Saturday, June 21, 2014

It's the Small Things

 


 

"When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable.  It is designed to make its own people comfortable."  Clifton Fadiman


I don’t have to take the daladala to the orphanage that I’m volunteering for on this last leg of my journey.  It’s a relatively short walk, but who knows what I'll run into. 

This is my path.  I've run into cows, goats, chickens or all three on my way to the orphanage.  You can't tell here, but it's straight uphill from where I'm staying.

It’s not that very far from the orphanage I was volunteering at before the safari to the one I’m at now, but structurally the two are worlds apart.  Let me give you a snapshot of my typical day here:  in the morning, I “teach” a class of 16 kids between the ages of 3 ½ and 5 ½.  Most are toilet trained, some not so much.  We pray that there’s no rain for the afternoons.  If there is rain, I’m in a room full of kids between the ages of 1 ½ months and 5 ½ years.  Yes, they are all in the same room. 

The first thing the kids do in the morning is brush their teeth.  It's hard to get a good perspective of this in a photo because the room is so small.  All 16 are crowded into the bathroom and spit into a squat toilet.  You don't have to fight with them to brush since they consider the toothpaste to be pipi (candy).  They want to do it again and again.
Folks back home would have heart failure if they saw some of the antics that take place in a normal day here.  Yesterday Baracka decided to climb up on the cupboards (this is allowed and, in fact, the mamas use the countertop as a place for the older children at times to contain the chaos), but he decided to walk the ledge behind the cupboards!  Remember all floors here are concrete (including those in the home where I’m staying).  Then, Filipo decided to pile all the cushions on one chair in the “sitting area” and play Tarzan while flying onto the floor.  I can’t say that I am calm while all this is going on, but I noticed today that I wasn’t yelling “acha” (quit that) every two minutes as I did for the first couple of days.
Baracka.  He gets into all kinds of trouble, but I believe it's because he is really smart and is bored.  Although he gets into mischief most of the time, yesterday he was content to sit on my lap as the others played.  He is a Maasai - the only in the orphanage.
Another Hospital Experience
Yes, I had to go with two little ones to the hospital again, but this time it’s not the hospital experience itself that I want to remember, but one little guy:  Ebenezer (Benni).
Somehow Benni got a chunk taken out of his big toe.  No one seems to know how or when it happened, but the gash was the length and depth of his toe; the whole piece was just gone.  It had been uncovered and there was no sign that any kind of antiseptic had been used on it.
I took him into the examining room and the doctor ordered dressing and antibiotics.  The nurse had to debride the injury because it was so old.  She pulled on a string and asked me if it was from stitches.  Of course, it wasn’t.  She pulled on the string and out came all 2 plus inches of it, along with other pieces of dirt.  After she reopened the wound, she poured alcohol and iodine over Benni’s toe a number of times.  It was swimming in the stuff.
The reason I am retelling this story is that Benni didn’t flinch.  He held my hand and didn’t move through the whole ordeal.  I couldn’t help but wonder how does a 5 year old not move a muscle while undergoing such a treatment? It had to be a learned response taught by the many things he has felt and seen in his young life.
 
Ebenezer (Benni). I don't know how I managed to get a pic of him not smiling.  He usually is. 

(The other little one that went along to the hospital was Glory.  She had a “rash” all over her head and it has spread down her back since I arrived.  Diagnosis:  a fungus, which the doctor said was very contagious….)
Glory.  She is really shy when you first meet her, but has a great smile once she knows you.  Her father is the daytime guard at the volunteer complex.  The foundation supporting the orphanage has just given Baba Glory a microloan to open a shoe repair "shop."  He has his stand in front of the complex.

The Universal Solution
One of the mama’s sandals fell apart and she was hobbling around using one of the children’s flip flops.  I decided we should try taping it together with the duct tape I had brought.  I wish I had a picture of all the children and mamas gathered around me as I tried to put it back together.  Now they are using duct tape to attach alphabet cards to the wall, along with everything else.  But here’s the best:  Franky, who is nearly 4, is almost never without his thumb in his mouth.  Emerte bandaged his entire thumb up with duct tape to keep him from sucking it!  But it worked – he never put his thumb in his mouth while the tape was on.


Franky


Emerte - she emigrated from Rwanda ("teacha")

Managing 26 Kids
I'm embarrassed when I look back on my reaction to how the kids were dressed when I first got here.  I remember thinking how hard is it to get girls' clothing on girls, boys' clothing on boys, and shoes that match?

But I soon learned that when you have this:




You tend to get this:




 



And this week I found myself putting mismatched shoes on Neema:




Lining up for their haircut, but you should have seen me flinch when the razor came out to trim their cuticles.



Pics of some of the kids
Faraja.



Irene-look at those cheeks-she's such a happy little thing (as are most all of the kids)
 

 

Isaac - he always has a smile on his face.  He'll sing "asante, asante" (thanks you) over and over.

Baracka (he's the third Baracka we have).  Don't you like the haircut? He has a twin sister.  We have two sets of twins currently.

Shujaa (meaning Hero).  He is a sweetheart.  He sat by me feeding a doll for almost an hour.  I was caring for the infants while the older kids were playing outside.