Dharma - Day 6 @ Odanadi

Odanadi – Day 6 (December 18, 2010)

I headed to Odanadi after Ode and I found a new branch that was much brighter than the seedier Internet Café I had used a few days ago. When I arrived many children were doing their weekend chores, others playing alone, some doing activities with Annabelle and Matthew the other two French volunteers, and a fierce game of Duck Duck Goose was being played by some of the smaller children in the front porch area. I noticed that one of the volunteers had made a welcome wall displaying who was who at Odanadi along with a weekly schedule for the children. It was a nice idea so that newcomers can now get a quick glimpse of things at the home.

I went to the library to check-in and walked around the house. I picked up my supplies and decided to head to the TV room for a quieter space. One of the older girls wanted to work on her English so I played a flash card game with her for some time and helped her with her spelling, shapes, colors and general grammar. Some other children started gravitating towards us, so I reached into my supplies magic bag and pulled out some modeling clay. They rather enjoyed this as it allowed them to use their hands and minds to make flowers, animals, fruit and other indescribable things with the different colors. The clay seemed to be a magnet as the soon quiet space became as loud as the playground outside! I had foam sun shapes and so some of them wrote their names on them, while others colored in books they got from the library downstairs. 

There was a lot of activity going on in there, and some of the younger children thought it would be fun to get powder on their hands and then rub it all over my face and arms when I least suspected it! I had children clamoring all over me and you can’t really get mad at them. I rather enjoyed it as they were having fun, and everyone was laughing, including me in reckless abandon. That’s just the way it should be I think :)