"No Matter What"

Well... the internet has been out ALL weekend long! Well, not all weekend, but definitely off anytime I really needed it. Which was very unfortunate since I had to miss 2 Skype dates with my Dad! Bummer. So... I need to fill you in on everything that's been going on!

Friday was my last day of language therapy... for that week anyway. It was getting a little crazy and I could tell even the kids needed a little weekend break. We did do the little language "safari" with Haven 3 and they loved it. That's what the pictures from the previous post are from. Friday night we decided to continue the tradition of movie night and we watched Hope Floats... great movie, but we all decided we wished hope would have floated more than the last 5 minutes of the movie!

The next day we canceled our breakfast with Leonard and got to sleep in! It was so needed... but when I woke up, I had a nasty cold! Since the internet was out, we spent the morning either sleeping or reading. After lunch, we headed into Kalomo for some shopping in the market. Kaylee, Lacey, and I figured we were good on our market purchases and really just wanted to get a snack at the little fast food place and then buy cokes and snacks from the little convenient store. When we walked back there, we found out that both of those places were closed! Big bummer. So we went on a wild goose chase looking for Cokes and ended up going in a few shady stores before finding what we wanted! We were so glad when we finally had our cokes and waters in hand. The road from Kalomo to Namwianga is a pretty decent little drive. A couple miles if you're walking... which most people do. Everytime we drive it, the Zambians try to flag us down to catch a ride. With all 12 of us in there, Khaki Jackie is already packed. The Zambian motto is "there's always room for 1 more!"... however, we are not Zambians and normally we decide there really isn't any room. That may sound terrible, but it's normally groups of people asking for rides, and there is really just no way. On Saturday as we were coming back to Namwianga, we passed a guy who held out his hand trying to wave us down. When we passed, he immediately started running thinking we were going to stop for him. Someone noticed his walking stick and pointed out that the man was blind. We all decided that this time, there was definitely room for 1 more! We stopped and Catherine, who was sitting on the end, helped the guy into the van and he rode with us back to the college. Turns out he was in Dr. Tullos' speech class and his name is Francis. He had walked to Kalomo that morning to buy a big bucket to keep clean water in. That is a LONG walk to just buy a bucket. Especially if you are blind! We were so happy we were able to give him a ride back. Our generosity even made Dr. Weaver cry. She said she was so proud of us, but all we could think was how could we NOT have stopped??

We spent the rest of the day reading, but by after dinner, I felt pretty miserable. I ended up taking some niquil and conking out by 7! If you know me at all, you know how ridiculous that is. The next morning, I still felt pretty bad. We went to church and then outside to have children's Bible class. We had leftovers for lunch and then we had from 1 til 5:30 to do whatever! I think half of us read and the other half slept. I read the entire 1st book of the Percy Jackson series. It was great! So much better than the movie- surprise surprise. For dinner we had "toasted cheese" or grilled cheese sandwiches with chips! One of the favorites around here, for sure. Bad news of the day was that Sarah had strep throat, Lacey has a stomach flu, I still had a bad cold, and Caroline's grandfather passed away. Since we had all that going on, that half of our group stayed home from church and were asleep by the time everyone else got home!

This morning Sarah and I were both feeling better, but Lacey spent the whole night with a bucket. Poor thing! She is getting better all the time, but we're still not sure if she'll be able to come to the Haven tomorrow. After breakfast, we headed to the Haven. The first half of this week I'll be with Caroline doing the feeding groups! I was so excited to be back! I had missed those babies! All of our babies were doing great! Hamilton is getting to be a little fatty cheeks. We're still working with him, but prayers are working! Miller went to the nurse this morning, and Hamilton, Lushomo, and Alfred fell asleep so it was just Wesley and the girls left this morning. Caroline decided to pull out a book to read to them while they practiced sitting up. The book is called "No Matter What" about a baby fox and his mamma. The baby asks the mom "what if I was.... would you still love me?" and the mamma always replies with "I'll always love you, no matter what." Well at one point the baby asks, "What if you are far away? Does your love go, too, or does it stay?" And the mamma's reply was so sweet that we just couldn't help it... Jaime and I both teared up! Really? Really. We're saps.

The morning flew by and pretty soon it was time for lunch. We had enchiladas, rice, and......SALSA! Kaylee was more than happy. If you don't know Kaylee, well, salsa is basically her favorite food and she has been dreaming of it everyday since we had it last- which was at OTB in the Atlanta airport! This afternoon we spent almost our entire time at Haven 3 with at least one of us changing a diaper. Those kids were exploding. Dennis downed his bottle so fast this afternoon, though! He was a little champ. In Haven 1, we sat all of our babies in the little cradle roll table to try out feeding them rice cereal (which is just a powder formula mixed with water so it's kind of baby food consistency). Some of them were great with it! Others... well, they got it all over themselves and all over us! Caroline did warn us at the very beginning that feeding therapy was messy. And she was so right! But I really am having fun with it so it's okay!Miller, Lushomo, and Hamilton with Ian about to start feeding therapy with rice cereal!

Tonight we're doing Zumba and reading... both our favorite past times here in Zambia!

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel, i am so glad to catch up on your blog! I am so proud of the work you are doing and happy you are having this amazing experience! Missed you in Mexico....it was wonderful, but glad to be home! I love you and miss you tons! Mom

Anonymous said...

totally not surprised at all when i heard you teared up, your just such a sweetheart. love you jordan

Anonymous said...

totally not surprised that the book was better than the movie...cough harry potter cough. i dont think i've heard anyone talk so much about the differences between the book and movie. haha :) - joce

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I'm a graduate student working to become a Speech-Language Pathologist. I'm in love with my best friend, Jordan. I love cheese. I love elephants. I love reading.

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