Wilderness Walking Wednesday

Day 23

Today was another great day working here in Africa. This morning in our language class Kara basically sprung the idea of me leading the session. I was not prepared, but I read a few books to the group and then handed it off to my class mates to sing songs and interact. The children were better behaved today than yesterday. There was less crying and more participating, which is always good. Today I worked with Lee who was in a good mood during the entire session, which was awesome. During or time on the play group I took some pictures of the kids playing and I also got some footage of Lenny covering her head and legs in dirt/sand. I don’t know why she was doing this, I just figured she was being a kid, so I sat next to her and played in the sand as well, but I did not rub it all over myself.

During our next session in the morning I got the opportunity to work with Megan and Miller, these two are probably my favorites to work with during this time. They both seem to listen to what I say and enjoy playing with me. Today I thought up a new song to sing to them. It goes to “The wheels on the bus” and it goes like this. The babies in the Haven go…Da da da and so then ends with, all day long. Then proceed with ba ba ba, ma ma ma, na, na, na, wa, wa, wa, basically whatever ever you want to throw in there. The kids seemed to catch on quick because it is so repetitive. It was fun. Megan is getting better at walking; Miller continues to talk more every day. God is good.

On our way back to the Hamby house for lunch Ashley, Tessa, and I were walking. I was walking about 8 feet ahead of them on the road, and they were walking together behind me. I hear a rustle in the grass and keep walking, but about a second later I hear two screams and I turn around to see them both running towards/past me! Apparently they saw a snake. Tessa said she just saw the back of it, and Ashley says she saw the head. Ashley claims it was a cobra, (a golden colored one) but according to 13 year 364 day old African snake expert (Ian) he says it was just a harmless African garden snake. I have to say, I think I would rather side with Ian on this one.

What made this experience even better is that on the way back Ian lead us a different way back to the Havens which is even quicker, but we have to cross through a corn field, and right before we started walking through it Ian says, “Corn fields are where most people die from Mamba attacks.”  I was laughing, I thought it was pretty funny, however Ashley and Tessa were both scared. It was a great walk.

Our afternoon sessions went really well. I got to work with Sydney again today! We had so much fun. While I was working with Sydney I sometimes interacted with a child named Bennet. He is one of the funniest kids. He is a very smart baby, and will imitate almost any face, sound or motion. It was pretty entertaining. Sydney was great today. We are closer to saying Ben. She has the /b/ and the /n/. Unfortunately constant endings at her age are pretty hard, so I decided I would settle with Bena, by getting her to say, “be be be and na na na” So productive. She was talking up a storm today though and it was hard to say bye today. I ended up saying bye to her three different times. It’s going to be hard to leave her. I was able to change my profile picture to a picture of Sydney and me. We have the same face. For some reason she always looks like a deer in the head lights when you pull out the camera, but other times she smiles. O well.

After therapy we walked back for dinner. After dinner I went to a student bible study held at the college only to find out that it was cancelled because there was a guest speaker speaking at the church. This guest speaker happens to be the two guys that arrived yesterday from Harding, so I was a little disappointed that I missed out on an African devotional, but I’m very thankful that I went to the one last week. The devotional was still good. At the end we were dismissed but nobody moved and we were confused but a few seconds later it was apparent that they were waiting for us to leave the building first! A new cultural lesson learned!

Thank you

Ben

Terror to Terrific Tuesday

Day 22

Terror Tuesday. Today during our morning session the toddlers were in fact terrible. They each took turns crying and throwing fits. Our morning session was not pleasant. After working with the toddlers we headed to Haven 1. Today I got to work with Megan. We worked on how not to cry or whine when wanting something. We also spent some time walking around. She is getting more confident when walking which is good. Hopefully she will be able to walk by herself by the time we leave.

For lunch today we had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. It was quite delicious and I went back of seconds. During lunch we talked about what we wanted to do in Livingstone while we are there part of next week for our “African Vacation” Some of us are very excited to go, others of us are hesitant because we want to spend as much time with the babies as possible.

Our afternoon sessions went much better. Today I got to work with my favorite child. Today I decided I was going to adopt her. Just kidding. Today when I went to go get Sydney she sat up in her bed and raised her arms with a big smile. “Well if you insist” I thought in my head. We had lots of fun today working on our sounds. Today Megan, a worker at the Havens from America explained to me why Sydney always wears a warm onesie. Apparently she has always been a smaller baby, and here in Africa they think smaller babies need to be kept warmer so that is why she is always bundled up. So after Megan got through explaining why she took off Sydney’s onesie and said, “your free” She got really excited and laughed. She was so cute without her onesie on, she still had another layer of clothes underneath. When it was  time for Sydney’s bath the Auntie didn’t even recognize her because she didn’t have her onesie on. It was funny.

At the end of the day it was hard to leave Haven 3. The kids there were in great moods compared to the kids in the morning. It was very refreshing to work with them. After leaving Haven 3 we found Ian with two chameleons. He had a big one and a small one. He named the big one after his African friend David and the smaller one after himself because Ian is small and David is big. Ian let us hold them and take lots of pictures; I kinda want a pet chameleon now. This evening another group of people arrived from Harding. They are here to take video of what we do throughout the day. We had dinner together and then they got situated in their housing.

