I have a little black shadow, his name is Jonathan. If I go the field he wants to go. If I am sitting on the couch he is either in my lap or next to me. He wants to hold my hand when walking somewhere. He tells me that he will follow me to America and wants to stay there. I wish I could take him with me when I leave. The thought of leaving already tears my heart out and we just got here a week ago. I'm making plans about when I can come back.
Today we started tutoring groups with the kids for math and reading. I choose the youngest group, that don't even know their letters. I have Ugo, Noso, Kwasi, Ababy, Terry, Jonathan, and Emeka. This group has A LOT of energy. Their ages range from 5 to 15. The oldest has developmental delays. We tried just writing the alphabet so I could see what I was working with. But I quickly found out that wasn't going to fly. So I had them write their names and tell me the letters in their names. Well that didn't work either. So they would tell me the alphabet and I would write the letters down. So they would say “A” I would write “A”, and then they would say “A, B” and I wrote “B” and so on. We went through both upper case and lower case alphabet. Then we started making the letters with their bodies and taking pictures. This they really liked. Whoever wasn't in the letter would see if they had done it correctly and would move them into the right position.
Of course we went to the field today. The kids would love to always go to the field. Guys I can't stress enough how good these kids are. It's so much fun to play with them, I love just watching them. Destiny always dances and sings whenever the ball isn't near us. And he yells in his language, he is from another part of Nigeria, so not all of the kids understand him, and he just laughs and laughs. It's great to see.
We have also been bracelet making fools here. I pretty much am always making one for a kid, and most kids now know how to do it.
Well I was informed that we may be getting a new baby, like right now. The family is down stairs. I think the mother died in child birth. I'm hiding in my room with Sati, a boy who has a big ulcer thing on his leg in my room because I'm wearing the same clothes I went to the field in. He's coloring and I'm praying and frantically blogging. And we are both eating gummy bears. His dinner was just brought in, but no spoon to eat with, so his yam and beans are hanging out on the shelf. Now we are singing and dancing (quietly). I love this kid. I wish you could have just seen his face when I popped my neck. Priceless.
PLEASE pray for this baby! I don't know the name, I don't know much at all other than it may soon be part of the A Place of Hope family. While you are praying for babies, please please pray for Chibeuze. He is about a year and a half old and is very very sick. We are worried he wont make it. We are pretty sure he has HIV, and he is so small. I thought he was just a few months old. He is so weak as well. He can barely hold his head up when you are holding him. He recently stopped throwing up his medicine, pray that continues and that God's healing hands would hold this precious baby boy.
Also pray for Sati's leg to heal, and Odi to fully recover from her surgery (she had her appendix removed.)
Thanks for reading all this, you guys are great.
I would recommend that you teach them the Alphabet song. Whenever I read stories of people-- like you, my big red beautiful giraffe-- working with orphans, I feel so grateful for the advantages I had as a child and yet I feel sad for the kids who don't even think about the next year, but rather, the next day, week, or month. Or the next hour, even, like the little HIV baby. I sometimes gripe about how horrid my year has been due to lack of employment, while here are these kids across the ocean on another continent who might not have many chances in life. I want you to tell all your children this: we are all born with the same opportunities in life-- love, education, employment, etc., but it is how we make USE of these opportunities that determines what sort of life we will have. These kids have no choice except to reach for the stars...even if it's one dim little star in the great big universe. Also please tell them, for me at least, that the best thing a Christian can do is to live through the love of Jesus Christ; because THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT CHRISTIANITY IS LOVE.
ReplyDeleteI love you Brie! Please stay safe and keep up your good works. I will pray for you.