Happy Thanksgiving!

Living in an international household (currently English, American and German) conversations often arise about differences... for example, cupboard or closet? Dummy or pacifier? Autumn or fall? (obviously I choose the former in each of these cases!) 


Thanksgiving has been mentioned for a while, and my American friends have been getting more and more excited as the fourth Thursday of November drew nearer. I confess to often not being very worldly, and had to 'Google' Thanksgiving, as to me it was just an extra Christmas dinner, and an episode in Friends where Joey puts a turkey on his head. Anyway, now I know it's a little more than that... it is a harvest festival, a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. 


The day started with a note under my door from Cacey, saying Happy Thanksgiving and how thankful we should all be to be sharing this experience. The dining room had been adorned with American flags and hats thanks to creative Izzy, and already water was boiling to make room for our hundred dishes later. It was 8:20am... and then the power went out. And decided not to return for 14 hours. 


This is Tanzania remember?! 


Anyway the whole day involved a lot of activity, the kids made turkeys from their handprints, which now hang proudly in the Baby Home, cooking vanilla pancakes (which the ants invaded, curse them) and enjoying a huge feast of food by candlelight, all of which had been cooked on a hob (stove!). 


It does call for some reflection. I am thankful for family, friends, my best friend here, babies who give amazing cuddles, water, electricity, mango trees, candles and fundis. 


I will leave you with this picture taken a couple of days after Thanksgiving. We had (another!) party at the house. There was a big ball in town, but we chose to have a party of our own and I wore a dress that I have had made here. Cute isn't it!!! 

The serious business

Granted, lots of days here are filled with fun and laughter and it's hardly comparable to a working day in the office at home. I am a very lucky girl. Volunteers come here and say 'but the kids are all so happy and healthy' because they are now, and it is difficult to remember sometimes that all these children have a story about how they came to live at the Baby Home. 


However, the last couple of days here have been emotionally challenging, and it's times like this I sit in awe of Amy, as what I experienced was about a millionth of what Amy deals with on a daily basis. 


A few days ago I went on my daily visit to Tiny Babies. I was pulling stupid faces at Briton and out of the corner of my eye I saw a little china doll staring upwards. This little girl is 6 weeks old, skinny as anything but with the softest hair and the biggest eyes. She had been in hospital since birth with her mother who is sick. Amy came across her mum crying in a room as her milk had dried up and therefore she could not feed her baby, but she was being discharged and had nowhere to go. 


Amy took her under the 'Forever Angels wing' and now the mother lives close by and is trying to rest and get better, safe in the knowledge that her baby is being fed and cared for nearby. 


Anyway my job in all this was to take the mother to hospital yesterday, and obtain all her medical cards and medicines. Again, just a small thing really, but as I sat in the nurses room I was thinking about how many stories there are like this and despite the fact I feel I know the baby home inside out there is so much more in the 'bigger picture' that I want to get to know, and maybe through all this I'll find out what I can/want to do when I eventually leave this place I call home?


On top of all this, I made a number of trips back and forth to the hospital to take some gifts. A container is coming from the UK in a matter of days and there are a lot of used, unwanted toys, nappies and clothes in the attic that need to be moved. We managed to fill 150 carrier bags and took them to the children's wards of the hospital. 


We didn't stop and chat, we just went in, explained we had gifts for the children and handed them out. It was crazy... mamas were chasing us down the corridor for a gift, and in one room that held 8 beds there were about 29 patients. We saw awful suffering along the way, but it wasn't until I got home that I really thought about it. There was an albino child with a deep open head wound the size of my palm. There was a child with all her head, neck, arms and calves burnt and infected. There was a mother screaming in the corridor as her child was being rushed away. There was a toddler the size of a newborn baby and had literally not a gram of fat on him (think of those famous Oxfam adverts). I'm sure there are terrible stories of pain in England, but throw in the poor hygiene of the place, the length of time you have to be in hospital to get anything done and the fact that you have to share your bed with up to five other children and it just makes you think a lot about a lot of things. 


Throw in today's post about Shalom and Charles (read it yourself at www.foreverangels.org) and collectively it just made for a few days of deep thought. Keep these babies, mamas and families in your thoughts, especially when you think life is hard there....

How many fun activities can you do with children?

I'm really not a naturally creative or imaginative person; I was always the one with the mathematical / logical expertise. So when it comes to planning things to do with under fives every day, I have struggled to think of enough exciting things to do. 


However, I have learned over the past couple of weeks that the gestures don't have to be grand - you can have kids running amok looking for orange leaves, excited at the prospect of getting a sweet as a reward, you can let a child jump on a trampoline for 10 minutes, you can play russian roulette with Angel Delight (I had THIRTY TWO kids in silence for half an hour doing this!!), you can get some musical instruments and just let them make as much noise as they like. It's all much better than aimlessly wandering round the garden, pushing children to the floor as you go. 


Here are some pics from a few recent activities:

Note there are no swimming pictures!!! (pulls sad face) I was determined to go today but mother nature had other ideas. We were unsure about the weather, but we decided to try our luck anyway. We got all the shoes out then decide it's too cold and we should head to the beach instead. We got all the shoes and hats on the children (all 16 of them) and then the thunder starts. We decide the beach is a bad idea and we should head to a restaurant 2 minutes down the road. THEN the rain starts pouring it down! Not having the heart to take shoes off the feet of 16 one and two year olds, I decide we are going regardless and get a taxi driver to ship up back and forth in his car! It was a nice afternoon, the kids got to run around and the mamas were compensated for the lack of swimming by plates of chips and soda. 


