?Journal Entry 1: Pre-Volunteer Expectations There are times in everyone life when the person introspects himself and wish to do something for the happiness and satisfaction of soul. I also had such moment and then a thought of doing something for the good cause evolved in me. I wanted to do something selflessly for someone and help the society which eventually will satiate my soul and give me peace. I joined an organization which helps poor children by providing them education and teach them to cope up with life as an orphan. Government provides them support but that is not enough. In my view, they need more care and a guide who can hold their hand and show them the right path. My part of betterment of society would include teaching computers to such students. I feel that computer education is necessary for everyone in current times and thus by utilizing my skills and utter dedication towards helping the needy people, I would teach them to stand face to face with the current technological needs. I am seriously excited about my involvement in the society. Helping someone selflessly and seeing that you can be of value to someone is truly satisfying. The thing which my soul is seeking is the happiness, the sparkle of achievement in the eyes of those children when they would gain knowledge and would be able to make their life worthwhile. Though, I am nervous too about the extent by what I will be able to provide what they seek from me. Every person has expectations and even those students would have some expectations from me. I wish to fulfill their expectations and want to support them and affect their lives in a positive way. This experience will help me too and give me a chance to explore the horizons of society. I would be able to expand my world and learn about my own limits by which I can be worth in a society. This would also give me a chance to experience the life, the experiences and everything what those orphans have faced. It would take me to their world which surely would make me a person who would be sensitive and would see the world in a better way. Journal Entry 2: Initial Reactions Thinking about volunteering and helping the needy people is one thing and helping in reality is a different world altogether. The expectations, the thoughts and the planning would help, but only to an extent as the things are totally different on paper and in actual. Before I started volunteering my thought was that I would just go and teach computers to the children and they would simply learn things as it happens in the school. Well, it did not happen this way. I was really shocked and amazed by the way things turned up. I never actually gave a thought that an orphanage is not a school and it is a different world where each child lives in his or her own mini world too. It is easy to deal with the children who came to orphanage when they were infants though, the children who came to orphanage after few years of start of their lives, it is really difficult and not a normal task. They all carry some emotional baggage which may be because of their past memories or the things which have happened in their lives before. Teaching them straight is not the way it was expected. It was like a challenge standing in front of me to connect myself emotionally to them and be their friend, which will help them be comfortable with me and learn what I intend to teach them. I needed to make a place for myself in their lives, their hearts and then have a connection which would act like a bridge between us. Journal Entry 3: Delving into the Culture An orphanage is a place where happiness is not seen a lot of times. The children are emotionally insecure and always look for solace through someone or something. The children from different kinds of societies, regions and countries stay in orphanage. Again, this difference is inexistent in the children who came here when they were infants as whatever they learned has been through the orphanage only. But, there are some children who are from various pa