I've been here about 17 days now - it seems like longer!!
Yesterday the baby at the hospital was brought to us here in the orphanage. He sleeps in the incubator at the minute but seems to be doing well - he certainly is a little fighter! He was abandoned outside on a rainy day and when he was found his blankets were soaked through! On the way back from the hospital, the probation officer called to say that there were 2 toddlers who needed picking up too. The little boy was abandoned in a coffee plantation, and the little girl was left by a dustbin. Its difficult when a baby is abandoned but its so much harder when a toddler is - they obviosuly understand more whats going on and find it difficult to adjust to being in a new places - with new faces - especially white ones!! Nonetheless Nathaniel seems to be doing well, he has a cheeky little smile and a very cute giggle when tickled. Unfortunately Nathaniel appears be suffering from kwashiorkor - a protein deficiency, so his face and stomach are swollen from malnourishment.
On saturday evening I went with Dwayne, his adoptive parents, and their daughter to the clinic, Dwayne and Scilila were very sick. After a few blood tests it was determined that Scilia had malaria and Dwayne had an intestinal bacterial infection. The doctor said that on a level of 1 to 4, 4 being the worst Scilia was at 1 - the fact that she was on malarone helped a great deal! They had only arrived in the country 10 to 11 days ago so she most have been bitten on her 1st or 2nd night in the country! The medecine they are taking is extremely effective and they are both doing really well.
Being in the pre-school/toddler room observing last week has been emotionally challenging - to say the least. The way things are done in there want to make me either scream out in anger or frustration or just cry because its makes me so upset. Forgetting the fact that I am a nursery nurse some things should just be so obvious but the workers just dont see it. The kids range from 20 months to 7 years in preschool. They expect the children to sit for 1 hour listening to story after story after story - and when they dont sit and listen they get 'beaten' - spanked. The guy who leads pre-school makes me laugh - in a bad way - there are about 11 kids who do school lessons and he gets them to sing the alphabet song together about 5 times and then on their own twice!! and then we do the days of the week, and lest they get anything wrong they'll get 'beat' too!! I've walked out on the odd occassion because I just cant handle seeing these kids being spanked because they aren't singing the alphabet song right.
So. yesterday I had a meeting with all the Mamas, after spending a long time revising the schedule, and I explained the schedule to them and asked them if there was anything they would want to change or if there was anything they thought would not work. They didnt really say much, and its quite hard to get them to convey any feelings or opinions. I suppose for them its probably hard having some 'stranger' walk in and change things - but as I explained to them - Im trying to make everyones life easier and we are all working for the common good of these children. Ive also set up a reward system for good behaviour, for obeying, for good manners etc, all the kids seem really keen and excited about it - since the reward/treat will be a trip to the swimming pool! Well, the official preschool lessons and schedule will start tomorrow, so Im hoping that things will work as well as planned! Although that is rarely the case!