5/29/10
Today we completed our first week of therapy for the children at the Haven. I have been working with 3 wonderful students. There are three house called the Haven (Havens 1,2,3). Haven 3 houses the medically fragile children (don’t let this fool you…they are very lively). These children have been tested for HIV, TB and various other diseases. Haven 2 houses all of the energetic children…lol. They vary in age; however, the oldest is 4 I believe. Haven 1 houses mostly babies and toddlers. We have recently received two more babies. One of the children came earlier this week at 2 days old. He has a Tonga name that I cannot pronounce but in English it means “problem”. We think he was named this because his mother passed from hemorrhage after childbirth. He is very sweet and handsome. Sarah, one of the speech students, told the Aunties that we will have to find another name for him. He may be renamed Hunter. He is thriving. The other baby came today. His name is Alfred. He is 4 weeks old. One of the Aunties said that his mother is “mad” so he has been taken away (meaning there are concerns about her mental capabilities).
This morning one of the Aunties, Beaut, taught me how to “shatangi” (shuh-tang-ee) a baby. In case I didn’t tell you in an earlier blog, “shatangi” is the cloth that you see women wear here. You can wear it as a head cover, a skirt, make it into a shirt, etc. Zambian women have to wear skirts that are longer than their knees. We bought shantagi that we wear as skirts; however, we do wear tights underneath. Anyway, Beaut taught me how to throw a baby on my back and put the shatangi across around them to carry. So today I carried Beauty on my back for about 5 minutes. The African babies know exactly what to do when you “throw” them on your back (you literally grab them by the arm and sling em back there… but don’t worry they really are okay. No worries) I would have kept Beauty on my back for a longer amount of time; however, the whole cloth diaper thing was a concern. Speaking of which, I am an old professional at folding and changing children who wear cloth diapers. It takes me no time at all now. For future reference, I am shatangin’ all of my children and would suggest that you all do the same. It really frees up the hands and you always know where your child is. It is very nurturing for the child too. There is no limit to the things you can do when you shatangi!
The theme for therapy this week has been animals. We will start another theme next week. I think that we have sung enough animal themed songs to last us a year. It has been great for the children though. We are seeing more eye contact, tracking, smiles, facial expression, communicative intent, vocalizations, babbling and gestures. It has only been a week and the children are really responding to all of the language stimulation. We like to get the children out of their rooms so most of the time we will bring them to the common area for talking time. The toddlers are put into jumpers for leg strength and the babies are put into the feeding table (sits 8). We have beanie baby animals, laminated animals, cards and a book with animals inside. We are mainly trying to get them to imitate movement (oral (popping lips, rounding lips), clapping, raising hands, waving, etc.), imitate sounds, imitate inflection in sounds, initiate interaction, babble, attend to the activity (tracking animals, etc.) and more!! We would like to see the older children imitate movements, attend to the activities, imitate sounds, imitate words (more, up, down, walk) , imitate phrases (if appropriate), demonstrate understanding of simple commands (stop, go, walk), etc. Overall we are trying to stimulate their language as much as possible. We have done a lot of repetition; however, the children have responded well to it. The Aunties are teaching us how to use certain Tonga words too. Cada means sit down. Pepe means no. EE means yes….and that’s all my brain can remember right now. We have seen improvement in all of the areas we are targeting:) Yea!! We have a ways to go, but there has been progress in many of the children. We are planting and God will water and help our efforts to grow in their own time!!!
This morning I read Exodus 4:11 to the speech students I supervise….Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say… I always try to remind myself that God is behind and in front of everything that I do. He is in control of everything, even my therapy sessions. We are depending on God to be our mouths, our hands, our feet, our ears and our eyes. We ask that the love that He has for the children will continue to be shown through us while we are here and even we are away (I see many ways that I can continue to help while I am away). I smile and am very excited to see how He is prospering our work. There are challenges but overall it is allllll good (like Pete the Cat).
