Friday 5-9-14

Friday 5-9-14

                I slept amazing last night. Jove only woke up once to go to the bathroom, didn’t wake up at all for a drink, and didn’t wake up at all from a fever. It was very nice. I think forgoing the Tylenol for the day helped in breaking the fever faster. So we all got ready. Ayla had a really hard time taking her anti-malaria meds again. I so just wish she could get the hang of it. These pills are expensive and so when she lets it drool down her face and onto the floor it is a waste. Today is test day in school and so we have fake Easter eggs filled with five raisins and five jelly beans as prizes for the winning teams.

                I really wanted to go to school today and so I figured I would bring Jove with me and just have him follow me from class to class since he is doing better but still not fully better. But when the time came for Ayla to leave with Joan, Jove decided he wanted to go to. Neither of my kids want to eat the breakfast, but Jove still wanted to go. If Ayla had her choice she would never go. I don’t get it, the porridge isn’t that bad, a little gritty, but it is thin enough to where you basically just drink it.

                We make it to school and when Ayla realizes that Bibi and I would be teaching just the std.2 and std.3 for testing and not her class, she started to tear up. But she calmed down quick enough. Jove stayed in the room with us instead of going to chekechea since he has been sick. He is doing much better but still has the whiny crap that pairs with him being sick. Testing was a lot of fun. The kids are having a hard time with true and false questions when dealing with greater than and less than. Dictation was difficult for them, but I enjoyed seeing the answers they got. At the end of all the testing we had Easter eggs filled with a few raisins and a few jelly belly. The winning team and the top scorers of the day each got one. They thought it was great. One of the usual prizes they get is a colored pencil. In Ayla’s class, that is what they were giving as prizes. She did great on the tests and so she got a maroon colored pencil. Apparently it wasn’t to her liking and so she gave it to Jove.

                Since it was a short day we decided to not make Ayla and Jove go for lunch at school today. We took the kids and Dr. Sion out to Bismillah café as a goodbye lunch to Dr. Sion. After one year of working in the hospital here and specializing in the pediatrics, mostly on malnutrition, he is heading back home to England. The kids are sad, they took a liking to him right away. Bismillah usually only has one option of what to eat. Only here could you have a restaurant and have one option. Either way, today there was rice, goat, beans, and greens. We stuffed ourselves. Next we went next door to talk with Stan.  His son is one of the sweetest kids I have ever come in contact with and unfortunately his school fees are late again. At St. Mary’s if the school fees are not up to date, the child cannot come in to school. This is already the second time it has happened in the month that I have been here. Mamaliz has helped to cover the fees many times simply because of how much she adores Samweli Stan, but if she keeps doing it, then Stan will never pay the fees. All I want to do is to pay so he can come back. In the meantime we are going to have some reading time at the house with him. That way he at least gets to stay up to date with that. It is also his weak point, so I guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that Stan pays the fees and Samweli can come back to school next week. He really is just the sweetest kid one will ever come in contact with.

                Our power came back on after nearly three days of it being down. I am very glad for this. The weekend without power, which means no shows on the computer, no light, loud whiny kids because of no tablet, well, this just didn’t sound to pleasing. Now it will be a much better weekend. You never know, maybe we will even get lucky and have some sun shining tomorrow.

                Sion was given a chicken as a goodbye gift. So he had Frieda kill it and I think pluck it. We are going to all do dinner together. The kids will have beanie weenies, on their request. Grownups will have a nice fresh chicken. Here’s hoping it isn’t super tough like many of the Berega chickens. I believe we will even pair it with some of the beets we bought in Dar es Salaam when we dropped Asa off.

                All in all, another great day. Life is good in Berega. How can it not, we have power back.

               So I ended the journal too early. After I posted my daily journal, the kids continued to play outside for a while. Ayla came inside at one point telling me about how a bigger boy was being mean. He was calling Ayla and Jove foolish. When I asked if he was one of the boys from our school she said no. Not sure how he knew any English, but okay. Then she lets me know that he broke Jove’s play stick sword in half for no reason. And the kicker, he wouldn’t stop touching and trying to tickle Ayla even when she told him to stop. So at this I get very bothered and began watching out the windows and door so I could find out who this was. Jove was very sad that his sword was broken. So his big sister came to the rescue. Ayla got some water to make mud since the rain slowed down for a while. She said that it is a good way to fix things here. And sure enough, she fixed his broken stick with mud. A few moments later, she walks up to this older boy all full of attitude and tells him to never break her little brothers sword stick again. She told him that she fixed it and he wasn’t a very nice boy. He began making fun of her. This kid is like 13ish being so mean to a 6 year and 5 year old. WTF! I called Mamaliz over to see if she knew him. She did not and I told her what he did so Bibi to the rescue. She started yelling at him in Swahili. The kid actually had the gull to try to talk back to her. I couldn’t believe it. She called him many names in Swahili including “mshamba” aka person from the farm or hick. He is now never allowed to come back at play on our swing. Little ass! Either way, I was so proud of Ayla for sticking up for Jove the way she did.

                Then after all that happened, I hear this bloody murder scream come from Jove. I knew it was actually something so down the hill I run. Poor little guy, if something bad can happen, it will happen to Jove. While Asa was still here, we attempted at making a tree fort. It didn’t work because the nails and hammer bent and the wood was too green. We took the few boards with nails in there and tried to hide them in an area that I figured would be okay. I made sure the pointy part of the nail part was down of course. Well the kids found these and thought they would pull them out for some reason. Poor Jove, one of the few wearing shoes, stepped on the nail. His shoe was stuck to the board and the nail right into his foot. Luckily he was up to date on his tetanus shot. The kids all stopped what they were doing and also ran to help him and make sure he was okay. Imam even carried Jove’s shoe that was stuck to the board up for him. Our school kids and many of the other village kids are so very sweet. We got Jove all cleaned up and he is fine now.

                For dinner Sion cooked the chicken that he was given as a goodbye gift. We gave him some broccoli and beets, so he cooked those up next to the chicken. Berega chicken is rough because of all the moving around they do. It was still so very delicious. We were talking about the crazy long size of the leg bone and I had to ask if it was a rooster. Of course it was. That explains the long leg, but I thought it was too funny. Not only was it a Berega chicken, but it was also a rooster. I was quite impressed as to what he was able to accomplish with that. Thai curry chicken with balsamic beets and broccoli. This is how you eat good in Africa. Gotta love it!

                While eating, the kids get into a sticker stash in their coloring book. The stickers are cartoon animals. Jove is dancing around and shows him the bee sticker. He begins explaining how it protects him from the bees from stinging him. Sion was given a dog sticker, so he asks if it will protect him from mean dogs. Jove looks at him like he is crazy and says “No, that one will throw dogs at the bad guys”, um okay Jove. My owl sticker on my forehead will shoot owls to fly out at people to poop on their head. Oh my god, I love this kid. Ayla then joined in and they talk about the different powers these stickers have. They had a jolly good time.

                Our hot water is now off so I had to towel clean the kids with cold water. We have our power back, so I can’t complain. One can’t have everything here. So kids are cleaned and getting to stay up a little late by playing tablets in bed. Bed for me will be very soon, just enjoying a cold beer and visiting with Sion before he leaves. This is my life now, and I do so love it. The only thing that would make it better would be my best buddy. Miss you Asa. Thank you for working so hard so that we were able to have this experience. I look forward to doing it with you again in a new country/village.