tumaini

Wedding

We followed a different schedule today at the orphanage. One of the church members at the Shadi church was getting married today. Since the children attend the Shadi church, they were invited to the ceremony. When I arrived for work this morning, I helped to finish getting the children dressed and ready for the service: fixing collars, buttoning buttons, tying ribbons and making sure all shirts were right-side out. I think the service was supposed to start at 11:00 a.m. so there was plenty of time for the children to eat chai – causing them to be in a better frame of mind and mood for a long ceremony.

We took the large mat up to the church around 11 a.m. so the younger children wouldn’t have to sit on the concrete floor. We sat around waiting for the wedding party to arrive. It was about 12 p.m. before the festivities really got started. The wedding party came and the choirs started singing. It was a fun, festive occasion. The children really enjoyed watching the singing and dancing – some of the older girls were dancing when they thought no one was watching them.

Afterward, we rushed back to the orphanage so we could all enjoy a hot plate of rice and beans. It was 2 p.m. and we were all very hungry and ready to eat. The rest of the day was a lazy play day. No work for the older children to do at the farm since almost all the adults were at the wedding reception at a house nearby. I stayed behind with the children and one caregiver to get some work done. It was nice to have a change of pace to the usual schedule and for the children to have a part in a community event.

Lollipops and Frisbees

Our friends from Forever Angels came for a visit this morning. They brought a bag of lollipops and three Frisbees for the children. We were able to hand out 13 lollipops for the younger children while our friends were here. Later in the afternoon, Ferdinand doled out some more of the pops to the school children. They were a big hit.

Part of my daily routine is to leave my office in the late afternoon and return to the orphanage around 6 p.m. When I came up this evening, the children had the Frisbees out and were trying to play with them. We tried to introduce some order to the chaos so that all of the kids who wanted to got a chance to throw the discs. It went surprisingly well and the kids did a good job of sharing. It was really fun to watch them throw the Frisbees, some had more finesse than others but they had a good time just running around and laughing.

I tried to show one of the younger children the technique to throwing a Frisbee so that it will glide farther. She watched carefully and then took the Frisbee and immediately tossed it straight up into the air. I guess it’ll take a little more work.

Dragon-flies and Post-its

I came up around 6 p.m. tonight to help with the children before dinner. They were busy catching dragon-flies and grasshoppers. While the Howells were gone, the Tumaini kids would help catch insects to feed the two pet chameleons on the Howell's porch. I think they still enjoy catching insects even though the Howells are back. What was funny about the dragon-flies was that a couple of the children had tied string around the end of a dragon-fly and then used the string as a leash. They enjoyed holding on for a while and then letting go so they could catch it again.

Later, one of the children came up to me carrying a bunch of little post-it note pages from my office. I was surprised because I hadn’t given them out and I hadn’t seen anyone take them. Somehow, two of the younger children had gone in my office during the day and taken the pad of post-its. I’ll have to find out the rest of the story but for now, they’ll  be banned from visiting my office for awhile.

Hadija Hussein

Well, we got a girl! She looks to be maybe 6 years old. She doesn’t have much of a story, but Ferdinand is hoping that more of it may come out as she gets more comfortable here. The police found her wandering near Mwanza and brought her in to Social Services. She wouldn’t tell them anything. Later, Ferdinand was able to find out from her where she may live but it wasn’t an exact village. So far, she’s a pretty happy, comfortable kid. No anger, temper or fear issues….yet.

A New Child

Rob received a call today from Social Services that they have a new child waiting for us in town. Since Peter Mwita left we are down to 50. We opted to go ahead and take the child even though 50 is technically our maximum limit. I’m hoping it’s a girl!

