Thumbs Up Thusday

Day 10

It’s Thumbs Up Thursday! This is a very exciting day that involves always having your thumbs up in all pictures taken throughout the day, and also trying to get the toddlers at the Havens to participate in thumbs up Thursday. This day was somewhat successful compared to walking Wednesday. Today we found out that walking from where we stay to the Havens is 1.55 miles. That means we are walking around 6 miles a day if  you don’t ride in Kaki Jackie. Pretty exciting.

I thought therapy today went much better than yesterday. For the toddler session in the morning we had chairs for them to sit in which made it much easier to control them and it provided them with more structure, something they are not use to, and we also worked with the children as they played on the playground there at the Haven. After working with the toddlers we went to Haven 1. I continued to work with Miller. He is a little boy that I have been working with the past few days and hadn’t said much at all but today we made huge progress. He started talking and babbling all sorts of stuff. It was very rewarding.  So he received the “Most 

improved award”

Which reminds me, Kara brought up that I like making up awards for the children, and this is true. Today Miller received the “Most improved award” Lee received the “Cutest Sweater Award” (It had a t-rex on it) This one child won the “Wet pants Award” (She peed three times during our first morning session) and Sydney won the “Cutest Baby Award” She so far has one every day since I met her, because she is the cutest thing in her oversized sweatshirt one-zee. She has not been beat. That is all for today, I will try to think of different awards as I go along.

Today for lunch we had a traditional African meal. We had Shema (not sure on spelling) It is a very popular traditional meal here in Zambia. It is very bland and tasteless. I was told about it before the trip and had very low expectations for it, but it ended up not tasting as bad as I would have imagined from what I had heard from other people. And we put this delicious tomato sauce with onions over the top of it and white rice. It wasn’t too bad at all. Chicken and rolls and cabbage where also served with the meal. I personally am a fan. I thought it was a great meal, but not everyone agreed and had my enthusiasm.

The last part of our afternoon was spend working in Haven 3 again. I found out that 3 babies for sure in that haven cry or get fussy when they see me, Bennet, Leo, and Matt. Matt is the worst of all and will start to cry when he sees me. I have never felt so rejected in my life! Haha just kidding. The girls tell me it’s because they never see men in the Haven, but I think they just tell me that so I’ll feel better. : )  

After therapy some of us walked back and then we all had dinner. Today was much cooler out than the other days. I think it’s finally going to start their Zambian winter. Tonight the power went off so it was a perfect time to go stargazing. The stats here are truly amazing, I love seeing the Milkyway, and shooting stars. I spend a majority of my evening gazing at the sky. God is good.

Thank you

Ben