Last Day at Rourkela

We're only hours away until we leave our Rourkela orphanage and head to the Bhawani orphanage. I wanted to give you a view of the orphanage grounds, so here you are.


Here is a shot from the back of the main building. The house mothers live there and there are a couple of meeting rooms. The roof has been repaired recently but is still a bit fragile, as we found out during a soccer game when someone kicked the ball up there and a shingle fell off.


We're still in the back of the orphanage grounds here, with the kids living quarters and bathrooms right behind us. The AMD computer lab is also right behind this shot. The field where the kids play Bulldog, soccer and other games is in the back of the shot.


This shot is a bit more to the right of the last one and you can see where the children's clothes are hung and laid out to dry. The well is right there too. The walls surrounding the orphanage are probably 15 feet high.


That door right in front of the shot is the door to the computer lab and the entrance to the infant's room is right around the corner from that. Looking further down the path, the bathrooms are on the right and the well is on the left.


Here we have the main path leading up to the house mother's building. The path runs right underneath that colored covering.The playing field is directly to my right.


Right here is the sand pit, slide and swing. I think I've seen upwards of ten children on that swing at one time. They love to climb all over it. They also somehow manage to fit five or six of them on the slide at one time too. The older kids can stand on top of the slide and shoot right down it on two feet.


This is the side of the grounds opposite the playing field. Just some clothes hanging and vehicle storage.


Finally, we have the main red entrance to the orphanage. People go in and out of a small opening in it and it's only fully opened for cars. There is a big Sunday market going on right outside those gates today.

And there is a quick look at the Rourkela orphanage. It's sweltering hot right now as I type this. My hands are sticky, I've foregone any chance of staying clean at this place and I go through two shirts a day. I usually sweat through one by about noon. On the plus side, the cold showers here are fantastic!