Another trip to the Village

Laura and I made another trip to the village to visit the Toddlers who graduated from the babies home to their new homes in the village at Bbira.

Our Toddlers are getting bigger and fatter and they look great, although they are often running around without any pants.

The mums of the toddlers have now been given more children, so they have a household consisting of a couple of toddlers and a couple of older children.

One of these children is Jennifer, she is 8 years old and was orphaned this year, she loves taking my camera and taking photos and teaching me Luganda... I love spending time with all the kids, we have a lot of fun, but I particularly love Jennifer.
She has a lot of spunk and a lot of energy and I really connect with her.

So I went to the Watoto offices to find out if I can sponsor her long term and it turns out I can and I am so excited about that. I am unsure how I will afford it in the short term (as in before I return home and get a real job) but Its great to have met the person I will be sponsoring....
Here are some photos.

Jennifer and I

All the kids
Tia wanting cuddles (She was a baby from the babies home)

Staying until end of 2008

I have been thinking and praying about staying on in Uganda until the end of 2008.
I don't necessarily have the means, but I want to make the most of this amazing opportunity, and I want to work with these children for as long as I can.

Every day is hard work, and I get sick a lot, and very tired, but somehow everyday I wake up excited about the day. I love the kids and I love being able to have the priviledge to take the place of a parent in their life, to love them and hold them and do my best to fill the deep void that is left by being orphaned.

If you want I need support in the following ways:
* Stay in contact with me, write me on here or facebook or email - it makes home feel so much closer than it is.
* Pray for me - there is potential for illness and accidents here that I wish to avoid, and it's always nice to know people are praying for you. Pray for the kids as well, many are sick, or have concerns - and then there are the financial needs of the organisation, so pray for them to be met too.
* Donate to myself or to Watoto or to just about anything in this world that does something to help those less fortunate than us - which is just about everyone - CAUSE WE ARE SOOOO LUCKY!! - You just don't know how lucky we are....
* If you feel extra special enthusiastic - send me a little package in the mail (contact me for the address) with maybe some lollies or a letter or something funny to cheer me, or something cool for the kids?!? Nothing big, it's just so much fun to recieve mail. YAY.

Ok in the meantime thanks to everyone for their support - and some of you have been absolutely amazing in the support you've given me - you know who you are - I love you so much, thanks heaps.

I will have more updates soon.

JOY

Recently a little girl came to us abandoned at a local landmark, she was scared, wouldn’t take milk or solids, and began to loose weight quickly. She wanted to sleep all the time and seemed to have little desire to fight for herself.
Nicole and Annie recommended carrying her for a few days to see if that helped… so for 3-4 days I carried her in a pouch everywhere I went at work, and even a few times when I went out.
It was so much fun, that I probably got more out of it than she did.
She was running high temperatures, and we were worries she had TB, but after a few trips to the doctor, and some cold medication, she’s picked up and doing well.
She’s started smiling, taking milk and even a few mouthfuls of solids.

I’ve stopped carrying her (as much) but I miss her cuddles and now the nannies call me Joy’s Mummy when they can’t remember my name (They call me Freaky when they can remember my name because that is how they pronounce Flick…)

This is Joy looking very happy...

Eli, The Village and Afternoon Baths

Because I said I would - here are some random photos.

First is ELI - he came to us weighing ONE KILO... He was so tiny, but at least a month has passed and he is doing well, but here's what he looked like when he arrived..

Also I promised photos from my visits to the village to see the toddlers who moved on... so here goes...

Below - Laura and her bare bottomed boys.... no nappies like at the babies home

Below: John still loves to steal my glasses and he still loves me...

Dorica and I with the houses in the background

Below: Innocent and Scottie with me. The mummy made me a Chai tea, and if you know me you know I can't stomach milk, particularly hot milk.... but I did it, eeeek

Below Is Julian with his new mummy - she is wonerful and he loves her - hes just not impressed that Laura - the other love of his life is leaving.

Below: Innocent and I - having cuddles.

Now for the cutest thing - afternoon baths on a hot day.... photos speak for themselves.

Peace out.

