is nothing but the match of box on some local TV broadcast...

The local volunteers (two middle aged man ) come up to me and start the introducing ceremony . That excites the curiosity of kids . With a treacherous trembling voice , i introduce myself .

Damn it,but i couldn't feel more sheepish even standing in front of 100 ministers (not that i would know that feeling either :) ,than in front of those 21 tots , who look at me with curiosity ,wonderment, caution and ( or is it just my imagination) hope?...

After my short disastrous introduction that was something as ,, my name is Margarita '' ,and ,, i am from Lithuania " (tried to show my country in the map ,which hangs on the wall and couldn't find it for 10 minutes...).

The kids are more determined introducing themselves . They are all so so different... Different appearance , age , character... everything . Some of them yells out their names ; some of them -trying to make an impression - go through telling all their life ,instead o just saying the name or age ; some of them just mumble their name gingerly . I think , i will never ever remember their names . And talking about the gender ,i am not able to tell who is boy ,or who is girl - they all have the same very boyish haircut...