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! 

Shopping, Swahili and Swimming

On Thursday we took a trip to a local market. We have a tiny market by our house but the fruit and vegetables are not cheap compared to what you can get at the bigger markets. It was a ideal time to practice my Swahili, and I heard a few utterances about it, maybe because they knew they couldn't charge Mzungu price? They probably still did! 


Anyway, for under £4 I got 2 Tilapia fish, 15 baby bananas, 2 mangoes, a coconut, a lime, 3 green peppers, 13 tomatoes, 4 carrots, 2 onions, some weird sweet seed things and some spinach. A good amount of it was used in yesterday's cookery lesson which produced this delicious meal (I forgot to take the picture before we started to eat, there was a whole fried fish and everything!):

I have really made efforts with Swahili this week; the mobile phone network I am on here gives you 4 free texts a day so I have used them to text my teacher in Swahili. For a text without mistakes I am on about a 50% success rate at the moment, but the mistakes I have made are small! 


We are hoping to go swimming later, but as I write this the rain is loud and the thunder is rumbling. Fingers crossed the sun comes out as we had to cancel last week's trip due to the weather! We are going to take Big Babies... super cute. 

Please give generously!

Last year when I was here, a guy called Campo came to visit for a few days, he made a film about Forever Angels and it was shown at a dinner in London that was attended by lots of rich people (and me!) Anyway he brought with him some canvas and I made a pretty cool picture which had the handprints of all the babies and mamas. It went to auction at the dinner and sold for £400. I was sooo pleased!


Anyway he has been here this week to make another film, and he brought more canvas. Of course I was more than happy to produce more 'artwork' (ha ha, I am no artist) but hopefully another rich Londoner will purchase the pictures and raise more money so we can help all the beautiful babies and their families that I love so much. 


Here are the results of my efforts this time around! 

Today was a good day all round actually, we painted the Big Toddler's faces (using the Snazaroo book, they actually looked good, I wish I hadn't forgot my camera!) and then they walked to Ladson Lodge, had soda, came back and had great fun with a parachute.

Check out Campo's videos at http://www.foreverangels.org/index.php?source=videos/videos.html&transform=stylesheet.xsl&pageName=videos  

It's the little things that make you smile....

Rainy season has started, and therefore water and electricity supplies are unpredictable. Some of the other volunteers call me a princess, as I get stressed if my hair cannot be washed, dried and (most of the time) straightened as and when I want! Joking aside, it makes you appreciate what we have in England without even realising it. Here's my top ten little things, in no order, that have made me smile recently....note how none of them are grand, materialistic gestures...


1. Watching Lucas dance in excitement when he can walk by himself - then fall down as a result
2. Sharing a meal with a local family, in awe of the effort taken to cook it on charcoal
3. Observing the already forming bond between a child and her future mother
4. Cuddling a baby, getting caught in a maternal moment then realising they have fallen asleep
5. Walking down a street in Mwanza and feeling 'at home'
6. Hearing the kids wake up at 5am, and the first thing you hear is 'Mama Erika swimming!'
7. Being invited on a break with a mama to share a cup of hot, sugary, powdered milk 
8. Buying mango at the market for local price, not 'mzungu price'
9. Practising Swahili by text message and getting it right
10. Eating chips mayai with friends in the dark


It was 2 years ago today that I first came to Mwanza, and I loved it then but I love it ten times more now.