It's that Time Again

       The weather has been turning warm here again. This means it is time to switch clothes again. Because I am currently involved with teaching I was not able to be involved with choosing the clothes for each child. I am, however, able to see the results of the chosen clothes!

       I love seeing the girls running around with huge smiles on their faces and wearing new dresses. They all look so cute in their dresses too! Two of the girls have an adorable checkered dresses with duck pockets on the skirt. One is blue and the other is red. Both girls look so cute. It is a reminder that no matter where you are in the world, girls are the same...They always love to get new clothes!

       Recently all the class 4 girls were taken into town and got shalwar kameezes. I was able to accompany some of them. It was really fun. We picked out the material. To find something that looked like the girl who was choosing was a challenge. They are all so excited to get their shalwar kameezes back from the tailor.
       Some of the class 4 girls are going to have to get more shalwar kameezes because Mrs. Waid does not have enough big dresses to fit some of the taller girls. These girls don’t look quite as happy right now, because they don’t have any new dresses. However, after they get their new outfits, I'm sure they will be just as happy as all the other girls though, maybe more so!

Kondima and the Taken-out Eye

       Teaching Sabbath school for Class 1 and Kg has been something I have done for the past 15 or so Sabbaths. The first couple weeks were the hardest. I felt like there was so much time to fill and I never knew what to do with it. After those first trial weeks, I finally figured out how much stuff I needed to fill the time and what stuff to take to fill up time if I needed to.

       Something that we started the second Sabbath I was in charge was to tell a continued story. The story of Jungle Thorn; this is the story of a little girl named Kondima who got a thorn stuck in her eye and had to go far from home to get it fixed. The kids love this story. Whenever it gets close to the end of Sabbath school they all shout out “Kondima, Kondima.”

       Last week we were to the part in the story where Kondima arrives back at her village and takes out her fake eye to show all the village people. I can never tell how much the kids here understand, even when there is an interpreter, and nothing was different Sabbath. The kids didn’t react at all when they were told that ‘Kondima took out her eye and all the villagers freaked out.’ Lauren (our Kondima story teller) asked them if they would be freaked out if they saw someone take out their eye, no reaction at all. We spent quite a bit of time explaining to them what exactly had happened to Kondima to make sure they understood it. Finally, we gave up trying to get a reaction out of them and went on with the story.

       Later that evening one of the little boys in our Sabbath school class, Johnny, called me over. He was like, “Heather teacher, Heather teacher. Look I take my eye out.” As he was saying this he held the end of a plastic spoon over his eye and brought it away from his eye. It was so cute! I still don’t know if the kids totally understand what happened to Kondima, but I do know that at least one of them sort of understands, even if he isn’t weirded out by it!
By the way...Happy Valentines Day!

Baby Room

Tonight I was reminded how much I love the baby room.

       Today was not the easiest day. Nothing went as planned, but I guess that really isn’t out of the ordinary here. Teaching today just was not the unproblematic day that would have been nice. Having a day like this always makes it seem longer.

       Thursday nights are the nights that Kerri gives the caregiver’s worship. She gives talks on being clean and healthy and so she enjoys having all the caregivers there; because of this Lauren, Chantel and I have been helping out in the baby room on Thursday nights. It isn’t always an easy job. Babies cry and when you’re not a mother, you really don’t have any idea why sometimes. Tonight was a good night though. None of the babies were continuously crying, the toddlers next door all stayed in their beds, and so tonight all of us were able to just enjoy the babies.

       Tonight I started off holding Paul; who is an adorable baby boy about six months old. Before she went to worship Paul’s ‘mother’ made him a bottle. He was so cute; he kept his eyes on me and once in awhile would stop eating to smile at me. Paul is a relatively well mannered baby. He doesn’t cry often and loves to smile; he also loves to squirm! After he finished his bottle and seemed to be ready to sleep, I put him in his cradle, where he fell almost instantly to sleep.

       After he was put down, I was handed Ginger by Chantel who had been holding her. Ginger is another well mannered baby. I honestly have never really seen her cry much. She is one that I hold quite a bit whenever I make it to the baby room. I love Ginger and I can tell she knows me, which is so cool to see. Her ‘mother’ is one amazing woman. She is kind of the head caregiver in the baby room and the one that ‘speaks’ English, she knows some words and understands some, but she really doesn’t know much more English than I know Bangla! She is amazing to watch with the babies though, especially Ginger. Whenever I watch her interact with Ginger, I can tell Ginger loves her and knows her. Ginger smiles whenever she sees her, it is so cute. It is amazing to see how all the caregivers act with their babies that they are in charge of. You can tell they love the babies and the babies love them.

       A couple times when I’ve had one of the babies, Silas, his ‘mother’ has kept an eye of me, sometimes with a worried look on her face. I can tell she really loves him and is a little nervous of a know nothing American holding her child. I really do know nothing about babies. I love them and have now changed a couple diapers, but I really am a know nothing American. However, I think his ‘mother’ is getting better. Tonight she was all smiles to us and didn’t have that worried look on her face at all!

       Being in the baby room is a great way to end a long difficult day. I do love being in there with the babies who do not fight for attention, but love whatever you give them.