Friday 4-25-14

4-25-14 Friday

                The kids woke up quite a few times through the night. Fist it was Jove wanting to tell Ayla and myself about a dream. I think it was about little people that tried to eat your blood. Then Ayla had a hard time falling back asleep because she heard some loud bugs outside. So when 6:45 came around for me to wake them up, go figure they were both tired. Jove woke up better than Ayla, but Ayla still did okay. She had a hard time taking her medicine so from now on, I think I will start crushing her pill up and mix it into a spoon of nutella, or peanut butter. So the kids are off to school with Joan.

                We all walked off to school. I was to meet up with the little ones to walk up to the preschool with the kids. Before walking back, I saw Ayla and Jove. We spoke with them and turns out that since the last few days they didn’t try the breakfast, they didn’t give them any. They were a little disappointed because they wanted to try it today. But when lunch time came around we went with them to show them it wasn’t scary, and they ate their lunch up very well.

                For school, I went into the chekechea 1 again, and Asa lead the chekechea 2 group with Jove. I had so much fun with the little ones. I had them working on abc’s and their sounds, then we went to writing the alphabet and the numbers. I ended learning time with trying to get them to understand “how much” and “how many”. They were having a hard time with it, but these kids bairly speak any English, so I think they did pretty well. The last hour of school today was playtime. The kids love the wooden abc train cars that we had Mamaliz bring a year ago. We still ask what letter and what color when they play. Teacher Pascalina was very fun to work with as well. She wants to learn English better and so she was asking me pronunciation and names for things. She speaks very well, but learned British English and so she is trying to get bits of American English. Like eraser instead of rubber. Nothing like hearing a four year old ask “teacher may I have a rubber please?” Too funny. After playtime came lunch. All three of us went with the kids. I really wanted to try the ugali, beans, and greens that we are making the kids eat. Ugali is bland, but the beans and greens were quite tasty. I was a little surprised because most people will tell you that white people don’t like them. Well, I did like them. Ugali, I can leave that. The only plus to the ugali is that it is truly filling.

                The kids stay and play for another two hours after lunch on Fridays, and so Asa, Mamaliz, and I went home for a cup of coffee. Asa and I met up with Dr. Sion after the coffee to walk with him to the hospital. I want to donate blood as much as I can while I am here. They have a very small blood bank and they have no O negative. I am lucky enough to have that type, so off to the lab we went. We got there and turns out the lab techs and just left for lunch and should be back in an hour. So whatever, Asa and I walk to the school to meet the kids. They were going to just walk back up to the house with Joan but what we were right there, so why not. We watched the kids all line up and do military drills (attention, about turn, etc) then sing the Tanzanian national anthem. I did not have my camcorder but did get a few pictures. I very much want to get this recorded. The song is so pretty sounding coming from them. Turns out Jove really wanted to just walk back with Joan because he broke down into tears and we had to spank him in front of all the kids. He calmed down after a little bit. We came back to the house and told the kids to play with all their friends. After an hour, Asa and I walk back to the hospital only to find out there are still no lab techs and the lab is just open. Anyone could go right in and take anything they wanted. Crazy! We sat there and waited for a half an hour and no one came. So we wandered the hospital. While sitting we heard a rooster from inside the hospital, so we figured we would go try to find it. We did, along with finding some very beautiful bugs and the biggest snail I have ever seen. Asa pried the snail off to show the kids. We walk out and still no techs, so we head back home. The local kids thought the snail was gross and scary. Jove told them he wanted to eat it. We play with it for a while then put in on a wall where it would be happy. Asa went onto the hill and gave the kids turns on the swing, pushing the very high. Mamaliz saw this and so she went to take pictures. I will have them loaded up within the next few days. Lots of fun!

                We went to Bismillah café and had rice and beans with goat. It was very good. Ayla wasn’t a big fan of the goat, but Jove was happy about that because it meant more for him. We came home and the kids all still had a soccer game going on, so Asa and Mamaliz went to watch that. I came over and burned the trash. I felt so bad doing it, but that is what they do here and it needed to be done. Trash does not burn very well when it is all soggy and most of it is plastic. I do not want to have to do that again. It is just so horrible for the environment. It is just one of the many things here that are just so in the past or ass backwards.

                After the burning of the trash, I came in to get the kids set up with their movie. They wanted Alvin and the Chipmunks race around the world for their mellow out time before bed. As soon as I got it on, I noticed a few sets of eyes peeping in the window, so we invited the three other kids in to watch the movie with Ayla and Jove. It was Samweli, Tuma, and Yona. They all loved the movie. Once it finished Ayla and Jove took a bath and did their journals, book time then bed.

                While the kids got all cleaned up I attempted at calling a few people (mom and magan) on the landline. This however did not work. The phone connection was just way to crackled up. I could hear everything they said, but they could hear almost nothing I said. It makes it very rough to have a conversation. I figured I would attempt to call Dad using Skype voice only. It worked and I got to have a nice little conversation with my Dad. It was much needed. Now I know that at anytime I can call him or anyone else on Skype and it works so long as the picture isn’t turned on. I am one happy girl.

                Tomorrow we are going to head into Morogoro. We need fresh food stuffs and you just can’t get much here in the village. It means crossing the river by foot and taking the public transportation. It should be a fun adventure.