Thumbs Up Thursday

Today is Thumbs Up Thursday. Thumbs Up Thursday consists of having thumbs up during pictures and trying to get the babies at the Havens to also participate.

Today was another great day in Zambia. Our feeding sessions in the morning went well and today we had many of our babies roll over and sit without assistance. Today in feeding class Leo crawled across the floor for the first time. It was rewarding to see this important mile stone first hand.

After our morning therapy was over we had lunch. Lunch on Thursdays is always our African meal of the week. The traditional/ popular meal here in Zambia is Shema. Shema is made of ground corn, root, and milk. It forms a solid white mixture that is very tasteless and squishy. The best part of eating shema is the awesome dressing that you can put on top. Unfortunately for the back of the line, we ran out of this tasty dressing, so we ate plain, tasteless shema. It was still a good experience. Chicken, rice, rolls and cabbage are also served during this traditional meal. This is usually one of my favorite meals throughout the week because it is such a unique experience and it really doesn’t taste that bad.

After lunch we head back to the Heavens to finish up our last two sessions of the day. Today feeding class in Haven 1 went well. When we arrived, most of our class was very hungry so we fed them formula and then moved on to our different stretches, and vibrating tools to stimulate their facial muscles.

Once the afternoon session are over we head back and have dinner together. After dinner part of the group usually goes out to the soccer field to interact with the students here either playing soccer or Frisbee. This time is always fun as we make relationships and share our lives with each other. Another fun relationship we have made here is with Webster. Webster is a nightwatchmen who guards the houses next to our who likes to come over and teach Tonga songs and words. He has been so much fun to meet and work with. Last night he was giving us all speech therapy lessons as we tried to pronounce a ng sound.

Being here has been great. I have very much enjoyed working with the children here as well as making relationships with the Zambians here on campus. Thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers. I hope you all are enjoying your summer experiences as well.

Thank you

Ben

Questions and Answers

Dear Abby,

The Aunties do not participate in our classes but they know that they are always invited to watch or participate and learn. The Aunties usually only provide general care for the babies. Since there are so many it is not possible for them to interact with the babies on a deeper level unfortunately.

Dear Megan,

Working with the swallowing group is usually pretty relaxed. When we are working with them they are generally relaxed because most seem to enjoy the stimulation and stretches. This however has not always been true, at the beginning of therapy they were tactfully defensive. There is only one instance of chaos during feeding class on Wednesday. Afternoon feeding class was a little rough. We were in a room packed with crying babies and Dr. Weaver had to leave early for a meeting. So Shanna and I were doing C stretches with a baby on the floor while holding another one trying to calm them down. By the end of the session we were handing out our vibrating toys trying to appease the children.

Dear Jenna,

Here in Zambia we have very limited resources. The only food we have for feeding is formula. However, next week we might be feeding some of the babies rice during our sessions. 

Dear Molly, 

We have not changed in length, or become lost since arriving here in Zambia.

Thanks for your concern.

Ben