I am turning into Pete the Cat (if you don’t have this book then you should check it out…soon) I do love my Reebok Shaper White Shoes by the way…
Quick shout out to my CMS peeps….It is almost the end of the School Year!!! I know there is lots to do but count it down ladies!....Even though I am totally confused about what day it is out here…It has to be close to the end right?!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
One of the wonders:)
Have you ever heard of a moonbow? Well.....let me tell you what it is:) Today my group and I traveled to Livingstone to go to Victoria Falls (one of the 7 wonders of the world). It takes about 2.5 hours to drive from Kolomo to Livingstone. Once we got here we decided to get something to eat and chill until about 8:30. The moonbow is not an everyday sight. It happens only within a few days of a full moon on a clear night. Only a hand full of places have a moonbow. One is here at Victoria Falls on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is called a lunar rainbow. Apparently it happens only three days out of the year. Tonight was the first night it could be seen. We had a guide named Monday who showed us through the falls. Upon driving up you could hear the thundering sound of water...Amazing...All of a sudden through the dark you could see white waves billowing down the side of what looked like a huge mountain. When you looked below there it was...a rainbow at night...I could not believe what I was seeing. It was totally beautiful. Not only was I seeing one of the wonders of the world, which was amazing even at night, but I was seeing a lunar rainbow. I still can't believe that I saw it:) I looked above to see the most beautifully clear full moon. The reason why you could see the fall so well was because of the moon. Wow!
As we walked along Monday continued to show us other views of what God formed in His wonderful mind. Soooo much water. In the distance we could see Zimbabwe....Don't want to go there:( Not safe at all. Anyway, I hooked onto Jaime, one of the Speech Path. students. Jaime is hilarious. Jaime has a head-lamp:) Sooooo we come to a point in the tour where we cross a bridge from Indiana Jones that takes you straight through a part of the falls (exaggerating). Really though I am glad I had my poncho because we went through a portion of the falls and the whole bottom half of me was soaking wet. We screamed and laughed the whole time. We saw another beautiful side of the falls. As we went closer to the bottom Rachel slipped and fell. Literally a couple of feet from the edge, Caroline grabbed her and Catherine grabbed Caroline. Ohhh the drama! There was a wooden fence that would have stopped her but who knows how dependable that was? Didn't want to test it.
Soooo then I discovered that we had to go back and meet the others across the bridge. Wait...What? The others? Not everybody went across? Well, turns out my Jaime volunteered us both to go across the bridge:) I am glad she did because it was sooo fun! Foolin with these girls!!! I am sure that once I see it in the daylight I won't be able to believe that I went through that part of the falls.
Anyway, I sit here in the beautiful Protea in Livingstone and thank God for His creation. I am so glad that He chose me to come here to help the children at the Haven. I really enjoy working with the graduate students as well. Dr. Weaver and Dr. Tullos have a wealth of experience and information. The have such warm and giving hearts. It is great to work with this group.
Tomorrow we head back to Koloma. We will be here for breakfast. It has been a long day. We woke up around 7:45 then went to breakfast...off to the orphanage until 12:30....lunch then on the road to Livingstone....It is after 11 here and only 5:19 at home.
Ohh yeah, if you look up moonbow on Wikipedia you will see a really cool pic:) Until next time...
My new travel name is Sienna Sky.
As we walked along Monday continued to show us other views of what God formed in His wonderful mind. Soooo much water. In the distance we could see Zimbabwe....Don't want to go there:( Not safe at all. Anyway, I hooked onto Jaime, one of the Speech Path. students. Jaime is hilarious. Jaime has a head-lamp:) Sooooo we come to a point in the tour where we cross a bridge from Indiana Jones that takes you straight through a part of the falls (exaggerating). Really though I am glad I had my poncho because we went through a portion of the falls and the whole bottom half of me was soaking wet. We screamed and laughed the whole time. We saw another beautiful side of the falls. As we went closer to the bottom Rachel slipped and fell. Literally a couple of feet from the edge, Caroline grabbed her and Catherine grabbed Caroline. Ohhh the drama! There was a wooden fence that would have stopped her but who knows how dependable that was? Didn't want to test it.
Soooo then I discovered that we had to go back and meet the others across the bridge. Wait...What? The others? Not everybody went across? Well, turns out my Jaime volunteered us both to go across the bridge:) I am glad she did because it was sooo fun! Foolin with these girls!!! I am sure that once I see it in the daylight I won't be able to believe that I went through that part of the falls.
Anyway, I sit here in the beautiful Protea in Livingstone and thank God for His creation. I am so glad that He chose me to come here to help the children at the Haven. I really enjoy working with the graduate students as well. Dr. Weaver and Dr. Tullos have a wealth of experience and information. The have such warm and giving hearts. It is great to work with this group.
Tomorrow we head back to Koloma. We will be here for breakfast. It has been a long day. We woke up around 7:45 then went to breakfast...off to the orphanage until 12:30....lunch then on the road to Livingstone....It is after 11 here and only 5:19 at home.
