A dark and stormy night (literally and figuratively!)

Last night was the most chaotic time I have every experienced in the playroom. Julie and I were the only volunteers working because everyone else had the day off, and the power cut out during dinner (for some reason, the generators didn't kick in).

I don't know if it was the lack of power or the fact that it was POURING with rain outside - but the children were ALL screaming. All 30 of them.

The usual routine is that the volunteers take the babies from their high chairs to the playroom after dinner and entertain them while the nannies feed the tiny ones, and then bath the children (each nanny is responsible for 5 kids). When Julie and I had the last child in the playroom we just looked around dumbstruck and then shouted over the pouring rain and screaming babies 'THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO HERE!!!'.

I plonked down on the ground, defeated. Rosie, Lawassa, and a little boy called Rueben spotted me, momentarily stopped screaming and literally RACED towards me across the room on their hands and knees, and came skidding to a halt on my legs. I had them under control, provided I had them all on my lap, and separated from each other. The second any of them touched each other, or any part of their body made contact with the ground, the screaming re-commenced. Mama Ju had a similar situation on the other side of the room.

When we finally prised ourselves away from the children at 6pm (that was TRAUMATIC!) and made our way outside, we were greeted by Lazaro, Rahma and Clinton, three little toddlers who had somehow escaped the darkness of the baby home and decided to go for a swim. Covered in mud, shivering, but blissfully happy- they were splashing around in a drain that was waist deep full of water. Though I was mortified about what may have been if no-one spotted them, I was trying to suppress my laughter at their resourcefulness. They were the only happy babies in the entire orphanage!!!