June 23-25

June 23:

Today was nice and relaxing!  There was no stress about work due tomorrow, which was very relieving.  Adrienne and I still went to school early to have some internet time (so I uploaded a lot of pictures on Facebook if you want to check them out!  Around 11 o’clock, Hannah, Mike, Matt, Lodoe, and I went on a run around KCMC.  Of course I managed to trip on a rock and go flying on the rocky, dirt road—scraping my knee, hands, and elbow.  Not as bad as falling out of a van in the Philippines though…

After working out, I went home to shower.  Unfortunately, there was no tap water this morning, so mama couldn’t prepare new bucket showers.  I used a bucket from 3 days ago so it was freezing cold…. But a shower was necessary.  Then, we walked to Dr. Stacy’s house to do our reflection session.  Today, we just reflected on the course as a whole and gave our input in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the course, and improvements that could be made for future years.

After our reflection session, some of us went to Ume’s to watch a movie.  We watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and our Maasai friend (Hendry) came over to watch the movie with us.  Mama Mary (Ume’s mama) was knitting, and I asked her if she could teach me how to knit next week, so that will be exciting!!  I left Ume’s before the movie ended so that I could walk home before dark, and then Adrienne and I went to one of the neighbor’s houses to play with the kids.  Katrina gave Adrienne and I play-do and some jewelry that we could have to play with the kids.  We brought out the jewelry and the hair clips tonight, and the kids had fun with that! 

We had pilau and bananas for dinner.  As always, the pilau was delicious!  After dinner, Mesha came over to finish watching the end of Bridesmaids.  Derike wanted to watch the movie with us too, and it’s not like he could understand the words, so we let him.  We had to cover his eyes a lot though.

Now Adrienne and I are both in bed writing our blogs/journals.  We start our first day of work tomorrow and I’m super excited!!!! 

June 24:

Today I started my internship!  Around 8:30am, the people in my program who have local internships met Francis at KCMC to take a dala-dala into town together.  Adrienne and Ume are working at Kinshai (women and girls with HIV/AIDS), Hannah is working at NAFGEM (N--? against female genital mutilation), and Grace, Rebecca, and I are working at BCC (Building a Caring Community).  We got off near Kinshai to drop Adrienne and Ume off at their internship.  Francis was dropping everyone off at their sites, but he didn’t really know where he was going.  We had to keep asking around.  It was like the blind leading the blind.  We finally found it, then began our search for NAFGEM to drop Hannah off.  After her introductions, we went to the BCC main office, right outside of the Lutheran Church they work with.

We met four different people in the office, and ultimately Gertrude was the person who showed us around.  We told them what our objective for working with them was (learning how an NGO operates, and helping out with the kids and doing whatever else they needed us for) and then they told us a little bit about their organization’s mission.  BCC partners with Mosaic International (which is based in Nebraska, USA) and the IMPACT Alliance.  BCC’s mission is to help children with disabilities learn daily activities of living by providing them with therapeutic, educational, social, and nutritional supports in day centers.  The hope is that these children will learn special skills that will allow them to move on to vocational schools and learn job skills.  BCC also teaches families how to support their children, and allows parents the opportunity to work while their children are at the day centers.  There is also a preventative healthcare program which provides children with two general doctor visits, quarterly preventive healthcare exams, one vision exam, one dental exam, and any suggested medications each year.  Lastly, BCC provides in-home supports to those families with children who are unable to attend the day center, or whose needs are best met at home. 

Grace, Rebecca, and I are working in the day centers.  There are 11 centers in Moshi, and each one tends to up to 9 children.  We will be working at 4 centers over the next 4 weeks—one each week.  This week, we are working at “Longuo”.  It’s located right next to our homestays on KCMC road—about a 5-minute walk from my house, which is nice. On Wednesdays, the kids stay at home… so we only work 4 days a week, which is also nice.  Our workday is from 9am-3pm.

Today we missed the first part of the day because of orientation, and arrived at our site around teatime.  There are 3 caregivers in each center—at Longuo, their names are Denisia, Flora, and Eva.  Usually, there are 8 children in our center, but today there were only 5.  Apparently, the children have an educational learning session in the morning when they learn things such as colors, numbers, letters, and the names of various things.  In the afternoon, the activities are more specialized to the children’s specific needs.  For example, Dennis, a 7-year-old boy, is partially blind and hypersensitive (he hates touching things and he hates being touched), and he doesn’t speak.  In the afternoon, one of the caregivers forced him to stick his hands into a bowl of beads.  This went on for a while as Dennis struggled.  One thing that struck me: as Dennis was struggling and squirming, he kept accidentally kicking one of the girls.  The girl kept saying “ouch”, and the caregiver just laughed.  Finally, Rebecca and I moved the girl out of reach of Dennis’s kicking feet.  The girl’s name is Dotto.  She is 9-years-old and has epilepsy—she wears a helmet all times for when she unexpectedly collapses.  I think she was my favorite kid today.  She was so happy and her smile was absolutely contagious.  The other 3 kids were named Perpetua, Elisia, and Heiness (all girls).  Perpetua and Elisia have down-syndrome, and I’m not positive about Heiness. 

the classroom!

