The Haven

Sorry the posts are sort of few and far between. Our group is learning that the internet and electricity are no guarantee here at Namwianga. We have settled into our house here on the mission and it is really quite lovely by Zambian standards. There are some creepy crawly wall spiders and other strange bugs that we either steer clear of or find the closest flip flop to squish them. Our group is getting along very well and filling the lulls in our time at night with Zumba work outs and board games. So far the schedule for each day is breakfast at 8:30 followed by a trip to town or the George Benson college, lunch at 1, afternoons are spent at The Haven. This is 3 houses full of babies from newborn to toddling. One house is specifically for children that are AIDS/HIV exposed. The other house is for the younger babies and the final house is the toddler house. Starting Monday the rest of the group will be working on language enrichment classes and swallowing/feeding issues. Since I'm not taking the grad school hours I get to bounce from house to house helping the "Aunties" with whatever needs to be done. Today while at The Haven for the first extended period of time we learned that these kiddos just simply love to be held. The Aunties do a wonderful job taking care of so many little ones physical needs but there simply aren't enough hands for holding all these sweet little ones. At one point this afternoon all 7 of us had atleast 3 babies in our laps. They are quite content just to sit their resting their sweet little heads against our chests, but it is pretty funny to see the jealousy between them. I was holding a little boy named Sam, and a girl who's name i cant recall but they kept pushing each other away. Sharing a meal is fine, sharing some attention does not go over well. I took some beautiful pictures of them and as soon as there is more reliable internet I will do my best to upload some.