City of Child- Day 4 to 8

Day 4

                We awoke, ate breakfast and the rest was a blur. At around 2 or 3, all 13 of us, and our luggage was on a bus, heading to our next destination. In one hour, our bus driver wove through the traffic on the freeway and turned onto a dirt road just located on the outskirts of Poona.  After navigating the dirt back roads, surrounded by lush farm land and many cows, we turned just outside of a little town and found ourselves at the Deep Griha’s rural project City of Child. Hopping out of the bus, we found ourselves on a dirt cricket ground and surrounded by tons of young boys reaching for our luggage. Following the young boys carrying our luggage, we were directed to a plaster covered building that seemed to house more than 10 bunk beds. Quickly dropping everything, we headed over to the dining hall we were given tea and sat down with the team leader, Raj. Sipping our tea and eating Marie cookies, Raj proceeded to explain the project.  City of Child is a boarding school/ orphanage for boys who have been orphaned, or semi-orphaned (they have one parent). Using government social workers, the orphans in the slums of Poona are identified, and with sponsoring from organizations and donations, are sent to City of Child.  Beloved by their teachers and the team leader, as though they were their actual parents, the kids are well taken care of, and are given lots of love and hope for the future. The boys, aging from 2-18, go to school at either the school in the village located but half a mile away, or City of Knowledge. After being shown around, we settled in to our barracks and discovered that our beds were literally cardboard (we got sore hips) and birds living above our heads. Despite our discomfort, we soon learned that they were small sacrifices for the rewarding smiles and kindness shown by the kids and staff of City of Child. Part of our daily regiment consisted of waking up at around 8 for those who wanted to attend the church service that they held every morning, and for those who didn’t, they would wake up at 8:30. From 9:00, we ate breakfast, and prayed with the boys before we started to eat. From there, we did our service work from 10 to 1, had lunch, and then had a nap, and resumed work at 3-5.Our service work was divided into two main parts; tree planting and watering, and painting two rooms for the boards of the school. For planting trees, a group of around 8 or so people (we switched groups once), our group managed to plant 40 trees in one day, a record for all the  other volunteers that had recently attended and helped. For the painting, a group of 4-9 people began sanding the walls (to get the plaster off), then painted the primer coat and a yellow/white paint, and topped it off with a henna design by Lena Hardy. After our service work, we enjoyed our tea at around 5:30, and then proceeded to help the kids with their homework, and play with the kids until dinner time. After briefly talking and playing games until 9, we then fell into deep slumber.  This went on for four days, and then we headed back to Poona Thursday night, feeling rewarded and exhausted.