It has been a good week. Tomorrow we are taking a more serious turn and taking gifts of clothes and nappies to a local hospital... fingers crossed.

Goodbye Angel!

All volunteers have their little favourites... mine has gone a little bit too far and the mama's call certain kids 'mtoto wako' (your child) and yes I've often played along and said 'ah mtoto wangu!' (ah my child!) as it's an excuse to get extra cuddles from my favourite babies! 

Today one of 'watoto wangu' (my children) left today, to go and live in the south of Tanzania with her adoptive mum and dad. I had met the mama a few days earlier... Angel was being her usual clingy/cuddly self and as I was trying to help with snack I took out a kanga and tied her to my back. After snack Moses led the pack in getting on their hands and knees and pretending to be a dog, so I, with Angel still tied to my back, was doing the same as a mama walked into the garden. The manager told me the lady was here to see Angel... I blushed as I jumped slowly got up, said Shikamoo (respectful greeting to elders), untied Angel, and handed her to her very nice mama. 

We know when children are going to be adopted of course, but the day itself comes without warning so the day I discovered Angel was leaving I ran to the Baby Home to spend my final hours with her. I would have done anything to follow all the adoption rules to finally take Angel home; I have seen her go from an ugly little baby (sorry!) to a beautiful little girl, but now she has a mama and baba who I know will love and care for her like a princess... and Angel is a princess!!

Here are pics of our time together, old and new....

Goodbye Angel... I love you. 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween happened to fall on a weekend this year, handy as at the weekends the kids have so little to do apart from run around the garden and ask me too many awkward questions (well Zawadi does!)

I really hate Halloween at home, I have never partaken in any activity of the Halloween kind. However when Jade (a returning volunteer) came up with a party schedule I of course got involved and it was fantastic! The kids carved 'pumpkins' (come on, this is Africa, it was a watermelon painted orange), decorated cookies, dressed up, had their faces painted, ate doughnuts from strings, had feely bags, went bowling, listened to Halloween stories and ate way too many sweets. But it was a blooming good day. 

For Bonfire Night, the busiest woman in the world (AKA Amy Hathaway) decided she was bored (!) and held a bonfire party, which was lovely. We all brought jacket potato fillings and had a good meal followed by marshmallows toasted over the bonfire. Again, this is Africa, so instead of fireworks Amy's kids threw glowsticks in the air repeatedly!!!! 

I actually like Halloween/Bonfire Night this year! 

5 things that have made me cry today...

1. Watching 2 year old Evie sing 'Happy Birthday to you, Bob the Builder can we fix it, Happy Birthday to you, yes we can' (yes in that order), then watching Wakuru, aged 14 months copy her!
2. Getting confirmation of my flight back to the UK and my flight back out here 3 weeks later!
3. Receiving a text message from my teacher saying how she misses me!
4. Discovering Bakerella website, looking at the mouthwateringly real pictures and wondering what type of cake to cook first!
5.. Listening to Antony and the Johnsons, after I have waited 30 minutes for a song to download!


I should also mention Maggie here. On numerous occasions she has made me cry with laughter this week. She has a terrible habit of taking her nappy off and running away bare bottomed - one day it got too much so I sat her on the naughty chair, looked at her at eye level and started to tell her how she cannot keep taking her nappy off. She looked my straight in the eye, smiled and started to sing 'the good morning train is coming how are you choo choo!!' 


So all good tears, but tears all the same!!! Here is the beautiful Wakuru...

xxxx

Swimming, Shopping, Sermons and Storms!

This past week has flown by. Here you don’t work Monday to Friday, then get the weekend off, so the weeks just pass by without you barely noticing. I have been here for four months next week!

Anyway, we had to cancel last week’s swimming trip due to the rain (it’s a Saturday theme it seems!) but we have made up for it this week. We took Big Babies swimming on Wednesday, and Big Toddlers on Thursday. This was not without problem though... clever me forgot to take the towels and it started to rain before the children were ready to come home!

This week I have also (re)discovered shopping! My friend took me to Mlango Mmoja, basically a clothes market. Apparently, as I have lost weight, all my clothes now make me look fat and scruffy and I have to look smart! We wandered round the market for a good couple of hours, and as most places had no mirrors I relied on her judgment as to whether to buy something or not. She clearly knows me well, as I did buy a number of items and once I got home I tried them all on and they fit and suited me... asante sana rafiki!

I also went to church last Sunday (and the Sunday before actually!). I love all the singing and dancing, and though I am not really a religious person I am living in a country where religion is important, and actually it puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day. The two churches I have been to have been very different – one is situated in a hotel, has a projector so you can join in the (English and Swahili) songs and holds around 100 people, the other is in a huge building with curtains for walls, is in only Swahili, has a dodgy radio for songs and holds around 800 people. Either way, it’s an experience... and good Swahili practice! AND... actually, if I am honest, sometimes it’s interesting!

Last thing... the rain has arrived. It’s unpredictable (to say it rains in the morning only is a lie), and therefore the power and roads are unpredictable also. It has ruined a number of plans... and a couple of pairs of shoes. If anyone wants to email me some ideas for indoor activities with under fives I’d be grateful.

I leave you with pictures of today’s birthday party!