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.

Pop Tarts

HI! Well today started with breakfast on our own here at the B&E house. Our cook, Leonard, has Sundays off so it was up to us to rustle up cereal, fruit, toast or whatever else we could find. Worship service here on the mission started at 9 am Zambian time...So that means it started when the majority of people got there and others continued to trail in for another 30 to 45 minutes. The service was mostly conducted in English with a few Tonga songs thrown in for good measure. They sing many songs that most of grew up singing in the church so we are able to sing along even without song books to such tunes as Joy to the World and What a friend we have in Jesus. Although the melodies of some are slightly altered from our versions we have really enjoyed learning them the Zambian way. Some of the kiddos from The Haven got to come to church so most of us had a baby in our lap for the entire 2 and a half hour service. Those kiddos can eat more goldfish and cheerios than any other toddlers I've ever seen. Most of them were very well behaved and entertained themselves well with the hair bands on our wrists and our bibles. Dr.Weaver had the most energetic little guy but she handled him like a champ. After service we headed back to the Hamby house to heat up leftovers for lunch, we're all so thankful for Leonard's wonderful cooking. After lunch we all decided a short rest was in order. We worshiped here on the mission again tonight at 7 and some special singing by the students here followed the service at the mission. All of the songs were in Tonga but we enjoyed listening to their beautiful harmonies. For the last hour or so we've been getting prepared for our busy week that starts tomorrow with language classes for the Haven kids, of course we did all of this by candle light because the electricity around here is just not reliable. A few other things that we’ve found to be unreliable include hot water and o yea just plain water. Apparently there is some sort of pump issue and although the water here is wonderful and totally safe to drink some days it just doesn’t want to make the long trip from the well into our faucets. Showers are coveted and warm showers even more so. We all try to go with the military style of water on water off in between soaping up and rinsing off so that everyone has a shot at lukewarm water at least. Let me just say… my hair looks lovely! Haha! Thank goodness it’s really quite cool here during this lovely Zambian winter.

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.

Insect Repellant

I guess I missed this little tid bit last night due to pure exhaustion but I'll share it now. Our hotel is very very nice. I have a feeling that these are the nicest accommodations we will be in the entire trip. It is so nice here at the Protea Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia that they offer every amenity a lovely breakfast, awesome restaurants where we ate last night, all the essentials in the bathroom such as soap, shampoo, lotion and INSECT REPELLANT!!!! You know you're in Africa when the hotel offers you insect repellant!!!

Zambia!

Most of you know, I'm a well seasoned world traveler with such far off destinations as Australia and Italy under my belt, but did you know that even those trips can't compare to the 3 day adventure it takes to get to Zambia, Africa! Sunday evening we flew out of Memphis, to Atlanta a fairly uneventful experience minus the one scare that the airline was only going to let us take 1 checked bag each! HA! Dr. Dean B. Weave set them straight :)
Being the HU Department that we are of course the first stop in the ATL airport was for food, in Terminal T, our flight was leaving out of Terminal E..the complete opposite ends of the airport. But On The Border was totally worth the "Home Alone" style sprint thru the airport after receiving a text from B.Weave saying "RUN to E31 RUN!!!"
We finally arrived in D.C. only to find that our hotels shuttles stopped running at 11 and it was 12:30, then our luggage came out on the belt only to find that our one extra bag with equipment in it had been mauled by the belt. B. Weave, being the champion traveler she is handled it all with ease. We all loaded into Taxi's 24 suitcases in tow for 5 hours of rest before heading off Monday morning to Zambia via, Rome, Addis Abebba, Zimbabwe, and finally Lusaka, Zambia. The flight from Zimbabwe to Lusaka was probably the worst due to the lack of belief in air conditioning and deodorant within the African nation.
Our arrival in Zambia was met with the usual headache, late luggage for over half of our group. We had a quick switchover at Addis Abebba, Ethiopia and not everyones stuff made it. They tell us that it should be here tomorrow or the next day for sure... **Fingers Crossed for the girls that don't have all or any of their luggage** For once mine all showed up and luckily some of the girls had stuck stuff in my extra suitecase so they atleast have deo and tooth brushes!
Our hotel is very nice and I'm pretty sure that after 3 days of non stop travel the shower I just took was one of the best I've ever had. We're 7 hours ahead of Arkansas and even though its only 8:30 pm Tuesday night I am exhaaausstteeddd.

Fro Yo, and not the ice cream place

Well folks, I AM A COLLEGE GRADUATE! yay!!! Saturday morning marked the day of my freedom from college life, and my move back into my parents house! haha! Graduation was long but I'm very glad that Dr.Ganus was the speaker. He did a great job and kept it short which was awesome since there were about 550 of us walking across the stage. In my usual fashion I couldn't just walk across stage without incidence. As I prepared to go up the stairs and receive my diploma I noted to a friend that I should have used bobby pins to keep my lovely hat on my lovely curls...but alas I did not because I was running late getting ready as usual. (Maybe I thought my hair would act sort of like velcro and just hold my hat on!) I did well walking towards Dr.Burks even shaking hands and receiving my empty diploma cover (diploma to be mailed in about 6 weeks) but as I turned to walk off the stage...well my hat just popped right off my fro-ish hair..that's right..the whole place got to witness my hat go flying off and bouncing across the stage! ha! I gracefully scooped it up and proceeded down the stairs. Not quite as exciting as the time there was a proposal at HU graduation, but I did receive several text messages eluding to my hat issues. O well what's a major life event without a good story right?! (The image above was taken moments after I stepped off the stage by the lovely Brittany Denton.)

Classes Slmashes, Hurry Graduation!

Well it has been quite some time since I've made a post and so much has happened since the last one. Spring break was a lot of fun. It included a wonderful trip to see my lovely friend Julia in Nashville TN. We always have so much fun when we are together. I also spent a good amount of time at home in Antoine working with Mr. Jimmy aka "Smilely". We got started on the beautiful remodel/redesign project of my bedroom and bathroom. He did all the tedious painting and I worked on destroying the tile in my bathroom to make room for the new beautiful tile. The project is now complete and looks awesome. I'm looking forward to moving back into my "grown up" room. :)
School has kept me very busy but I've gotten to splash a few other fun things in, like a trip to Houston with Jaime to see Brooks and Dunn at the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show! We had so much fun taking a fast and furious weekend road-trip together. Then there was Easter and Spring Sing Weekend! JP and Julia came to visit and I was soooo excited to see them both! I have such wonderful friends!
This week is my last official week as a Harding student. Today was my last day at my offsite clinical practicum. My supervisor and the staff at his office have been great all semester. They were so sweet today, they gave me a sweet graduation gift and let me know how much I will be missed. I'll miss them too. Tomorrow is my last day of classes before finals. It has been a wonderful 4 years. I've learned a lot during my time here and I am excited to take the next steps.