When Emily left I inherited her favorite kid, Bobby. He is truly a little light around here with his big brown eyes and huge smile. He is one of the three toddlers who is HIV-positive but you would never know. Baby Katie, one of the others with HIV, seems like she is always sick, taking rasping breaths and having a constant nose drip or crusted snot under her nose. Speaking of being sick--we've had quite a go of it here at Amani, both kids and volunteers. When I arrived all the toddlers and babies had a cold and some had some stomach issues as well. Andrea, the main nurse here, came in dejectedly one day earlier this week, sat down with a sigh, and said, "I need to take some kids to the doctor...I just don't know what this is and I'm at my wits ends. All the kids are sick and all the volunteers are sick." And that was before the chickenpox outbreak that (visibly) began yesterday. Maria, the older woman adopting, was all set to leave on Sunday and then Savannah got chickenpox and couldn't be cleared to fly. It wouldn't have mattered even if she had because now Weiss has it and he would have never been cleared so close to flight time. It's quite the adventure! Christy and I were going to take some kids on an outing today to Bujugali Falls, but we're not allowed to take anyone out now, lest we expose some village kids somewhere.
Yesterday was my last shift at Amani and it was a great day overall. We went in to town to the agriculture trade show. It was an interesting experience to see everything although rather underwhelming overall. The crafts weren't that great and there were mostly stands about growing things more efficiently in Africa, using solar power, etc. It was uplifting to see so much hope about the future though. In fact, the main tag line of the show was something along the lines of, "Increasing agricultural production as the stimulus for economic growth in Africa." There was a microcredit booth there, and the World Food Programme had a tent advertising that they are the largest buyer of food in Uganda and that they offer the Food for Education program to encourage Ugandans to keep their children in school. This type of program has been successful in southeast Asia. We were literally the only mzungus around for most of the fair, but it wasn't crowded and I never felt unsafe.
I spent my last shift like I always do, pushing kids on the swing, pulling them in the wagons, sitting on the hill. Yesterday was probably the hottest day we've had since I've been here, but by 5:30 it was beautiful and even got to be quite cool. As we walked into the toddler house for dinner, Francis asked me if I would take him to town tomorrow and I said no and explained why. He looked and me and said, "Then I don't love you anymore" with a coy smile. One of the mama's said, "Francis! That is your friend" and then she turned to me and told me that he calls me "mama." That didn't last long though--he gave me one the biggest hugs ever when I finished reading the story. (It was actually more like a headlock since he's in the middle bunk and was at eye level with me).
A large group of us headed over to the Gately, one of the nicer hotels in Jinja that just happens to be right across the street from us. They have a good restaurant there and we had all been anticipating a good dinner for several days. It didn't dissapoint. We sat on the candle-lit patio, with the geckos climbing all over the walls and the lit fountain running out in the yard. It seemed to me what the true mzungu experience of Africa is when we go on extravagant safaris and stay at hotels that, while (sometimes) cheap by our standards, are full of luxuries. It was nice to take in for a night but I think I would still prefer walking around a village to get to know Africa. So as my time comes to and end, I'm thankful for all the fun times with the kids and the things I got to see and do. I'm looking forward to coming home now!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment