BABIES!

I don't plan on regularly updating this often, but I wanted to talk about the first day back at Shishu Bhavan while it's still fresh in my mind.
As it turns out, Orientation was cancelled yesterday, so myself and about 25 other volunteers waited about 45 minutes for the Sisters to show up. When we were finally told that there would be no Orientation, I decided that since I was already at Shishu Bhavan, I would head upstairs and talk to the Sister in charge to see if it was okay for me to see the kids. However, she was not around and I was about to leave when one of the masis recognized me and waved me in.
The first day back was definitely weird. It was the afternoon shift, which is usually a bit more laid back, so it seemed very quiet. There were also only 2 other volunteers there, so the kids weren't quite as riled up as usual.
I went over to my side, the disabled kids' side, and sat down on the mat. The first thing that struck me was how many new kids there were. I sometimes forget that it has been a full year since I have been there, so I hadn't expected so many new kids. The new ones, in general, seem to be a happy bunch. There's a little blind girl, Mita, a happy new boy, Goneshkar (I may be getting his name very very wrong - that's just what I heard one of the masis), as well as a few others I have yet to meet.
There are also a few kids who have been adopted or moved elsewhere. Peter, my little blind boy I was helping learn to walk, has been moved elsewhere, as has Jayanti. From the mentally disabled side, Ashapriya and Abilash are gone. I'm really going to miss Abilash, the little terror that he was. That may be one of the reasons everything was so quiet. He was always up to something, getting the kids screaming and running around.
I'd really like to say that all of the other kids are doing very well, better than they were when I left, but that would be a lie. Some of them are doing much better, like the two little ones who came about a month before I left, Sonali and Jyotsni. When I had left, Sonali could not sit up on her own and Jyotsni could only say, "bababababa..." Now, Sonali is close to being able to stand on her own, Jyotsni is learning to use her swollen hand to pick things up, and both of them are learning to speak. Rakhi is able to walk on her own a little bit and has gotten less shy. On the other hand, Deepa has gotten more shy and can still walk on her own but refuses to do so. She won't use the walls to navigate like she used to. She just kind of stands around when you pick her up and will only walk if you grab her hand. A couple of the kids have gotten thinner. Shyama is still quite a little survivor. They had her out on the mattress for exercise time, so I assume she's not nearly as sick as she was when he left. For the most part, though, the kids seem to be in about the same place as they were when I left. That hurts, of course, to see so little progress and even a bit of regression. I just keep reminding myself that they are getting better treatment than they would be on the streets.
As for me, I was quite happy with how easily I got back into things. I remember that the part I found the hardest when I first started volunteering was the feeding, but I remembered the little tricks I had learned to get the kids to eat and didn't have much trouble. I can still tie a diaper. I can still make Lota smile by tickling her a particular way and remember some of her exercises. I'm glad that I don't have to start from square one again. That'll make it easier to continue learning about the kids and helping them as best as I can.
I am still so in love with them.