Sunday 19 July 1998

12.15 pm

Just had 5 hours of the normal from 7 o’clock this morning! Mass was a relaxing escape. Ramona has the most beautiful singing voice! She leads all the songs. I got peed on a lot today. There is a bug going round the kids which has the unfortunate effect of making them even more incontinent than they already are. I was trying to get people to talk today. Monica seems incapable, but Maria learnt my name. We think the illness might be serious now as Maricica is in hospital now with life-threatening Hepatitis.

There is an old woman at the home - the one Grandmother. She is absolutely horrible and terrifies the children especially the normal ones. I can’t work out if she is off her trolley or not. She is always round me though, kissing my hands at every opportunity. Today she wanted my food so I gave some to her and she was delighted. She ran off cackling and sucking on a pickled cucumber. She came back to kiss me again and again with tears streaming down her screwed up face. She kept counting to me in German and waffling on about something adamantly, as if it had great significance. She is really old so I avoid her as much as possible.

7.35 pm

What a lovely day - definitely the best so far. It has been scorchingly hot - hotter than England ever gets anyway. In my break I went out into the garden and found a scrappy bit of grass to sunbathe on and listen to the beatles between the corn and the potatoes. I was good (-all parents and surrogate parents) and put suncream on religiously. Ramona was around and invited me to a pool with a friend of hers but, of course, I was working in the afternoon. She and I ate Apricots from the tree which was lovely.

I then had to get myself dressed up again in long jeans etc., as it is a Sunday and head back to the orphanage in the scorching heat. I was looking forward to an afternoon in the shade indoors for my shins sake, but when I turned up they were taking all the children outside in swimming costumes to play in their new pool. It was brilliant fun. It was a real event for the children, some of whom screamed non-stop at every terrifying drop of water and others who plunged straight in. It was brilliant!

There was a really fun atmosphere. Sister Francesca was around and started mucking about spraying all of us with water and trying to push us in the pool. Soon we were all running about screaming. With a nun in her full sari it was quite a funny sight. You don’t expect such calm religious people to start wetting the children - it was brilliant! We had so much fun. It didn’t take long before I was in the water and with 15-20 screaming splashing children I didn’t stay dry for long. My jeans and top were wet through to everyone’s amusement. Soon the helpers were in the pool and making me wetter still.

(flashback for my family - there is a song playing in the next room that I think you will remember all too well from Greece last year - “time to say goodbye” - that awful warbling song that was repeated again and again when we were in the last bay! - I wonder if you are near there now)

So much for my respectable Sunday wear - I should have been in shorts. Luckily I had brought clean clothes for the shower I have just had and thoroughly enjoyed - I feel so clean!. As we ended up staying outside by the pool all afternoon, I am now a little red and have a very noticeable watch mark. I was hoping to go brown slowly which would last. Oh well, Anyway it was a fun, fabulous afternoon and I also heard that Lisa is definitely going to arrive on Tuesday! Supper at the orphanage was interesting - Spine and Cabbage Soup! Yum.