Ohh yeah, if you look up moonbow on Wikipedia you will see a really cool pic:) Until next time...
My new travel name is Sienna Sky.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sista Sky
5/20/10 PM
Sooooo….Today we ate French toast for breakfast. I also cut up an apple and ate homemade peanut butter with it. The peanut butter literally tasted like Leonard made it 30 minutes before breakfast. Yum. I also learned that the fried chicken we ate yesterday was bought from Ms. Mono next door. I personally saw her chicken coop today by the way. It was kind of sad to see the chickens in the coop, but I was kind of glad to know that my chicken was as fresh as it could get. No KFC, Bojangles or Shomars here!
Today we went to town (Kolomo) to exchange our money for Kwacha (I totally don’t know if I am spelling that right). $1 is equal to about $5000 Kwacha. So I exchanged $180 dollars and got over 800,000 dollars in Kwacha. Wow. It seems like a lot of money to get from the bank in hand. I went to the store and bought a Sprite for $5000 Kwacha. What?! That is very expensive I thought! Then I remembered that it was only $1 ;) It takes a while for you mind to wrap around this idea after you have spent some much time dealing with our money system. When we went to the market I was looking at a piece of cloth and then they told me that it cost 10,000. What?! $10,000 for a piece of cloth? Well sir I have over 800,000 Kwacha in my pocket sooooo I guess I can afford it!
Now the market is literally tree branches strategically placed so that you can put cloth over top to make a roof…..It is a huge maze kind of thing. One of the men came up to me “Sista, Sista….******.”
Marja: I’m sorry sir I do not speak Tonga; however, I do speak English. Do you speak English?
Man from the market: No I do not speak English.
Marja: What do you mean? You just spoke in English.
Man from the market laughs…
Man from the market: You money? I hungry. I eat (Man laughs)
Marja: I’m sorry I don’t speak Tonga. ( I walk away…quickly) (You have to be careful about how and when you show your money, etc.)
Now, I am the only person of color in my group so all the girls thought it was absolutely hilarious. Actually it really was because “Sista” didn’t know what was he was saying. Now my new name is “Sista”.
Actually we all came up with travel names before we began our trip. My first travel name is Naomi but my second travel name is Sky. Some of the other names are Kenya, Maple, Charlotte, Chloe and I don’t remember the rest right now.
I am having a wonderful time here. We are taking this week to meet the people and get adjusted to the community. Next week we will begin working with the children in the Haven. First we will help the Aunties (this is what they call any woman who cares for family or children) take care of the children. If they need help changing them, feeding them, etc. Our main purpose is to help with speech and language needs; however, now we want to do more helping than getting in the way. It will take some time for the Aunties to get used to us being around so we will just go with the flow at first. We will work on feeding the little ones with special needs and will begin having language lessons later on next week. We have a huge shipment of medical supplies/speech-language supplies coming so that we can teach the Aunties how to teach language lessons with different themes, etc. The children have responded well to the lesson/themes left from last year.
I am really excited about the work here. This morning we went to chapel and heard beautiful African harmonies. We were also introduced to the first year college students. Dr. Tullos and Dr. Weaver will be teaching introductory classes while we are here. There is another speech therapist from Tenn. who specializes in feeding. I will help with speech/language lessons and supervise the graduate students in these areas. The other SLP will help with feeding and supervise in this area. I am eager to learn new trends in feeding and she is eager to learn more about serving young children in speech/language groups.
I don’t want to talk them up but mosquitoes are not really a problem. We do have spiders in our living space though. No biggie. Tonight I took a shower by head light. Sounds great doesn’t it? Super romantic right? Wrong… Our power went out briefly so I had to take a shower with the head lamp. The water is either hot or cold. It is a waste of time and water to try to find a happy medium. So imagine me in the shower with a head lamp trying to maneuver around extremely hot water with steam coming billowing up into the dark It is different from the US but it is really not that bad at all. I am really enjoying everything. Each experience brings about new adventures. Even when the lights went out we just laughed, lit a candle, put on head lamps and kept it moving. The atmosphere is so positive.
Ohhh yeah…Ms. Mono (the lady with the chickens) also makes really nice bags. You can take her your cloth and she will make you anything you want. She has really beautiful sling bags and little purses/wallets for you to buy. She is very kind. She also grows a lot of the vegetables that we have been eating (cabbage for the slaw and the tomatoes) .
The students said that they will teach us to sing and African dance. I am the one who has come to give of my time, experience and knowledge; however, I think that I will come away with much more than I can give. Until next time!!!
