So I'm breaking my pattern of waiting weeks in between postings because this is a bit of a slow week and I had a really fun morning.
So I've mentioned in this blog before about the other NGO in Mokhotlong called Touching Tiny Lives (TTL). TTL is an organization that works with malnurished and sick babies, which is pretty amazing. It's nice because I get to go over there whenever I want and play with the adorable babies...they're REALLY cute. This is all just background so you understand about my morning. About 2 months ago TTL took in a little girl named Nteboheng. She is turning 5 years old this weekend actually. When Nteboheng came to TTL she was just shy of 5 years old and weighed only 9kg (or roughly 20 lbs). It was heartbreaking to see her. She was SO thin and weak and frightened about being away from home. In addition, she was really sick and is HIV positive.
However, since coming to TTL Nteboheng has made amazing progress. She has gained weigh and is really outgoing and just plain adorable. She happens to be the oldest child at TTL, and as a result has very little to do during the day. So last week I decided that I would visit her at least once a week for some one-on-one "big girl" time. Today was the first day.
I brought a coloring book (thanks mom) and some crayons so we could color together. It was really fun. Nteboheng is still really young so she doesn't speak any english so communication is interesting with my limited sesotho. She's really smart and she would repeat the names of the colors we were using. I brough some nail polish and painted her fingers and toes too. She loved it! It was so cute watching her hobble around, feining wet nails, to show the women working with the other babies her new nails. It was pretty much the highlight of my whole month just wrestling around and tickling and playing with this little girl. The most hilarious part was watching her play with her doll. She was acting like a typical basotho woman with it. She put the doll on her back and then tied it around her with a little blanket just like the women here do with real babies. I can't wait to go back with my camera and film her doing it.
I'm really excited to spend more time with her because she's such a sweet little girl. Next on the agenda is outside playtime, and finger paint if I can get my hands on some! Overall it was a fabulous day and I thought I would share it with you guys!
TTL has a blog as well if you're interested in what they are doing check them out at touchingtinylives.blogspot.com
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
April is Gone...
So it's already May...Cinco de Mayo actually. I really had very little going on this past month so this is more of a random update.
I spent the first two weeks after coming back from vacation battling a nasty cold...and NO I did not have malaria if that's what you were thinking. During that time I did some business stuff with the mico-loan project with TTL at GROW, but not much else. I did however have a pretty major victory though. Here's the story: GROW was putting on a hastily-put-together HIV/AIDS Sports Tournament in Malfiloane (west of me). I made some inquiries about it because I was curious what they were going to talk about and found that they had no plan, so clearly I needed to insert my skills. Well during the meeting with the GROW guys I managed to convince them, after a heated debate, that we should distribute condoms and do a condom demonstration. It was like a mega high-five moment because culturally Basotho are really closeted about sex related things. The event itself wasn't my favorite time. It's REALLY cold in Malefiloane for starters. But the day began with a road race which was fun to watch. Many people were running either 4 or 10K and not even wearning shoes...dang. But everyone had a good time. I ended up doing a condom demo for a group of like 40 married people, the girl sitting directly in front of me was only like 16 and had a baby. It was really fun for me and was the first time I had ever done one so I was excited about it. The real highlight for me was after when everyone was gathered around the MC table and an older women walked up and grabbed a handful of condoms in front of like 200 people. You have no idea how huge that is...I was super pumped, but obviously I sat there calmly as if this were a normal occurance that didn't surprise me at all. One of the GROW guys even walked around passing the condoms out.
I also managed to meet some new people this month. I randomly got a phone call on Friday afternoon from a girl who got my number through the PC grapevine. So long story short, I had two girls from Holand spend the night at my place. They were super sweet and have been traveling around Southern Africa for a bit. It was nice to chat with them about their experiences and stuff. I had Sara sleep over too just in case they wierd, which as it turns out, they weren't.
My lifeskills classes have been going pretty well, alhtough my 6th graders are not very well behaved. I had them all do an exercise where they had to draw pictures of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Pretty much all the girls wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher, whereas the boys were either doctor, police, or soldiers. I did have an interesting question put into my anonymous question box last week. One of my grade 6ers put in a question asking for help because the people she is staying with, because her parents are working in South Africa, accused her of stealing money and are beating her for it. It sucks. My friend got one the other day from a little girl whose uncle and father are repeatedly raping her. We're both trying to find the best ways to help our students though.
I'm pretty sure that's all that really happened this month. I've read some really good books, hung out with the awesome volunteers at TTL.
thats all for now I guess.
I spent the first two weeks after coming back from vacation battling a nasty cold...and NO I did not have malaria if that's what you were thinking. During that time I did some business stuff with the mico-loan project with TTL at GROW, but not much else. I did however have a pretty major victory though. Here's the story: GROW was putting on a hastily-put-together HIV/AIDS Sports Tournament in Malfiloane (west of me). I made some inquiries about it because I was curious what they were going to talk about and found that they had no plan, so clearly I needed to insert my skills. Well during the meeting with the GROW guys I managed to convince them, after a heated debate, that we should distribute condoms and do a condom demonstration. It was like a mega high-five moment because culturally Basotho are really closeted about sex related things. The event itself wasn't my favorite time. It's REALLY cold in Malefiloane for starters. But the day began with a road race which was fun to watch. Many people were running either 4 or 10K and not even wearning shoes...dang. But everyone had a good time. I ended up doing a condom demo for a group of like 40 married people, the girl sitting directly in front of me was only like 16 and had a baby. It was really fun for me and was the first time I had ever done one so I was excited about it. The real highlight for me was after when everyone was gathered around the MC table and an older women walked up and grabbed a handful of condoms in front of like 200 people. You have no idea how huge that is...I was super pumped, but obviously I sat there calmly as if this were a normal occurance that didn't surprise me at all. One of the GROW guys even walked around passing the condoms out.
I also managed to meet some new people this month. I randomly got a phone call on Friday afternoon from a girl who got my number through the PC grapevine. So long story short, I had two girls from Holand spend the night at my place. They were super sweet and have been traveling around Southern Africa for a bit. It was nice to chat with them about their experiences and stuff. I had Sara sleep over too just in case they wierd, which as it turns out, they weren't.
My lifeskills classes have been going pretty well, alhtough my 6th graders are not very well behaved. I had them all do an exercise where they had to draw pictures of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Pretty much all the girls wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher, whereas the boys were either doctor, police, or soldiers. I did have an interesting question put into my anonymous question box last week. One of my grade 6ers put in a question asking for help because the people she is staying with, because her parents are working in South Africa, accused her of stealing money and are beating her for it. It sucks. My friend got one the other day from a little girl whose uncle and father are repeatedly raping her. We're both trying to find the best ways to help our students though.
I'm pretty sure that's all that really happened this month. I've read some really good books, hung out with the awesome volunteers at TTL.
thats all for now I guess.
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