Free Hugs-, Four Wheeling, Free Stylin’ Friday

Here we are. Finally Friday! The day has finally begun to display signs of the coming winter. It was a frigid 84 degrees, with the gusts approximately 10-15 miles per hour. Despite the unfortunate weather, our spirits were lifted as we ventured onward through the tall grass, around the cow patties, and weaving over and across the dirt roads to the haven. The excitement of the unknown bolsters our enthusiasm and we cannot help but smile as we are greeted by dozens of toddlers playing on the swing set under the careful supervision of the aunties.

I was in the language enrichment group for the morning portion, during which I saw significant improvement of not only vocalizations, but also non-verbal expressive language through gesturing and facial emotions. This was a HUGE improvement, even in comparison to last week, when Kurt specifically sat on the ground and screamed for reasons unknown. Today, however, he was able to detach from the aunties without tears, engaged in the lessons, and even initiated contact with us in order to fulfill a request. He was all smiles and thoroughly stole my heart, as if he hadn’t already with his cuddly nature!

In the afternoon, I worked one-on-one with Kritz, the most precious little boy you’ve ever seen. He’s decked out with dark dark skin that shines after being smothered in Vaseline to prevent dry skin, and the curliest eyelashes framing his dark brown eyes. If you can’t tell, I’m kind of a fan J  Anyways, I have spent the last week attempting to elicit any sort of vocalization, spontaneous or voluntary, and increase his expressive language skills. The sessions typically consist of singing traditional VBS songs, reading a book or two, then physically demonstrating “up” and “down” through me picking him up and placing him down, or raising an object above his head and then lowering it. All the while, he is being bombarded with the target words to establish the concept. Today we finally had a substantial break-through in which he not only imitated the words “zebra”, “lion”, and “roar”, but he voluntarily vocalized a crude interpretation of “up” while raising his arms! Likewise, I spent the first portion of our session blowing air on his face to evaluate his oral-facial abilities, and to evoke some type of response from him. After introducing him to the zebra, I let him play with it individually for a while to see what his vocalizations would be, and to gauge his interactions with the toy. To my delight, I caught him puffing up his cheeks and blowing on the zebra, just as I had done to him! Yeah, I’m a sucker for the silent types!

Reagan: PLEASE BRING REINFORCEMENTS! The puffs are not only adorable to observe as they are devoured by the children, but they are obviously preferred by the residents and aunties alike.

Amy: The children are also fed local snacks such as Eet Some More cookies (think vanilla wafers) and Tee Time cookies (another snack, though I am not sure as to the consistency).

Shayna: For a vague description of the foods available to the children, refer to the above description. The baby babies typically consume pre-made formulas from a bottle, but once the children are promoted to Haven 2, they are then introduced to the local delicacy of nshima. The majority of the children simply receive a bowl of a solid block of nshima with some sort of chicken- or meat-like broth, with a spoon to cut up their food. A few of the children have demonstrated some motoric difficulties, so their food has been cut up into smaller pieces for their benefit. The same thing is served in Haven 3 to the older children. Occasionally, the nshema is replaced with rice, served in the same manner. It truly is one of the neatest things to be able to see kids who were unable to hold a spoon, much less contain the food in their own mouths, display beginning skills of swallowing and feeding properly!

Jenna: I wish I could be of more assistance, but I will not begin working with the feeding group until next week, so I will defer your question to Ben and the others who have had first-hand experience with the feeders.

Meagan: I think I mostly answered your question through the response to Shayna’s question. Let me know if you need or want more info.