What have I been up to? Well, Rachel and I have started snack time with small groups of 3-4 tots from the baby house on Monday and Wednesday afternoon. They all get snacks each day, twice a day and they try to be healthy, but because there are so many kids, they aren’t necessarily the most nutritious of snacks, especially considering what their regular meals consist of each day: Breakfast is a non-nutritous porridge thing they call papino that is pretty much just warm and filling and a glass of water. Lunch is rice with some topping (soup with a few veggies for the smaller ones when they first start eating “solid” food, but we just moved all of them up to full rice) and water. Dinner is rice with some topping and juice. All the bigger kids not taking bottles get a glass of milk before bedtime. The toppings are things like greens (reminiscent of spinach but definitely not as good), cabbage, beans, chicken, fish, noodles & potatoes. So they only get protein a few meals a week (almost once a day). We give all the HIV(+) babies yogurt three times a week and put peanut butter in their papino for breakfast. The other nurse, Erin, that does the HIV (+) kids and helps me give meds a few times a week and I have started buying and cooking meat or hard boiled eggs to put in a few of our growing toddlers meals 6 times a week. These are for a most vulnerable that are having trouble putting on some pounds after being so malnourished when they first got here. Then we put peanut butter in a soy based papino that has extra vitamins and minerals for a few of the toddlers that still need some extra nutrition and then 3 of them are getting plumpy nut (more protein and nutrients then peanut butter prescribed for the malnourished) in their regular papino to beef them up. Most of our bigger kids are more adjusted cause they have been with us for awhile, but our toddlers who haven’t been here as long are still working on growing. They don’t look skin and bones I will agree, but if you saw them in person, most all (except Alirio) are much smaller than they should be for their age. So Rachel and I have started this snack time idea I had. I really desired to pull out smaller groups and have more one-on-one time with the little guys….get them in a quieter environment than the crazy baby house and just love on them for a little bit. So we put the entire house except the 4 baby babies into groups of 4’s and we’re just rotating time with them. We are trying to focus on nutritious snacks with protein, veggies, or fruits since they don’t get this as often, but of course I gotta spoil them every now and then! We spread reed mats out on the tiny plot of sand that I call my “garden” and sit them all down and have snacks together….they try to understand our Portuguese, and we try to understand theirs. It’s lots of fun. The first round was pudding with 4 chocolate chips in it and a glass of milk…I know, don’t get too crazy or anything! As a side note…I have to figure out how to say…”Do not tear the leaves off the plants please” in Portuguese. Also, note the color of the cups…not coincidental my friends. Auburn football kicks off in less than 30 days and I’m sad I’m missing the action! Here’s pics from this weeks lucky snackers:
Yuran in back, Daniel on left, and Neto on the right
We had some extra help this day so we did two groups…ambitious!
In back L to R: Arsina, Martinha 1, Sam, Nilton; in front L to R: Martinha 2, Raquel, Joao
This is Martinha 1 with a milk mustache...she could be the poster child for the next milk campaign.
Birthday parties! Each month at the beginning of the month we celebrate all the birthdays. The kids all think it’s really fun. We sing and clap, blow out candles, and have cake. I have a little video of this up on my video site. Yes, before you ask…it IS a Mozambican tradition that whoever is doing the celebrating cut the cake…no matter the age…it’s just what you do….You actually cut all the pieces and serve it. This is why in the video you will see Tracy, the baby house director, helping 2 small two year olds cut a cake with a very large knife. It’s Africa, but we aren’t that crazy.
Nemias turns two. This is the same child that you have seen sitting in my lap on prayer cards, ect from when I visited last year. He’s growing up. Some of you might also remember prayer request emails I sent out about him in March when he was really sick and intensive care for quite a while with multiple organ failure and in a coma. By all accounts he should have died! Here he is quiet a character in the baby house!
Louisa is 2 as well and LOVES CAKE! She ate quite a few pieces, then went around to all the empty bowels to scrape out the little morsels she found after the other kids had left their bowels and went to play…when she was done and there was no more cake to be had…she laid in the floor, arms and legs sprawled out bawling big crocodile tears. It was quite amusing (for us). It was, in fact, her party…so she was allowed to cry if she wanted.
The smallest toddlers learning how to hold their bowels in one hand and eat cake with the other like the big kids do (L to R): Francisco, Mindah, Alirio, Dino, Antonio.…I like Francisco’s style!
I’m also praying about a few opportunities that would allow me (and you) to not only develop a deeper relationship with each of these tots, but help them start building a relationship and foundation with their heavenly Daddy! I’ll let you in on the details when I figure out how and when as God gives me more vision for these areas. Please join me in praying about this.
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