Muzungu baby

To be honest with all these gorgeous African babies, I was beginning to think I would never find a Muzungu (White) baby cute ever again… however I was wrong.

I turned up to work the other day and got the shock of my life… in amongst the African babies sat what appeared to be a mostly white baby. First I assumed that he belonged to a visitor, but when all the nannies starting getting excited and asking me if I met the Muzungu baby I realized he was here to stay.

His name is Craig and at a guess he is just under 12 months. His Grandma is a very light African, his mother is darker, and works as a prostitute in Kampala, the father is either Indian, Arab or Caucasian. The mother has tried abandoning him numerous times and has been in trouble with the police for it. This last time they intervened and placed Craig with us.

He spent the first few days like most of the new ones, in shock tears and with lots of cuddles. As he seemed to be settling and smiling a lot more, his mother came for a visit, and watching her spend 10 minutes with him and then leave him crying and screaming, broke my heart.

In most cases I think it’s best for a child to reunited with their parents if at all possible, but I am unsure about Craig, it’s hard to know what really is best for him.

He is still doing well, though he needs lots of cuddles, they are never in short supply… everyone loves him.

meet Craig......

Swimming

Sorry for the delay in updating this, my weeks have been both hectic and devoid of internet access.

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to take some of the toddlers (Peter, Arnold, Solomon and Abdul) swimming with Gloria, a volunteer from Australia who is also an amazing swimming teacher

For many Ugandans swimming is not something they learn growing up and subsequently many fear the water. So we were hoping that this early introduction into swimming would help to curb that for these 4 youngsters.

Initially they were all afraid, but Gloria did a beautiful job calming them and distracting them into enjoying themselves. Arnold was a surprise hit, he tends to be the grumpiest child of the lot, and he would try so hard to keep his grumpy face on, but a smile kept creeping on his face and in the end he was laughing and cried upon return to the Babies home.

It was so much fun to swim with these guys and watch them learn.

Even though Gloria has returned home now, we hope to continue taking them.

Enjoy the pictures.

Below is Arnold getting dressed to go swimming

Below is the four of them in their ugly looking but very cool pusher...

Below is me looking strange but Abdul looking gorgeous..... man he hung on tight.
Below is Arnold waiting for his turn...

Below is Gloria wih Solomon

Below is Peter and Elizabeth....

Below is Peter and Arnold drying off

Below is Gloria and Peter

Baby Jonathan

Last week was my first week working in the clinic with the premature babies. We are able to help the premature babies better than the local hospital and usually the nurses work in this room and keep the ridiculously small and sick babies alive.
This week I worked in there, and all the babies are doing well. The two smallest are in the incubators, one being Eli who came about 2 weeks ago weighing just under 1kg. He's a strong little fella with lots of fight, and he loves getting taken out for cuddles.

Anyway the other night a baby came in at just before 6pm. He was WHITE which is apparantly not that abnormal for African babies, but it looked a little like those strange cats with no fur. Quite a scary sight.
His mother was with him, and the story goes that she had tried to abort him at 36 weeks (as most of you know this is not far of birth) this induced labour and she then gave birth to a live baby. She tried to abandom him but was seen and brought to us. So baby Jonathan was born in the morning and arrived with us in the evening. He was cold and sickly looking. His mother had not even cleaned up from the birth.

While we warmed the incubator and cleaned it (having just kicked out another baby who didn't need to be in the incubator as much as this one did) Rachel held him to warm him.

He was placed in the incubator and we watched him for a while, wondering how he was going to do.

At 7pm we finished out shift.

At 8pm Nicola went to feed him and noticed his heartrate dropping dramatically, she rushed him to hospital but he died.

Today we have his funeral.

It breaks me heart that his mother did this to him, that she thought it was her only way, it makes me cry that he was not wanted, yet many couples go childless and would have given anything to have this baby. If the mother waited and gave birth naturally and then abandoned him safely, then even that would have been better for this poor boy.

Now Jonathan is gone. He lived a day. It was so hard, I just wish there could have been another way.

So Its been a sad few days. I am not used to this death thing.

Bye for now