Quiz

After we had attended church this morning and the children had their chai, most of the children went outside to play. I was sitting in the shade of an orange tree watching some of the kids build houses and farms in the dirt. One of them even made a bathroom – I thought that was kind of funny. At one point, the children started asking me a Swahili word and what it meant in English. This was the first time that they have asked me about many English words, usually I’m asking them what something is in Swahili (by pointing to it). We were all having a good time and playing pretty well together until one of the little boys came over and purposely knocked over a wall on an older boy’s house. I didn’t see it happen but the older boy tried to tell me. The problem was that he called the little boy in question by a completely different name that I had never heard used and then used a completely different word than I had learned for “destroy.”  I wasn’t able to intervene properly and talk to the little boy about leaving other’s things alone. So the older boy took matters into his own hands and hit the little boy. Of course, I saw the hitting and had to punish the older boy. I asked him to apologize and he refused. Since he kept refusing, I sent him to lie in his bed and then went to ask Ferdinand to help. Later, Ferdinand came to me and said that the older boy had tried to come to me and tell me of the problem and I hadn’t done anything. I felt badly because the child was trying to do what we have taught him to do and I wasn’t any help at all. Ferdinand went with me to explain that “Eliza is trying – she is working hard to learn Swahili.” We encouraged him to tell someone else if he sees that I am not understanding what he is trying to tell me. In the end, I failed my quiz!

Exciting Things

Today was a really fun day of work. During the week, Mama Nestori had been in my office going through the boxes of clothes I store there. She was especially looking for pants and shorts for the boys. I think every pair of pants I’ve seen in the past two weeks has a split or a big hole in the backside. Mending can only help the problem so much and it was now time to pull out something new. Typically, Mama Nestori will get new clothes for the children and then put them in the church bin. This bin of clothes stays in Ferdinand’s office during the week so those clothes stay out of circulation and hence, in better shape. Today she took some of the church clothes out for the children to wear everyday but even with doing that, we still had to give brand new play clothes out. The danger in handing out brand new clothes is that someone who didn’t get anything new will become jealous and may purposely tear up their clothes, which totally defeats the purpose!

Anyway, today Mama Nestori retrieved the bin of collected clothes and started parceling them out to the children. They were so excited. You would have thought they were each receiving a one-hundred dollar bill by their reaction to the clothes. My favorites to watch were Latifah and Agness. Latifah kept folding and refolding her new clothes while chattering away excitedly. Agness put on a purple-velvet type dress over her play clothes. The collar on the dress had an animal print so it looked very fancy. She was so excited about it that she took off running to the house and then back again. She’s a chubby little four- year old so it was hilarious to see her little chubby legs churning up the dust to the house. My other favorite interaction was Masheshela. He kept waiting around for his new shorts or pants. Mama Nestori was hard pressed to find any to fit him. Finally she pulled out a nice, new pair of bibbed overalls. She tossed them to him and his face crumpled up. I couldn’t figure out why, especially since they were new. Then Ferdinand explained to me that one of the older boys had made fun of overalls and said that you wear them so you are able to use the bathroom in them. Masheshela made the connection and didn’t want to wear pants that were associated with that. Isn’t that a typical older brother-type thing to say? Apparently, Masheshela wasn’t fazed for long because an hour or so later I saw him strutting around the Tumaini property with a huge smile on his face in his brand-spanking-new overalls.

The other exciting thing that happened today was the return of the Howell family and the guests they brought with them. The kids were very excited to see everyone and were falling over themselves to help carry all of the luggage to the houses.

The Irony of it All

So I posted yesterday about my discipline interaction with Agness from Tuesday. I mentioned that there were several kids hanging around encouraging her to apologize and do right, etc. One of those children was Masheshela. The irony of it all was that yesterday I spent most of the late afternoon dealing with him. I found him playing down by our houses when he was supposed to be in the classroom for tutoring. I sent him on his way but he didn't end up making it to the classroom. When I found him again he still wouldn't go to the classroom. I decided to have him sit in my office with me so I could continue working. He decided not to cooperate with that plan either. I reminded him of Tuesday and what happened with Agness. Yeah, that strategy didn't work. Since he wouldn't cooperate he was sent to his bed, where he continued to get out and do what he wanted to do. When Ferdinand got back from his errand in town, I asked him if he would talk to Masheshela, which he did. Reason and conscience finally gained the upper hand and Masheshela apologized to me for not obeying and for not going to the classroom.