“Sista Sky”
Sooooo….Today we ate French toast for breakfast. I also cut up an apple and ate homemade peanut butter with it. The peanut butter literally tasted like Leonard made it 30 minutes before breakfast. Yum. I also learned that the fried chicken we ate yesterday was bought from Ms. Mono next door. I personally saw her chicken coop today by the way. It was kind of sad to see the chickens in the coop, but I was kind of glad to know that my chicken was as fresh as it could get. No KFC, Bojangles or Shomars here!
Today we went to town (Kolomo) to exchange our money for Kwacha (I totally don’t know if I am spelling that right). $1 is equal to about $5000 Kwacha. So I exchanged $180 dollars and got over 800,000 dollars in Kwacha. Wow. It seems like a lot of money to get from the bank in hand. I went to the store and bought a Sprite for $5000 Kwacha. What?! That is very expensive I thought! Then I remembered that it was only $1 ;) It takes a while for you mind to wrap around this idea after you have spent some much time dealing with our money system. When we went to the market I was looking at a piece of cloth and then they told me that it cost 10,000. What?! $10,000 for a piece of cloth? Well sir I have over 800,000 Kwacha in my pocket sooooo I guess I can afford it!
Now the market is literally tree branches strategically placed so that you can put cloth over top to make a roof…..It is a huge maze kind of thing. One of the men came up to me “Sista, Sista….******.”
Marja: I’m sorry sir I do not speak Tonga; however, I do speak English. Do you speak English?
Man from the market: No I do not speak English.
Marja: What do you mean? You just spoke in English.
Man from the market laughs…
Man from the market: You money? I hungry. I eat (Man laughs)
Marja: I’m sorry I don’t speak Tonga. ( I walk away…quickly) (You have to be careful about how and when you show your money, etc.)
Now, I am the only person of color in my group so all the girls thought it was absolutely hilarious. Actually it really was because “Sista” didn’t know what was he was saying. Now my new name is “Sista”.
Actually we all came up with travel names before we began our trip. My first travel name is Naomi but my second travel name is Sky. Some of the other names are Kenya, Maple, Charlotte, Chloe and I don’t remember the rest right now.
I am having a wonderful time here. We are taking this week to meet the people and get adjusted to the community. Next week we will begin working with the children in the Haven. First we will help the Aunties (this is what they call any woman who cares for family or children) take care of the children. If they need help changing them, feeding them, etc. Our main purpose is to help with speech and language needs; however, now we want to do more helping than getting in the way. It will take some time for the Aunties to get used to us being around so we will just go with the flow at first. We will work on feeding the little ones with special needs and will begin having language lessons later on next week. We have a huge shipment of medical supplies/speech-language supplies coming so that we can teach the Aunties how to teach language lessons with different themes, etc. The children have responded well to the lesson/themes left from last year.
I am really excited about the work here. This morning we went to chapel and heard beautiful African harmonies. We were also introduced to the first year college students. Dr. Tullos and Dr. Weaver will be teaching introductory classes while we are here. There is another speech therapist from Tenn. who specializes in feeding. I will help with speech/language lessons and supervise the graduate students in these areas. The other SLP will help with feeding and supervise in this area. I am eager to learn new trends in feeding and she is eager to learn more about serving young children in speech/language groups.
I don’t want to talk them up but mosquitoes are not really a problem. We do have spiders in our living space though. No biggie. Tonight I took a shower by head light. Sounds great doesn’t it? Super romantic right? Wrong… Our power went out briefly so I had to take a shower with the head lamp. The water is either hot or cold. It is a waste of time and water to try to find a happy medium. So imagine me in the shower with a head lamp trying to maneuver around extremely hot water with steam coming billowing up into the dark It is different from the US but it is really not that bad at all. I am really enjoying everything. Each experience brings about new adventures. Even when the lights went out we just laughed, lit a candle, put on head lamps and kept it moving. The atmosphere is so positive.
Ohhh yeah…Ms. Mono (the lady with the chickens) also makes really nice bags. You can take her your cloth and she will make you anything you want. She has really beautiful sling bags and little purses/wallets for you to buy. She is very kind. She also grows a lot of the vegetables that we have been eating (cabbage for the slaw and the tomatoes) .
The students said that they will teach us to sing and African dance. I am the one who has come to give of my time, experience and knowledge; however, I think that I will come away with much more than I can give. Until next time!!!
“Sista Sky”
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