My first port of call today was the market to buy flavoured milk drinks and fruit for all of the children, circa 250, or so I thought...
The chosen fruit today was satsumas because it's not something the children would get to eat often because it is expensive and seen as an exotic fruit here. The reason I got flavoured milk was because they do not drink very much milk, if at all.
My fellow volunteers Jacky, Leo and I gave out the satsuma and milk to what we had thought was going to be approximately 50 children at Ban Mau, but in fact it turned out that there were about 90 children! The reason for this is because when the other children from the village who are not able to go to school due to having to go to work could see that the school children were being given these things one by one the school soon started to fill up, but asking ask them to leave or refusing to give them anything was not an option.
Thankfully I had the satsumas and milk for the orphanage with me and so we managed to ensure that each child received a milk carton and satsuma each with the exception of two boys. When I realised that we were short of two cartons of milk I was horrified. If this had happened in the UK then somebody would have quickly gone to the closest shop and picked up what they were short of. This was not at all possible because the schools are based in a village where the local village shops sell only a few items and the flavoured milk or plain milk even is not readily available and is something that as surprising as it may sound is something very few children if any will have had before. To say that I felt awful that two of the children did not get any milk doesn't quite describe it. How would you feel if you had two little sad faces looking up at you because you gave all the other children a carton of milk but had none for them?? All I could do was apologise and try and make it up to them, I gave them each an extra satsuma and promised that they would get their milk tomorrow. It doesn't sound like much by way of compensation but it was all I could do at the time.
After school at Ban Mau had finished for he day the other volunteers and I went to the school at Little Po to give the children their milk and satsuma, thankfully at this school their are four classes so given the mishap tat Ban Mau we gave out the milk and satsumas to one class at a time.
My next stop was the market to buy more milk for the children at the orphanage and then on to the orphanage to hand out the milk and satsumas.
I have never seen so many happy grateful faces upon receiving a satsuma and carton of flavoured milk, a truly humbling experience.
When I got back to the volunteer house this evening I was and in all honesty still am as I write somewhat angry and cross with myself because of the shortage at Ban Mau and how without rhyme nor reason very little these children and their families have.
When I think back to the appreciative looks and hugs I received from the children today to thank me for the milk and satsuma it really hit home once again how fortunate we are in every way.
A lot of the children here use plastic carrier bags by way of a school bag, which really isn't that unusual or uncommon, in fact as a child I have done the very same thing. However, the difference here is that a plastic bag is a precious item and is something the children really do look after as it's not so readily available and so it made perfect sense when I saw that two of the girls in class had thin plastic carrier bags with the handles tied together and had then attached a long piece of straw to the handles so that they could wear it across their body. I must admit it took a moment to realise why they had tied straw to the plastic bag but the moment I did a part of me felt so sad and the other so angry.
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