Wednesday 4-23-14

4-23-14 Wednesday

Today was the first actual day of school. We woke Ayla and Jove up at 6:45 to get dressed and ready. The kids all go to school early to eat breakfast there. We want Ayla and Jove to have the same experience as the rest of the kids (we do not want them treated special because they are the white kids) and so they were to walk to school with the other kids and have breakfast. They did not like this idea but surprisingly did not cry about it when the time came that Farida and Joan showed up. Asa, Mamaliz and I showed up at school about an hour after the kids left. I went into the preschool and they went into Standard 1. Jove was in preschool and he was very unsure at first. There were a few tears, but he eventually settled in. I had him and four other kids at my table, so that helped he was with me. We did flash cards of numbers, letters and their sounds, animals, etc. I had them practice writing their names, letters, and numbers. They all did pretty decent. Apparently all children write their lowercase j backwards. It is not just Jove. At 11:00 it was story time, and that is MY time. I had a few books and I went in front of the chekechea (preschool) and read ‘the three little pigs’, ‘snow white and the seven dwarfs’, and ‘mama elisabeti’. The kids were all very shy in answering any questions about the stories, but Jove raised his hand and told the class about how his favorite part of Snow White was when she came back to see them at the end of the story after her prince came. He was finally opening up.

                Next came lunch. Again, the children stay at the school and have lunch and the teachers leave. So Ayla and Jove went with the rest of the kids and we went home. We were home for maybe five minutes and we got a call about how they were crying and were not eating. We let the teacher know to keep them there. If they didn’t eat then they didn’t eat and would eat dinner easily. Lunch was ugali (tastes like a thick flavorless cream of wheat made from ground corn), vegetables, and beans. Ayla claims she tried it but did not like it. Jove said it was kind of yummy.

                After we got back from lunch, I brought Ayla into her classroom because she refused to leave Jove in the preschool. She was fine after I talked with her for a few minutes. The preschool gets out earlier and so we only had a half an hour after lunch. It was much of the same.  We all cleaned up the learning materials, then one of the kids led in prayer (St. Mary’s is a Christian English school). Jove and I walked home and got our beans for dinners started up cooking. Well, I got the beans started while he had a snack (I told him it was only for today because after this I want them to eat their breakfast and lunch at school) and watched Star Wars Lego Movie. Asa, Mamaliz, and Ayla got home an hour later.  During the time before they got home I got to do more laundry by hand. I do so miss my washer and dryer and I only have to do underwear. I do wish I could hang the stuff outside on the line, but again, these people are too modest and so undies have to hang in the bathroom.

                We made some fresh eggs with our beans, along with corn tortillas. It was very good. Mama Ruth even brought over some ugali later on so that we could all try it and show the kids it isn’t anything to fear. We got them to try it and the first thing they say is yuck. Then they said they wanted to try it again and sure enough the keep eating it. They liked it, they actually liked it.

                Oh, and before we ate, we needed to get more anti malaria meds, so we went over to the hospital with Dr. Sion to get the meds and tour the hospital. I did not expect anything different but even so, it is hard to not have seeing that hit you like a ton of bricks. Everything is just so minimal and needing. There were a few wheel chairs that were made out of plastic lawn chairs with mountain bike wheels attached to it. Crazy! They have a very small amount of blood in their stores, no O negative. Three people have died in the last few months because of having no O neg. I guess in Tanzania it is a rare thing to have that blood type. Well, I am and so I am going to try to donate tomorrow or the next day and donate as much as I can while I am here. The children’s ward was so sad. We wanted to bring in toys for their play area, but Mamaliz says that she brought many toys over there not long ago. Well all of those were gone, we saw no toys. She let us know that the families steal the toys and that even the nurses may be taking them. It is very unfortunate. But, I am only one person and there is so much we can do. I do know that while we are here we will do anything and everything that we can do to help.