Progressive Dinner

The Haven is a beautiful place, not just because there are paintings of Curious George and Winnie the Pooh on the walls and not because the little playground in the courtyard is full of colorful swings but because the children there are beautiful souls who so badly need just that little extra touch of attention to be able to thrive. Again I will let it be known that the Aunties do a wonderful job with meeting the day to day needs of feeding, changing, and bathing the 60 or so little ones that occupy the 3 houses, but there simply are not enough hands or hours in the day to give each one the individual hugging, holding, and loving they so desperately need. So today I started at Haven 1, the house that has the smallest babies and those who are relatively “healthy”. Auntie Beatrice put me straight to work feeding some of the smallest ones, Hamilton is approximately 2 months old and weighs all of about 4 lbs. He’s tiny and we are all so scared for his well being. He doesn’t eat much and often can’t keep down what he does eat. In the states he would definitely still be in the NICU but here he’s in a room with 5 other tiny ones and he’s shown no special treatment. So my job, hold a baby, feed a baby, fresh diaper a baby, hold them some more and then move on to the next. I hate putting one down to pick up the next but I can’t stand to see the twins, Kelsey and Kelly laying there as I hold Hamilton knowing they need the attention just as badly.
So as I struggle to split my attention between so many I’ve learned a few things. I move pretty quickly when a baby projectile vomits, I do gag when changing stinky cloth diapers, you can pick up a Zambian child by 1 arm like the Aunties do and it won’t hurt them a bit, and even though I think its plenty warm its winter here and Zambian babies want to be bundled up like Eskimos.
After this long day at the Haven I got to come back to the B&E house and try for a shower. We have a pretty good schedule worked out so that all of us can get at least a lukewarm shower. After several days of either cold baths or “baby wipe” baths I can’t begin to tell you how amazing a lukewarm shower is. Leonard had a grilled cheese and fresh garden tomato dinner made for us, but little did we know we would eat 2 dinners tonight. The mission decided to have a welcoming party for us and they fixed a feast for us, sang to us in Tongan, and honored us with a “Nice Cake” (yup that was written on the top in icing a special trait of Leonard’s world famous cakes). It was a wonderful experience and gave many of us chill bumps and brought tears to our eyes as these lovely people showed us their appreciation.