Tonight a group of us went to the soccer field in hopes to catch some of the students playing soccer. Unfortunately they had gone to dinner, but Muso and Mark (Mike) came and threw the Frisbee disc with us. It was funny to watch them learn how to throw and catch because it is something they are not use to at all.  After playing Frisbee we retired for the night.

Thank you

Ben

Mantis Monday

Day 21

Today was another great day. We had cooler weather throughout the day which made our walks back and forth to the Havens very pleasant. Its so funny talking to the Zambians here about the weather because they think it is so cold and we Americans think it is comfortable. They are out walking around in jackets, hats and gloves, and we are walking around in tee shirts and jeans.

Today we split up into new groups again. I am still working with the same group; Jill, Shanna, and Tessa, but we are under a new supervisor, Kara, and we are doing language therapy instead of feeding and swallowing with Dr. Weaver. This morning I must admit I did miss feeding therapy. I think I mostly miss the kids I was working with but eventually once I got back with some of my favorites to work with I had a lot of fun.

Haven two is currently being cleaned and painted so the girls from have two are staying in Haven three, and the boys from Haven two are staying in Eric’s house which is across the street from the Havens. Today during our first class I noticed a praying mantis close to where I was sitting. I picked him up so he wouldn’t get trampled by the toddlers (I really like praying mantises). A few minutes later a lizard interrupted therapy, grabbed my praying mantis friend and then took off…sigh, circle of life…

After our language group in the morning we went to Haven 1. I am happy to say that the babies that I worked with a week ago are showing great improvement since I last worked with them. Miller is talking more, and Megan is starting to get the hang of walking, and she didn’t even try to beach herself on my lap today, instead she used her arms to pull up and stand. Today I also worked with Caleb. I have never worked with him before but he was screaming throughout the time, apparently he does this a lot. Caleb has casts on his legs. Kara thinks he just gets frustrated because he can’t more around like the other children his age. So today I pushed him around in a baby stand cart thing? He seemed to enjoy that, and after being pushed around for a while he was clam enough to talk to and continue therapy. I pray that Caleb will become calmer during our sessions. Apparently he is always a screamer.

The afternoon sessions where great as well! Being in Kara’s group I get to spend an hour and forty five mins in Haven three! Which is my favorite place to be. I worked with Sydney all afternoon (my favorite baby/cutest baby) She was very talkative today. I’m not sure exactly how old she is, but she is probably a litter under 12 months. I very much enjoyed working with her this afternoon. Today we worked on /b/ in hopes that she will say my name before I leave, but we didn’t just work on b the entire time, I’m not that selfish : )

For dinner tonight we had tacos! I was really missing Mexican food so it was a nice change from the other things we eat there. They were very good. After dinner I spent some time looking at photos I took and then I talked with Webster and Justin (the night watchmen). They were very entertaining tonight. We talked about snow, and I showed them some pictures of snow on my computer. I also showed them what roller coasters where. There were so amazed. They think that Americans are very brave and strong for all the thrill seeking we do. They mentioned the bungee jumping at Victoria Falls and they said, “that is looking for death”  they are both very nice men. They want me to spend the night with them patrolling. I told them that I needed my sleep to work, but I said maybe I could Friday night. I’m still not sure if I’m going to. It would be hard to function the next day. They said that they watch till 6am when the sun rises. So I could sleep till 12 the next day and catch up on sleep. Still not sure though, we will see.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, I love  all the time I get to spend in Haven 3.

Thank you.

Ben 

Singing Sunday

Day 20

Today was another day to relax and enjoy being here in Africa. Church service was good today as well. During the middle though when all the children get up for Sunday school, all my class mates left to go teach so I say by myself, but it wasn’t so bad. Today we had left overs for our meals. During the afternoon a small group went to the Havens to work on capstone projects. I went along to help. It was nice to just hang with the children and not worry about doing therapy. I hope I get more opportunities to interact with the babies in a non therapy setting.

After we finished working at the Havens we were all very tired. I cleaned my room this afternoon, it really needed some work. The guys a few doors down from my room got attacked by ants. Literally thousands of ants were everywhere, not all in their room, but right outside the room. I guess they had some food trash or something, or maybe their room was in the way for where the ants wanted to go. They sprayed and then ants eventually retreated back to the back yard. I had never seen so many ants. I had never been bitten by ants until today as well. They were tricky. They would get on you so quickly and easily and then dig their pinchers into your leg. They were very annoying.

Once the ants were fought off we had dinner and then we waited around for evening church to start. Church was long tonight for a Sunday night service. They had singing, and a long lesson, and then more singing, and then they had some groups of students coming up to sing. It was close to a two hour event.

Once church was finished we headed back to the house and hung out, filling out therapy hours, playing cards, and enjoying each other’s company. Looking forward to a good night rest before we start a new week working with the babies.

Most of the group that was feeling ill is starting to feel better. Thank you for all your prayers, I hope that the spell of nausea will be done. I’m told though everyone gets a turn…I don’t want a turn.

Ben