Diary

2007-07-22 - Laughter and touchy

Kean explodes in laughter, he is screaming from joy and pushing himself more speed with his feet. Rusted swing squeaks. I push more speed, laughter and screaming gets ever louder. We are all surprised of development of this little boy.

Less then two months ago Kean was hiding under a cloth, groveled on the ground, was afraid of being touched and making monkey sounds. He probably grew up with monkeys, in a gage, before he came to the orphanage. His autism can be caused by that or he was born with it. He is now 10-years old. I took him as my sponsored child. Juana said Kean is like another person, it's unbelievable that this is the same boy. I spend 45 min daily with him. Unfortunately due to lack of caretakers Kean is locked up in his room by him self most of the time. It's heart breaking. When I go to his room he reaches his hand to me, sometimes he starts jumping up and down and screaming happily. That is so overwhelmingly wonderful. I grab him in my arms and kiss this wriggling villain on his neck.


Sreyka 3-years old downsyndrome girl doesn't want to walk, she knows how but she needs to be picked up and lead by the hand. No she doesn't want to walk and she makes it quite clear. She starts to be in a tantrum after 50-meters, she starts whining and slump.
Have to wait, she has heart disease, she gets tired easily, her lips become blue. During walking exercise I watch her lip color. Her own will at any cost, stubbornness and hilarious humor, that's her. She puts her hand in front of blind boy, she is trying is he will bite it, she pulls her hand quickly back and hides it behind her back and laughs, she tries again, she makes sure I'm looking. Show is useless if there is no audience.

Baby is crying, I pick her up, her eyes are wondering in all directions, finally she gets them focused in my eyes and sights. I lay her on my chest, neck is not holding the dead properly, I tap handicapped baby on her back. Nobody holds this baby. Her head is full of abscess spots. Heat rash. I take her outside, I sit in the swing and sing her a Tongan song, sunset has given her orange color to the palm trees, baby's anxious expression fades away.

We are mounting padding's with nice figures of giraffes to the beds donated to us. Samnang Bopha, girl with cerebral palsy, is speaking with sign language to Juana that she would like to have one as well to her bed. Juana explains to her that she doesn't need one cause she is able to move her self in the bed but the other cerebral palsy children gets their feet in between the bed sticks, they are not able to get it out. Bopha starts to cry. She has her mouth wrinkled and tears in her eyes, she said to Juana with sign language " They didn't think about me". It makes us smile. Children are always like that, others get something, for me too. Girl is very smart. Her cry gets even louder when she doesn't get what she wants. I hold her and tickle her, then she starts to smile and we are friends again. After a while she asks the same question from Juana " For me too those kinds of paddings" .

I open the door to the play room, happy faces, laughter and feeling of full life. I change the nappy and let go. Tree wheeler rally around the room. Lego's just pop under the wheels. I fill the water bottles during refuel. These rampant healthy kids are gonna get soon to Italy for the joy of their adoptive parents. I throw them in the air, spin around until I feel dizzy, again, once more, bounce and kick the ball. We laugh. Make faces and soap bubbles. Massage and exercise handicapped children's feet. I feel how children so innocently love me and I do in return.


I'm teaching Nari 6 yrs. to stand, she is a blind girl. Physiotherapists said there is no reason why she wouldn't be able to walk in the future.
Muscles starts trembling in her tight, sit down, after 5-minutes we continue. Girl doesn't speak anything else then Aih-Aih-Aih in loud voice which makes me look suspicious with my standing exercises like I was hurting her or something. I speak funny things to her and she starts to grin, the other side of her cheek goes up which makes her look like rascal.

Every day teacher keeps real old fashioned stretching exercise to the older sponsored children, for those who goes to school already. Rain is falling lightly but children legs are getting up and down more or less at teachers speed, one , two , tree, teacher is shouting. The movements are like from German second world war army training. Hands forward, down to the side, marching. Hilarious indeed. Girls Daradine 6 yrs. and Bophany 7yrs. cannot always concentrate but they run to the swing where the little children are. I hustle them to return to do the exercise. Both run back limping and balancing with coordination. What a joy that they have learned to walk.

Sopheak 6-yrs has got a helmet, or it was found from somewhere, so now he cannot get his head in such bad conditions even that he still hits it to the ground when he gets frustrated. He is still biting his hand but otherwise Sopheak has become such s gentle and smiling boy. When I came to the orphanage tree months ago Sopheak was graphing so hard that I was left with bruises on my hands. Now he's got so much more dimension in his life cause he has learned to walk. One day he was sitting very nicely with the caretakers in the swing and drinking juice with a straw by himself that i could not stop marveling that this is the same child then a while ago who you could not come close cause he was graphing your hair hard. Tuulia, former volunteer wrote about Sopheak in the previous diary.

We got clothes as donation from Singapore. One sponsor came and brought them. I wrote our NGO in all the clothes so no one is able to sell them forward, which unfortunately happens here in third world countries. It's lovely to see kids with new clothes.

I'm writing this in an internet cafe and suddenly the water is coming in from the roof that i get splash to my legs. It doesn't feel very safe when there is so much electric wires in all sorts of twists on the ground.

Discussion with the director of the orphanage. So absurd. No, we are not allowed to take pictures of our sponsored children. No, new volunteers are not allowed to come. Our NGO has got so many times such a resistance from this director. What ever pops into her mind.
Milk-powder tins has disappeared. We give milk-powder only in return of empty tins. I haven't got some tins. Looking for the guilty one. Even I'm accused?! Poverty educates his own children. You take where you can get it. Even from the mouth of the orphans. Our NGO cupboard has been broken into and someone has put their own lock on the door. It took many days until I was able to get there cause the key keeper was mysteriously never there. Those children, I heard , has taken the tooth brushes and tooth pastes, I was suspicious.
We decided to reduce the amount of milk-power we give cause it's not corresponding to the usage. Director of the orphanage didn't agree to renew our agreement with the ministry to be able to continue to work there, even that it's all for free for them. Volunteers are coming, we give milk-powder, we get donations for the orphanage. There has been all kind of difficulties in cooperation with the director. let's see how it goes.

New volunteer Sanna is coming fortunately to share the NGO flat with me and fight for the children's rights.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia 1st of July 2007

Katja Turunen
Volunteer worker
Children of Cambodia NGO