Saturday July 12
You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!
Today Team Zambia went to the The Bill & Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery. We were greeted with great enthusiasm from the preschool children. We split the group in half - one group going to the school house to read "The Hungry Caterpillar" and to make a paper caterpillar craft, while the other half stayed at the house and sing songs and play games. Even though we had precut everything, we soon realized we were in way over our heads! Glue and google eyes must be a novelty because both ended up in the mouths of the kids. After finishing the project we switched groups and tried again. The poor paper caterpillars had a short life span and most of them didn't make it.
After crafts and songs, the children went outside. On the way out the door there was a big box of shoes. Each child went to the shoe box and picked out a pair of shoes to wear. Amazingly the kids were able to match up the shoes on their own - although most of them were on the wrong feet, too little or too big. This didn't slow these little ones down one bit. The children love to run and play. The soccer balls were a big hit. The toys they have to play with are pretty rough and beaten down yet the kids have a wonderful time with what they have.
We took a quick tour of the house. There are 2 bedrooms where the children sleep. In one room there was 5 beds - 3 children to a bed. The older kids sleep on the top bunk. The second room had 3 beds. The rooms were clean and orderly, but sparse. No toys, pillows or blankies.
A picnic lunch was served on a blanket. Every meal is served outside on the blanket. Even though the food was laid out in front of the kids on plates, not one of them grabbed at a plate. They all lined up to have their hands washed in a bucket and sat back down to wait for the blessing. Heads were bowed and hands were folded - they sang a blessing and listened to a prayer. The meals were passed around and not a word could be heard. They enjoyed a meal of sausage, French fries and orange soda. We enjoyed it as well. After more playing time in the sun, a special treat was served - ice cream! One of the caregivers thanked up and blessed us for bringing the ice cream. "Every child should have ice cream" was her comment. We couldn't agree more.
What a wonderful day! Lots of smiles, laughs and sticky hugs.
Janet
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