At the tail end of the discipline section, a worker came to get Ferdinand because someone had taken a piece of board from the building site at Tumaini. It was someone's wife - still not sure who's - and she had been told to put it down but refused and kept walking. When I came out of the house to see what was going on - all the children were running up the path to the church gate. It was quite a commotion. When I asked Ferdinand about it this morning everything seemed to have turned out fine.

An interesting side note with Masheshela - today he got in trouble right before lunch. He and one of the 7 year old girls were fighting with each other. I guess he got really frustrated and angry because he ended up biting her on the shoulder. She's fine but he definitely left a nice impression of his teeth in her skin. You know, when Masheshela is good - he can be so winsome and charming, but when he is bad - look out!

Another side note to yesterday - it's been busy around here! - I got a written proposal of marriage. This is my first official one. When I found out the person doesn't know my name and he wants me to be his second wife, it's definitely going to be a no-go. I'm glad I have no idea who it is - that would be really awkward if I knew him.

Late afternoon at Tumaini

I have a theory that children are wired to go a little crazy between 4 and 6 p.m. For instance, yesterday, I was finishing some work in my office and many of the children were playing out in the office courtyard.  Most of them were playing well with the other children. And then there was Agness and Ema. Ema backs into my office and starts rubbing his head, crying that Agness is hitting him. Though at the moment I can't see her, I tell her to stop (like that ever works?!). I tell Ema to go and play. He ventures out of the safety of my office and immediately jumps back inside, screaming and rubbing his head. Now, I'm sure Ema was indeed being annoying, he has a way about him at times, but Agness was going a little vigilante. I walk out of my office and see her standing there in her short, wrathful glory. She was giving Ema a "death" look. She had one hand inside her dress so I pulled her arm out and there was her little fist full of rocks. We disposed of the rocks and then I prompted her to tell Ema she was sorry. She refused. We walked up to the house for the usual punishment for disobedience, laying in the bed. The kids hate it. Agness was so angry, she wouldn't listen to anything and she kept trying to get out of her bed. The funny thing was that several of the other children, who frequently get in trouble, were hanging around her bed telling her what she should do - say she was sorry, etc. etc. Apparently they've learned something from their punishments, it just make take Aggie a little while longer.

So while all this was going on with Agness....another child (a six year-old) is screaming his head off because he doesn't want to take a bath. The kids take baths every day, I don't know why he thought yesterday would be any different. The caregiver brings him into the room to get his towel and dry him off - so while he waits for her he stands disconsolately. Soon I hear a noise...no, it can't be...I turn around and there is the child going to the bathroom on the floor - and all over the clothes that have been left scattered there from other children. He's potty trained - he knows where the toilet is. Guess he's getting back at us for making him bathe.

And while all this was going on with Agness and the incontinent child, I was holding on to Baraka. Since the one caregiver was taking care of the kid who didn't want to bathe, there was no one to watch Baraka. He had come into the room and I grabbed his arm before he could run off again. So picture me standing by a bunk bed, holding onto and trying to entertain a child who "isn't all there," while trying to keep a child in her bed to be disciplined, while watching another capable child go to the bathroom all over the floor. Some days you just have to laugh.

I still say my theory is accurate.

Web Address for the Tumaini Blog

This is Rob. Since my blog, Mwanza Maandiko, will be closing down, we need to move the Tumaini blog to another location.

Currently you can access this blog through two different web addresses:

http://mchungaji.typepad.com/tumaini/

http://gbmtz.org/tumaini/

The first one listed will soon disappear, so please be sure to save the second one. You'll be able to continue accessing news and information about Tumaini through the second web address listed above.