The first time I visited the disabled centre was unsurprisingly quite shocking. There are roughly 20 men in there with varying mentally and physically disabling conditions. Particularly unsettling was seeing some of the men locked up in a room behind bars. We have been told that the reason for some being locked inside is because they may harm the children in the orphanage which is in the same grounds as the centre, however, their manner and appearance seems anything but harmful.
So far we have been playing catch, drawing, singing and dancing with them and it is amazing to see how something as small as this can give them so much enjoyment and happiness. At first, the ones locked up were slightly reluctant to take part in the activities but today I got them to play catch with me. Hopefully they're getting used to us and enjoying us being there.
What shocked me the most, however, is the sanity of some of them, particularly a man who can speak very good English. Because of this, I feel it would be nice to give them something more challenging and sustainable for when we leave.
I think we can take inspiration from one of the men in there, a blind man who can whistle like no-one I have ever heard and who carves wooden spoons. Something like this that we could bring to the more able ones would be amazing so I think that's definitely something to work on in the coming weeks.
So far we have been playing catch, drawing, singing and dancing with them and it is amazing to see how something as small as this can give them so much enjoyment and happiness. At first, the ones locked up were slightly reluctant to take part in the activities but today I got them to play catch with me. Hopefully they're getting used to us and enjoying us being there.
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