Troubles at the orphanage

I arrived at the orphanage to discover that Umesh, an older kid who I entrusted the supply closet key to, was sent to the hospital. I tried to find a staff member to find out what happened, but for the 4th day in a row, nobody was around.
So I had no way to conduct my class again.

They say that this is how things work here, it's part of the culture, but I don't live here. I could be traveling somewhere else. It was my choice to stay and help these kids, but I'm not getting the support I need.

Then things started to get out of control. The first thing some kids did when they saw me was to drag me into a store and ask me to buy them candy. When I said no, and one of the kids pulled out a huge wad of bills from his pocket - where did he get the money from? Then they got very upset and refused to talk to me for the rest of the day.

I played basketball with some of them for a while, then I decided that at least I could have them make the eyes for the masks. That was my first mistake - thinking that I could handle them without a Mongolian speaking teacher. Then they went out of control, running all over the place, looting the supply room and eventually destroying each other's masks. At that point, I promptly ended the class and left.

I guess it was a good learning experience, and I really shouldn't be getting upset at kids – I was exactly the same when I was little – and think of the lives these kids have had. After calming down, I realized that it's not about what I want to do or what goals I want to acheive, but it's whether the kids have a good time or not. So the masks got destroyed, but at least they got to do something different and express their creativity instead of sitting in their ger watching TV or roaming the streets. I'm going to adjust my mindset and go back tomorrow with a different method and direction of doing things. One thing for sure - I will make sure a Mongolian speaking teacher is present when I have my class (if I'm able to have it at all.)