My (Nellicia's) visits to a local orphanage, Bible Faith Outreach, or BFO, have been one of the highlights of my time in Mount Hagen so far. Started by a national who had a heart for children with no place to go and nobody to care for them, the orphanage has expanded from a garage to a residence with a girls and boys’ dorm, a kitchen, dining room, large garden, and a small house for the lady who founded the orphanage – known to the children as “Mommy.”
On the first visit, the younger children were thrilled to see a new face and eagerly gave me a tour of their home. I learned the names of the eight to ten children that were giving the tour, and it was great to see their faces light up as I said each of their names; I undoubtedly pronounced them incorrectly at first, but we’ll get there! On the tour, I learned several things about the orphanage:
When the orphanage moved from a garage to the new property, there was no power available. The children used a traditional cooking hut to cook their food, but many of them were getting lung problems because of their exposure to smoke. Seeing this, an MAF volunteer designed a new kitchen with a tap, sink, and stove. After raising enough money to complete the project, the new kitchen was built with solar power to fuel it. It was great to see the girls using the kitchen as they baked fresh bread for lunch!
The boy dormitory was completed first, which meant that the boys moved to the new property while the girls still lived in the garage. It was constructed in the traditional way of weaving bush materials together, creating a single room structure. Following this, another MAF volunteer was made aware of the need for a girls’ dorm, and as an engineer he designed a multi-room dorm constructed out of storage containers. In this dorm, there are approximately eight bedrooms which sleep two or three girls each. There is also a bathroom with shower stalls, but unfortunately the bathrooms and showers do not have running water yet, which means the children still use buckets to shower.
Through funding, it is the orphanage’s aim to send each child to school. However, because they come at any age and with little to no education experience, a teacher helps the younger students catch up. Following an Australian Christian homeschool curriculum, this teacher helps the students until they reach a Grade 4 or 5 level, at which point they go to school to continue their education.
After my tour of the orphanage, I played a few games with the children before leaving. As there was no ball, string, or any other supplies, we stuck to the classics: tag and a few other high energy games. In the scorching sun, I didn’t last very long!
My second visit to the orphanage was together with Brandon, Nova, and two other MAF families. The occasion for this visit was Independence Day! The children had planned some games, which were followed with the singing of the national anthem and a snack. After the snack, some of the older children still wanted to play more games (yes, the sun was scorching again!). While the younger ones stayed inside to colour and draw Papua New Guinea’s flag, Brandon and I took the older ones back outside to teach a new game. We decided on Capture the Flag, and everyone had a blast! It took the first few minutes to sort out all the rules (if you get caught, you must go to jail; you can’t free someone from jail and get the flag, etc.), but once it was all clear everyone had a lot of fun. I got tricked a few times when someone was walking casually on my side, pretending to be on my team – and then suddenly dashed for our flag. After playing several games, Brandon let them know that we would play one more. I heard someone comment behind me, “You mean 63 more?” I guess comments like that show how much they appreciated us playing with them!
The boy dormitory was completed first, which meant that the boys moved to the new property while the girls still lived in the garage. It was constructed in the traditional way of weaving bush materials together, creating a single room structure. Following this, another MAF volunteer was made aware of the need for a girls’ dorm, and as an engineer he designed a multi-room dorm constructed out of storage containers. In this dorm, there are approximately eight bedrooms which sleep two or three girls each. There is also a bathroom with shower stalls, but unfortunately the bathrooms and showers do not have running water yet, which means the children still use buckets to shower.
Through funding, it is the orphanage’s aim to send each child to school. However, because they come at any age and with little to no education experience, a teacher helps the younger students catch up. Following an Australian Christian homeschool curriculum, this teacher helps the students until they reach a Grade 4 or 5 level, at which point they go to school to continue their education.
After my tour of the orphanage, I played a few games with the children before leaving. As there was no ball, string, or any other supplies, we stuck to the classics: tag and a few other high energy games. In the scorching sun, I didn’t last very long!
My second visit to the orphanage was together with Brandon, Nova, and two other MAF families. The occasion for this visit was Independence Day! The children had planned some games, which were followed with the singing of the national anthem and a snack. After the snack, some of the older children still wanted to play more games (yes, the sun was scorching again!). While the younger ones stayed inside to colour and draw Papua New Guinea’s flag, Brandon and I took the older ones back outside to teach a new game. We decided on Capture the Flag, and everyone had a blast! It took the first few minutes to sort out all the rules (if you get caught, you must go to jail; you can’t free someone from jail and get the flag, etc.), but once it was all clear everyone had a lot of fun. I got tricked a few times when someone was walking casually on my side, pretending to be on my team – and then suddenly dashed for our flag. After playing several games, Brandon let them know that we would play one more. I heard someone comment behind me, “You mean 63 more?” I guess comments like that show how much they appreciated us playing with them!
This past Monday, I visited again -- this time as a teacher. Several of the high school students had been having trouble completing their homework, since they had no device or way to access the Internet. It seems that this is crucial to be able to complete Grade 12 especially. For some research assignments, these students simply had to say that they couldn't complete the homework and get a failing mark. In response to this, a laptop was purchased for their use. Though this seems like the solution to all of their problems, it is only the beginning; these students have never used a computer before, and are starting from scratch.
On the first day that they received the computer they were shown how to turn it on and off, how to log-in, how to access the Internet using Mommy's hotspot, and how to save a Word document onto a USB drive so it could be printed. The lesson that I gave was their second. Some of the first things that they learned with me were how to copy and paste, how to open multiple tabs on the Internet, and various features of Microsoft Word, like how to change the font, size, and colour of their text.
Our main focus was on learning the basics of typing, which I believe is becoming a more and more essential skill worldwide. After watching me type a few sentences, their eyes bulged -- when I explained that they could learn how to type like that too, they grinned and nodded enthusiastically. We learned how to make capital letters, and why there are bumps on the F and J keys. I also set each of these students up with an account on a website where they can learn to type for free. After about an hour of instruction, I left them to it with their laptop, my laptop, and a few paper "keyboards" to practice. When I came back to collect my laptop about 30 minutes later, they were competing against each other for the high score on a game that had them practicing the D, F, J, and K keys. Their desire to learn was infectious; I am excited to see how they have progressed when I visit next!
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| A view of the orphanage |
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| The children singing their anthem, dressed very patriotically! |
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