Hello everyone,
I hope everything is great where you are. Nice of you to stop by my blog...
Haha anyway! This morning Ashley, Annelise, and I did our monitor shift in Baby B from 6am-noon. It was pretty easy monitoring them, because most of them are pretty independent, so they usually just play by themselves, not needing too much extra help by the mama's. So we definitely didn't write down as much as we did with the newborns when we monitored them. The biggest issue though that we noticed (and it's been noticed before...practically every day)was how TIRED most of them get during their morning playtime! It's bad. One by one, the babies just slooooowwwllyyyy start noooodddiinnggg offfff. Haha yes, it's hilarious to see adorable 1 year olds sitting up and gradually drooping to sleep, while there is complete chaos going on around them, BUT it's not what should be happening.
The kids need more sleep. And the mama's idea is that if they fall asleep during playtime, when it's nap time (also known as the workers and volunteer's breaktime), they won't fall asleep. So the mama's will actually WAKE THEM UP if they're falling asleep before they're "supposed to". Now I know I'm not a mom, but I DO know that when I was that age, I was at least taking two naps. At LEAST! So, we finished up the monitoring tonight, and will present it to the coordinators tomorrow. And after one more monitoring session on Tuesday (Baby C), we'll be ready to make more efficient and personalized schedules, where the individual child will be more the top priority, rather than the smoothness of the orphanage's "everyone is the same" schedule.
So!
After my shift was over, I came upstairs to relax for a bit before helping with dinner and getting the kids ready for bed. I had a good conversation on MSN messenger with mama, read through most of 1st Samuel (which by the way- is awesome. If anyone else is like me and sometimes has trouble with getting into the Old testement, this is a great book about obedience.), and got some "food" in my belly. Which by the way, I'm feeling almost normal today! So tomorrow I should be close to perfect.
Today, some of us girls put a little bit of money together to buy 2 of the mama's a massage! The hotel across the street from Amani has a lady that gives great massages, so we wanted to treat a couple of the sweetest and hardest working mama's we know.
They were ecstatic. Seriously, you would have thought we were giving them a million dollars or something! When they came back, they were so thankful, and giggling about how they had to "take off and take off clothes" in order to get the massage. Haha, I'm sure it was a little awkward for them at first, but they loved it. It's all about simple pleasures here, I keep thinking about the kid I saw the second day in Jinja with the tire and a stick, rolling it down the road. I wish America had that mentality sometimes...
After being upstairs for a bit, I headed downstairs to see get the kids ready for dinner. And ooooooh were they ready. Dinner here is insane. Sometimes watching how fast these babies eat, I wonder if someone told them that if they don't eat in under 5 minutes flat, someone's going to take it away from them! Most of them inhale their dinner, while others would rather just play in it :D
I got to put Baby B to bed alone tonight, which has actually become my favorite task. The kids are incredibly happy after dinner and their bath, and SO adorable in their pajamas!!! And of course, I love the looks I get when putting their clothes on. Ah. Melt muh heart.
Once the 9 were all in bed and I got their mosquito nets on, I mumbled Nkwagala and trucked back upstairs, saying goodnight to the mamas.
On my way to our rooms, I walked by Ashley, who was still getting Baby C ready for bed. She was SURROUNDED by about 5 staff members, so I was wondering if anything was wrong. I walked over to them, to see that she had brought down her iTouch! All the workers were in complete awe by the technology. Haha so I left them to hang out. Apparently, she has a date with all of them (well, probably just them and her iTouch) at 9:00 tonight, once the kids are complely asleep. Haha, hilarious. They're super excited to get to mess with it some more later tonight.
Oh! Today, after we turned in our first monitor data to Siouxanne, she came upstairs and told us that she was giving us all Saturday off. Usually, we have a "project" (usually consisting of cleaning a bunch of toys, that kind of stuff), and we take the kids on an outing. But she said since we had worked so hard this week (having two 24 hour monitors while working our regular schedules), that she was nixing the entire day's activities. Which I'm excited to get to get a little extra sleep, but I would've been fine either way, since Saturdays still aren't too hard here.
BUT, with that in mind, the girls are all going Bungee jumping over the Nile on Saturday! Haha, well, a few of them. Call me what you want, but I probably will pass on this little adventure... but I'll be there to take tons of pictures and laugh with they all wet themselves of fear before they take the plunge. Hah, it will be interesting, and I'm sure they'll have some great stories. But hey, I'll have the pictures :) So that should be a blast. After that, Siouxanne's driving us all to "The gas station" to get dinner. Apparantly they have amazing American-style burgers and fries, so I'm excited to see what it's like.
**Sidenote: So we have these 2 guard dogs that are here at the compound from about 6pm to 7am, and they legitimately sound like tornado sirens. It's the most obnoxious and most real-sounding alarm I've ever heard! I wonder if I can record it sometime on my camera.... otherwise, I'm not sure if you will actually believe how real sounding and L O U D these dogs are. But anyway, just a side note, because there must have been an animal or something in the yard and they just "sounded the call". So I thought I'd tell you all, that yes, I am protected by two loud hounds- and a nightguard. :)**
Anyway, that's all for now. Tomorrow I'm on laundry duty/float, so after we finish hanging up all the laundry, I'll probably head over to Baby B, or whereever isn't covered. I have toddlers in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading this LOOOOOONG entry, and thanks again for the prayers.
God is faithful.
Love,
Linds
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