On the last post I was talking about nannies didn’t have a lot of patience by punished a group of people when a fraction of them broke rules. We didn’t always get group punishment if we broke the rules. Still, there were harsh punishments or criticizes if we broke or has fallen on short of what they wanted.
As I mentioned earlier in other posts, we had to take nap from 11-2, which is 5 hours after waking up time. When I came to the orphanage, the punishment was harsh. You either were being ordered to stay in bed to 3 ~ 3:30, or drink 1 and 1/2 cups of water at once. If you are being ordered to stay in bed at 3, you don't get to eat fruits or goodies that other get to eat. I had extremely hard times to follow the rule because I never had to take a nap before when I lived with my foster family and I disliked the rule, still I did try to follow that rule by staying as late as I can at night. To fill my times, I would talk with others, playing card games with others, and playing by myself. Still, that wasn't an option. We were not allowed to talk past their bedtime, which is usually around 8, and sometimes it was even earlier. For most nannies, we would just get scolded if we talk, but not always. When I first came to the orphanage, a nanny would tell me harshly to put my thick blanket over my head for a long time for just being wide awake, not necessarily doing other stuff. Sometimes I took off because I couldn’t breathe. When she saw that, she ordered me again with to put my thick blanket over my head again. The other nannies didn’t go against her order or asked me if I’m alright. When she was on duty, we couldn't go to the bathroom at all after we went to bed. The other nannies follow her orders very well. I once tried to go to the bathroom without getting caught but failed. The nanny would set the rule got so mad that she kicked me. I got very scared. Still, I never learned how to hold it until the morning. Overtimes, I became less scared and care less about these rules because I did not understand why they make these rules.
Some nannies' rules are so strict that I wasn't a good kid in their eyes, thus they watch us more carefully. For examples, during one night SNN, MWB, and I were talking and got caught by a nanny for many times in a short amount of times, and she exploded after few times. When she left, we criticized her for how has she been treating the kids. In the morning, she was still mad at us. When SNN and MWB left, she told me, "You are so bold (by not following my rules) ... You don't deserve my pity care for you." I thought, "I don't need you pity care for me anyway." She never put a lot of times on me anyway. Another way for them to show their view of me is when they and I saw a kid who never rebel, they would say to me something like, “he/she is a good kid. A good kid is always a good kid.” In other words, I’m bad kid in their eyes because I don’t always do what they follow.
Another strict rule that was set during 2008- late 2011 was we must be silence most of the times during the day. One time is nanny warned us we must drink 1½ cups of water if we talked. I immediately warned the other kids, thus I talked, but only a sentence. She got mad and punished me. I thought that was way over done because I only talked for a few seconds, but nobody said anything against her.
When the supervisor was on duty during the weekday, we must drink 1/2 cups of water every half hours because she thinks drinking water is very important. This made me go to the bathroom every 5-10 minutes. The nannies, who didn't have to drink that much water, for some reason questioned what was wrong with me.
When we at school, each of us must carry 24 oz. of water to school and be finished before we came to the orphanage. One day, when the nannies to check our water bottle, they found that GYC's water bottle was full. Everybody knows that GYC is very well behaved and rarely argue with nannies. The kids also know that she had refilled the water bottle when she finished drinking it. The nannies for some reason didn't even look surprised nor did they asked GYC why it wasn't empty, instead, she was ordered to finish the water in her bottle all at once so the supervisors could go home.
Nannies sometimes will use violence to make us behave. One time, a kid kept talking, they lost patience and throw their shoes at that kids. Other times during the night, when I was talking, a nanny slapped my face and told me to go to sleep. I was very surprised that she did that because she usually was very gentle to us.
It’s hard for most of the children to have a great or close bond with the nannies. If they mess up a little bit, the nannies snap at them hard. Most of the children are afraid to speak up against the nannies, so the children who got nannies mad didn’t get the comfort they need. Most of the times the children and other nannies would join the nannies who snap at the children. Overtime, I noticed many children in my area are being looked down at by other people when I couldn’t see the horrible things about them. I made friends with some of them and now I’m glad to know them! Unfortunately, I didn’t comfort all of them and there are still hundreds, maybe thousands, of children who are being beat up and look down at.
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