Guidelines to Toddler House Survival (for volunteers)

Living at the toddler house, here at GLA, has proven that you must always be on your guard. The following are a few guidelines which will help any future volunteers adjust to living in a house of sixty children:

1. Wear pants or shorts that have ties on them and be sure to double knot the ties. The children tend to pull at whatever they can and yes, one time a girl did pull down the zipper on my pants and proceeded to tell me what colour of underwear I was wearing! Now, I always double knot the strings on my shorts and it's a good thing, cuz they do tug on them!!!

2. If you're going to give a hug or a kiss to one child, be prepared for the chorus of 'ti bo' that will result. It means little kiss and all the children will follow you and moll you until you give each and every one of them a kiss. Some of the children will also jump on you from behind and hang off your neck, while at the same time a couple more children will hang off your arms and neck from the front. In this case, just say "leg em" very sternly and give a stern look. It means "Let Go"! Then say "no ti bo!" This will get them off you immediately, because they understand that you will not give out any more kisses until they let go of you.

3. If you ever dare to carry food through the toddler house, either hold it very tightly inside a bag or hide it securely under your clothes. The children can be very agressive when it comes to finding treats on volunteers and trust me, if they find your food you won't get to keep it. I once brought a cookie home from dinner at the main house and had to wrap it in a napkin and hide it just inside the waist of my pants, so even when the children molled me, they never found the cookie!

4. Beware of the rats! Yes, there are rats living at the toddler house. Apparently they live under the stairs and actually crawl up the stairs at night when it is dark. Although I have not yet seen them, I can hear them running around outside our room at night. We all sleep with flashlights beside our beds in case we need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Since the electricity is always off at night, we need our flashlights to scare off the rats, should they interrupt our journey to the bathroom. Only twice have I been brave enough to leave my room at night, and that was only because I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I was in extreme pain. Other than that I refuse to leave my room at night. We sleep with our door closed to keep out the rats and our window closed to keep out the bats, cockroaches and whatever else might decide to fly in. Trust me, even with the fan, it gets really hot in our room!

5. The guard is your friend. Even though he might look scary and he carries a gun, he's on our side. There are a couple guards that take shifts watching the toddler house. They're all very nice. Last night we even played a bit of soccer with our guard. Oh, and don't touch the guard dogs. They stink!

With these guidlines to prepare you for life in the toddler house, you should be well equiped to handle just about anything that comes your way! Good luck!