Kaleyli – We Went Alone

Fiona wasn’t feeling too well, so she stayed at the flat while Kitty, Eloise and I went to Kaleyli to do games and introduce First Aid. I must say it was quite exciting since it was the first time we were going without Fiona.

We walked up to the bus station trying to find a bus going to Kaleyli. Fiona had told us to take a bus to Bhuntar or Mandi. If we were to take the one to Bhuntar we had to change, so we thought it to be best to take one going to Mandi. The bus system in India works in a messy, but organised way. You find a person working on one of the buses and ask him if his bus is going to Kaleyli. If it doesn’t he will work his butt off to try and find the right one. So we got on the bus to Mandi and got to the boys orphanage.

Arriving at the orphanage, we got chai from the family who’s responsible and went down to get started with the boys. We began with some name games where you do your name and an action. But, you have to remember everyone’s name and action. It was a good ice breaker as the boys found it a bit embarrassing. To get more of the boys involved we decided to do a game where you have to organise yourself by height or by month of birthday without talking. This they found to be great fun. We also did so that the one with the biggest hands had to stand at one end of the line, and the one with the smallest hands had to stand on the other. They only had 20 seconds to do, so the first time they were talking a bit and messed up the order, but the second time they had gotten the hang of it.

After some pictionary we decided to move on to Firs Aid as it was getting rather late. First Aid was quite the challenge to introduce. We ended up just explaining that we were going to teach them First Aid as language was quite a barrier. We had made a poster with drawings and words, but we realised we had to act it out. Eloise started fake-hitting Kitty, and Kitty would pretend to be in pain. We asked the boys what they would do. They answered that one would punch, and some said they would cry. Which sort of made sense, but it wasn’t until Eloise used to word ‘doctor’ that it all made sense. Such a simple word, but so easy to forget when one is caught up in one’s own plans. But they boys really enjoyed the First Aid introduction, so hopefully it will be something we’ll be able to carry out properly. We will need to find someone who can help translate a bit though.