We Knew it Would be Hard
We thought we were prepared and we knew it would be hard if one of the precious babies died while we were here. Yesterday, Judah died peacefully in his sleep. He was the youngest baby at The Haven and we knew he was not gaining weight but no one knew he was that close. There was no distress and he just did not wake up yesterday morning.
Judah is now in the arms of Jesus and he is happy and healthy.
Meagan (lives here full-time and works with the babies) said that he had received more love and attention in the last three weeks than he had in his entire live. I am confident he felt the love all of our students and faculty lavished on him.
We still shed many tears.
There She Is!
I am now teaching my class at 8 am so I have more time to go over to the Haven and help with the babies. Today, one little 2 1/2 year old named, Bright, had gotten his feelings hurt and needed some extra attention. I held him and tickled him and sang with him. Before I left he gave me a big kiss on the cheek and hugged on me.
This afternoon, I was walking from the baby house over to the toddler house and Sara was holding Bright. When he saw me walking, he yelled, "There she is!" Sara lifted him over the wall to run up the sidewalk and he threw himself into my arms. That made my day!
It was also a wonderful day for Cintia, the five month old who has been so ill. I put her on a blanket on her stomach and she worked so hard to try to lift her head up. She wore herself out she tried so hard. I hope by next week she can lift that precious little head up on her own. Reagan, she needs you!
Why is it Raining????
This is the dry season. We are supposed to have sunshine everyday. Yesterday and today we have had RAIN! Water falling from the skies during the dry season. Today is cold and damp. Ick!
The Zambians hate it. Some came into class with blankets wrapped around them today.
We had our first test last week and yes, Tammie, it had to be multiple choice. As it ends up , I have 94 students! There is a graduate assistant, Brittany, here and she graded them all for me! The lowest passing score here is 40 percent. I am happy to say that the lowest grade on the test was 61 % and there were three 100%. I hope they can retain something.
On the baby front, yesterday I was holding a little 3 month old who has been very, very ill. She has not engaged with anyone but was so lethargic and one of the nurses here thought she might not live. She must be feeling tons better because yesterday she watched me and smiled and looked around for almost 30 minutes. She even tried to laugh.
That is the reason to come.
The Class Room
Well, as I talked about in the last entry, I am teaching an introductory class in speech-language pathology here at George Benson Christian College. All of the students are first year students and they were required to enroll in the class. I was a little nervous since they had very little idea of what the profession is about.
I told them the story of how the entire HIZ-Path program developed last year and then told them that they were the first speech pathology students ever in Zambia. They cheered and applauded! I was so surprised. Then I told them that if they were in the US, we would have to make a t-shirt for the event. They all thought that was a great idea! I wish there were a way to make that happen but there are not too many t-shirt printing companies around here.
Here is the classroom.
They were concerned about being able to understand my speech and requested that I use PowerPoint, so I put my sketchy notes into PowerPoint. They copy down every single word from the slides. They also all listen so very intently! They also call me “Madam” when they address me AND if they are late to class, they stop at the door and wait quietly until I nod at them and tell them they can enter! So, very different from HU students coming in late and banging the door of the classroom.
Yesterday, after class three students waited for me and said, “Madam, we would like to invite you to our game. The English and History majors have challenged the Mathematics majors to a football game and we would like for you to attend.”
They are so nice and so polite. The game was fun and the student players seemed to be showing off some for our students.
I administered the first test yesterday, Friday, so we will see what happens!
Here are the students diligently copying from the PowerPoints.
The student blog is up and running at www.hiz-path.blogspot.com They are doing a fabulous job and actually tell what is happening each day. I spend so much of my day driving them around and preparing for my class that I don't get much time to play with the babies.
