First day at Shanti Dan

Today was our first day "on the job". We volunteered at a facility called Shanti Dan which is a home for 50 - 60 mentaly and physicaly handicapped teenage girls and women. After an orientation we began our day by doing laundry - which is never ending at Shanti Dan. Then we were able to work in any of the 7 "classrooms" in order to get a feel for thedifferent learning  abilities of the girls. Tomorrow we will be choosing rooms to work in for the month. Marie is going to choose to work with the blind girls. Ashley and Callie are going to work with the higher functioning  special need girls and Sara is thinking about working with the severely handicapped girls.  After prayer and class time we took the girls to lunch and helped them eat. Then it was off to "nap time" which consisted of diaper changes, dress changes and lifting the girls into their beds. When our shift was done at 12:30 I felt as though we had worked an entire day. We were hot and emotionaly exhausted, but the work was really rewarding. These girls are really not able to "learn" anything so my goal is to make them feel loved by holding their hands, smiling and talking to them using their names. They are able to respond and you can tell that the attention makes them happy.

The day was deffinately a day spent with the poorest of the poor....