All the time - God is good
On Tuesday we recieved official confirmation that the 10 pending court cases have been approved - to quote Vince 'the judge said yes'!! This means that Duane, Joseph, Vince, Becca, Paul, Violet, Chloe, Noah, Maria and Musa all get to go home with their Mums and Dads. All that remains to do is for the parents to fly out get the kids passports and visas and then they can leave and finalise adoption in the States. Some of the parents are due to arrive tomorrow. The proceedures should hopefully take no more than 2 weeks although - CHOGM starts very soon and this means that most government buildings will be shut for this period. Hopefully all the kids will get home in time for Christmas - that would be so special!
Yesterday we went to Mama Lois sister's wedding in a small remote village! It took about 2 hours to drive through the villages untill we got to the brides village. As we drove up all the african ladies started to do there 'Yai yai yai yai yai' chant and they was such a big crowd of people gathered outside our van that we struggled to get out. They were all eager to shake our hands and hug us! They then lead us to the shade where there was a group playing some african instruments and singing. We were then shoved back into the van where we were served rice, chicken and matoke. We were told that the bride was waiting for us to finish our food in order to come out! So we gobbled it up as much and as quickly as we could! Then the bride came out of her hut and walked down to the van that we were sat in. On top of the fourteen of us already crammed in their ten more joined us! So in a van licensed to hold 14 passengers and thats already crammed as it is we were 24!! and boy was it hot! we were told that the ride to the grooms village was very close - 1 hour later we made it! The ride there was through more small, remote villages on very narrow bumpy dirt roads. At one point the van tipped to the left so much that we all screamed thinking that the van was going to tip over all the way! The van struggled to cross over some train tracks so we all got out and pulled it over the tracks! We eventually made it to the grooms village and pulled up again to a crowd of wailing (happy wailing) women - excited to see us and of course the bride! We were then herded into the church - which felt more like a brick oven! We sat on little wooden pews - and listened to 10 pastors introducing themselves for about 45 minutes! What does this have to do with the wedding you ask? I have no idea! Then one of the 10 pastors preached on the benefits of marriage: warm food, warm bed and a passport! And I kid you not this man was so serious! After that we couldnt even take anymore - they still hadnt mentioned the bride and the groom - and we were so hot and squashed in these little pews that we had to leave. Now, knowing that we were going to a village and would be travelling throughout the day I decided to not drink anything after 4pm the day before. However, by 2pm I was desperate to go to the toilet - so I went into the little mud hut, ants all over the place, flies everywhere - it was more like a hole in the ground than anything else! anyway!
I spent alot of the last few weeks sorting out the storage unit in the pre-school - it always seems to get messed up very quickly with the kids helping themselves to everything! Most of the storage bins were riddled with cockroaches!!!!! But it definately looks better now it is more organised and clean. Pre-school has been going moderately well. Tuesday was a nightmare - the kids were so naughty! I ended pre-school early by telling them that if they didn't want to be here and weren't prepared to behave then I wasnt going to show up at all. Some of the kids were all ladida about it, some of them were apologetic. Dan noted how angry and upset I was and once I had told them all to leave, he came up to me apologised, gave me a great big hug, and told me he loved me! He's such the sweetest kid, and he's almost never naughty! Anyway then the director decided that the next day instead of pre-school they were all going to lie down instead - so from 9am till 12 they all just lay there! Needless to say that the next day - most of them have been really well behaved. I've not been happy recently about the way somethings have been happening and its starting to really annoy me! Some of the volunteers just come with completely the wrong attitude - telling admin here that they came to volunteer, give up there free time therefore they get to choose what they do here! The purpose of coming here is to volunteer where you are needed and serve the needs of the orphanage - help where help is needed. Then some of the volunteers who have been in pre-school use it as a discussion time - when I am trying to teach they use the opportunity to talk about what they have been doing at the weekend, or the latest news on their boyfriend - whether they are still together etc. I mean its fine to talk about those things - but when they are talking over me and drowning out my voice whilst I am trying to talk to the kids it really doesnt help! They also bring babies into pre-school. Oh dear, its so annoying! Anyway, Im glad that some of the admin have heard my frustrations and have now done something about it! One of the girls in pre-school with me - really worries me! Apparantly she will be taking over after I leave - which if she does means the end of pre-school! I was sick on Friday and spent most of the day sleeping - and this girl brought all 10 pre-schoolers over to the house knowing full well that I was sick and they spent a good while running around the house making so much noise - she even asked me to come and watch them for a few minutes- what a restful day!
Well, hopefully this week will work out better - I have to re-organise the pre-school since we soon have 5 pre-schoolers leaving and 5 younger ones leaving. I would also like to make a some cards for the kids who are leaving from the kids who are staying behind and vise versa.