Swahili definitely came in handy today.  None of the caregivers speak English except for a few phrases here and there, and the children speak absolutely no English.  I was playing with Perpetua for the majority of the afternoon.  She’s 12.  We played with blocks for a little bit, and I would say a color and have her repeat after me.  I tried to ask her what her favorite color was, but she didn’t respond.  It was kind of hard to get the children to talk.  Only Elisia and Perpetua told me their age when I asked how old everybody was.  Dotto responded with something, but it definitely was not a number.  I’m not too sure what she said.  After colors, Perpetua and I went over numbers and played with play-doh.  She would randomly start laughing, and I would have no idea what she was laughing at but it was funny and made me laugh.  I also learned the Swahili version of “Head-shoulders-knees-and-toes-knees-and-toes—“.  It goes “Kichwa, mabega, kifua na tumbo, magoti vidole, magoti vidole… vidole, magoti, tumbo na kifua, mabega na kichwa, mabega na kichwa!”  That translates to: head, shoulders, chest and stomach, knees, toes, knees toes… toes, knees, stomach and chest, shoulders and head, shoulders and head.  I’ll sing it for you at home if you ask me to!  Elisia, Perpetua, and Heiness taught it to us with Denisia.  Elisia and Heiness also danced and sang another Swahili song, but I didn’t learn that one.

After playing and learning with the kids, it was lunchtime.  We were served wali maharagwe (rice, beans, and mboga), and ate with the kids.  While we were eating, a huge bug jumped on me.  I absolutely HATE bugs and wanted to jump out of my seat and scream, but I didn’t want to make a scene and freak out the kids.  As calmly as possible, I flicked the bug off my leg with my plate.  My banana went flying, but Dotto and Perpetua found that hilarious and they both started cracking up.

When we were done eating lunch, we helped everyone clean up, and then the caregivers pulled mattresses out for the kids to take naps.  When the kids laid down for their naps, we left.  All the caregivers were sooooo sweet!  They didn’t want us to leave and they were so grateful for our presence and help.  I’m really excited to go back again tomorrow and the rest of the week.

The rest of my evening consisted of working out with Grace and Ume, sharing stories with Adrienne, talking with Mama, drinking tea, and eating dinner.  Mama made a pasta dish with onions, carrots, and peppers and we also had bananas and avocados.  After dinner, mama gave us Chapati, which I reluctantly ate because I already had a food baby.  Now I’m going to bed and I get to sleep in tomorrow J Tomorrow is also mama’s birthday!  

June 25:

Today was probably the worst day of me being abroad so far.  I woke up around 5am with an awful stomachache.  I didn’t have to be awake for another 3 hours, so I tried to go back to sleep but I had a tough time doing so.  Adrienne woke up around 7, so I decided to have tea with her.  Mama also made Chapati (which, keep in mind, is my favorite) but I couldn’t even try to eat it.  When Adrienne left for work, I laid back in bed until around 8:40am, quickly got dressed, and met Grace and Rebecca at 8:50am.  I did not care what I looked like at all today.

We helped Mama Denisia (one of the caregivers) do a little bit of sweeping and mopping of the facility until the kids started getting there.  Today, only Elisia, Heiness, and Perpetua showed up.  The rest of the kids were sick.  When the three girls showed up, we helped them sweep the dirt path.  (Everyone here keeps the dirt clean—it’s really weird, but that’s one of the chores the kids learn at Longuo).  After the dirt path was all cleaned up, the girls brushed their teeth.  When they were done brushing their teeth, they had their morning education session.  Each child has their name on the wall with a list of chores they do each day. Elisia, Perpetua, and Heiness took turns going up to the wall and taking down the chores they had already completed.  Next, they took turns saying what the day was (Thursday—Jumanne), what the caregiver’s mood today was (Furaha—happy), and what the weather was like outside (Mawingu—cloudy).  After each child got those 3 items correct, they took turns placing the letters ‘j’ ‘u’ ‘m’ ‘a’ ‘n’ ‘n’ and ‘e’ on a sheet of paper that had each of the letters outlined.  This activity made me realize the extent of the children’s difficulties.  Elisia was the only one who could do this activity with ease.  Mama Denisia was aiding the other two, but they were having a lot of trouble.  They kept putting the letters upside down or sideways on the paper even though the outline was there.  They also kept picking up the wrong letter to use to begin with.  Mama Denisia would say “the green one”, but they would still pick up the wrong letter even though there was only one green one.

When these activities were completed, Mama Denisia said a long prayer out loud.  This prayer was followed by singing, dancing, clamping, maraca-shaking, and bell ringing.  I think this was my favorite part of the day.  Elisia sang along with Denisia, and she was standing up and dancing which was so cute.  Eventually, Heiness joined her… but Perpetua stayed seated the whole time.  Mama Denisia has a very nice singing voice and I wish I had taken a video of the kids.  Maybe I will on Thursday.

As much as I loved the performance, it was so difficult for me to stay seated upright.  My stomach was still killing me and the only thing I could do to make it feel better was hunch over.  The kids were served porridge (Uji) and we were served tea with bread, but I couldn’t even stomach the bread.  Eventually, I decided I would tell Mama Denisia that I wasn’t feeling well and I asked if I could go home.  She was really nice about it, and let me go without hesitation. 

About 10 minutes after I crawled into bed, Adrienne showed up at home.  She was surprised to see me but when I told her I left work early because I was feeling sick, she said she was feeling sick too!  The two of us napped for about 7 hours today.  At one point, mama yelled for me from outside my room, asking me to come eat some lunch.  When I walked out of the room, she immediately asked if I was sick.  I said I was, but that I would try to eat food anyway.  I tried eating a couple bites of a banana but my body wasn’t happy about that decision.  I told mama I was going back to sleep and would maybe try to eat later. 

A little bit later, Derike started throwing up too.  Mama panicked a little bit and cleaned the whole bathroom, and cancelled her birthday plans for tonight (she was going to have friends come over to celebrate her birthday).  I felt bad about that, but with Derike sick too, it was the best decision to make.  Mama made us porridge and tea, and boiled us hot water for showering.  Luckily, Adrienne had a lot of different medicine with her so I was able to take something.  I’m pretty sure I have a fever right now, but I’m hoping it goes away by the morning.