Waboka Buti Wednesday

Day 16

Walking Wednesday returns! Today was a great day. Feeding class went really well in the morning sessions. I worked with Sibojean. He was very happy and at the end of the session we worked on sitting and he was able to do so without my support by the end of the session. I hope he continues to improved in the duration of time he can sit without aid. After our feeding sessions in the morning we went to Haven 1. I walked into a room and picked up the first baby that smiled at me. Her name is Leah. At first when I picked her up I was thinking her name was pronounced like Princess Leia from Star Wars, but then I realized this was not the case and quickly got over it.  She was very amused by me so we played and laughed the rest of the morning till it was time to head back for lunch.

For lunch today we had Beef enchiladas. After lunch I took a quick nap until it was time to head back to the Havens for afternoon therapy. Afternoon feeding class was a little rough today. We were in a room packed with crying babies and Dr. Weaver had to leave early for a meeting. So Shanna and I were doing C stretches with a baby on the floor while holding another one trying to calm them down. By the end of the session we were handing out our vibrating toys trying to appease the children.

After the feeding session I headed back over to Haven three to finish out the afternoon. I worked with Thomas at first. He still isn’t talking. It is starting to get frustrating. I also worked with Heath, who is the floppy baby. We had some tummy time, some muscle stretches, and we practiced reaching out arms out; trying to build some muscle in his floppy arms. The afternoon session always ends with snack time at Haven 3 so I put Heath back in his chair and interacted with Sydney as she ate. She is still the cutest baby.

On our way back to the Hamby House for dinner I practiced some Tonga words that I learned from Webster on some of the people here. I said, How are you? In Tonga,  the lady looked at me surprised and answered back in Tonga; overall, success, she understood. Then as we were walking across a bridge I noticed that a car was coming down the road and there was no place to stand out of the way so I yelled Zuza Zuza! (which means run run!)  And ran across the bridge. There were little Zambian school girls walking in front of us and then turned around and laughed at me. Success. I am very much enjoy learning new words and using them, and the people here enjoy teaching and hearing there language come out of a funny sounding American.

Most of us at dinner rather quickly so we could play soccer with the college students. It was an intense game of soccer. We didn’t play full field We had teams and one team would try to score for five mins and then the teams would switch and the other team would try to score, that way we weren’t running up and down the field the whole time. It was very enjoyable and a good way to get to know some of the college guys.

After playing soccer, I decided to go to the college bible study. The power went out so we had candles and flash lights. We sang songs and read scripture and a guy basically just guided a discussion over the scriptures. Near the end of the study he called me out and asked if I had anything to say. I really didn’t have anything to add, so I said I had nothing extra to add.

After devo I headed back to the Man house were everybody was hanging out. Most of the group say and talked and enjoyed the rest of the evening before we headed off to bed.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I am getting more and more comfortable working with babies and the new skills I have been learning. I thank God for all the great work he does through us here. God is good.

Thank you

Ben