14 glucose buscuits later...

Our volunteering at CBR has been demanding and frustrating, but equally rewarding as the week progressed. Before we instituted positive reinforcement, these teachers simply babysat and gave attention for misbehaving. The children would get hit or simply dragged to where the adults wanted them to go... they had no opportunity to gain control of their own actions.
We have seen one student progress; he was always physically held down by the adults due to his extreme hyperactivity. We watched him get hit by the teachers, and also the other kids. These kids constantly hit each other because that is what is modeled for them! A few days ago we found that he would run after a balloon, so we started to give him the balloon when he was sitting with the group or even remotely participating. Needless to say he is now very dependent on the balloon for his behavior, but at least he has some control over his own actions! We are trying to explain to the teachers that he should be weened off slowly from receiving immediate rewards, and that it will take time; however, due to both the language barrier and the absolute unfamiliarity of positive reinforcement for children, it is difficult to really get through to the adults.
There was one girl (L) who always asked for a balloon, but always when she was misbehaving. She did not understand that the balloon was a reward for when the other child acted correctly. We went to the nearby VSN home to get some translations for "You only receive a reward if you act well." We have repeated that, making it our Nepali mantra at the daycare center, and the didis/teachers have started to catch on!
Yesterday morning, L requested a balloon as soon as we arrived. In our best Nepali, we asked, "What do you like?" and she pointed to a yellow star drawn on a piece of paper. We asked her to sit down (in Nepali), and when she did, we immediately gave her a piece of paper with a yellow star. Soon, all of the kids at the daycare were requesting yellow stars, and we only gave them to people who followed our directions. It caught on really well; we finally discovered a sustainable reward system for CBR! The teachers even began to catch on after a few hours and we caught some didis actually rewarding positive behavior with a yellow star! All we did was carry around yellow markers and draw more stars on the pieces of paper, so simple, yet it meant so much to these kids. They finally were receiving attention for being good rather than bad.
After CBR, we went to the VSN children’s home nearby and had a music night with them. We all had so much fun, teaching them American songs and learning Nepali songs. There are 31 kids in that one home, but they are all so incredible. The managers there are some of the coolest people we’ve met, college graduates from Nepal spending twenty-four hours a day as fathers to 31 children. We are having a great time, trying to make a difference at CBR, and learning a lot from the Nepalis here!