Stars and Swahili

After 24+ hours of relatively uneventful travel, I have arrived at home in Maseno. This was my first time flying through Dubai, but I didn't have time to actually go out in the city. It does have quite a fancy airport, of which the highlight-and slightly alarming surprise-was the heated toilet seats :). And of course I had to buy a little something so I could get change, as i am a lover of foreign coins. Since I had no major travel adventures or mishaps to regale you all with this time, I will jump right into news from Maseno.

(The kids working on homework)

The kiddos are doing well. Brian, who used to be baby-faced and delightfully pudgy, is now as tall as Daniel. Dimples are still intact though ;). They are all "big and fat" which is how we describe healthy children here (and adults too, much to the horror of American visitors:). We spent the evening after i arrived putting up glow in the dark stars all over the house, compliments of my wonderful and thoughtful mom, known here as "Mama Jescah" (meaning mama OF Jescah :). I don't think they really understood the whole glow in the dark thing, but they took their job of star placement very seriously. I was the distributor of the disproportionately tiny wad of stickum they give you, so it didn't all end up in Arnold's hair. There was a bit of squabbling when Naomy did not agree with the cluster formations that Daniel was making and could not convince him that they needed to be equally spaced over the wall, but overall it was a peaceful and fun affair. When we turned off the lights I heard a chourus of, "Ooooooohhhh". Nothing is more precious than the awe of children. Then Vinicent said, "It's just like heaven." I know, right.............

(Naomy and Arnold deep in discussion on star placement)

Zedekia arrived this morning with his grandmother. I've known him for the last several years, and knew his mother before she died in 2010. He's been with his grandmother ever since, but she has recently become to ill to care for him. He had some pretty severe nutritional and stimulation deficits during his first few yrs, and really doesn't speak yet, even though he's about 6 yrs old. He really hasn't been around other kids much, and has not started school yet. I had wanted to get him into school as quickly as possible to see if we can start to bridge the gap, but then we ran into a little glitch........Zed doesn't speak/understand swahili or English. Both languages are taught in school, and since he hasn't been, he only understands Luo, his tribal language. I also hired another part-time "house mom" to help Jacky and give Zed more individualized attention, and guess what she speaks?? Not Luo. But Jacky does, so we aren't totally up the creek. He is a smart kid and seems to be a fast learner, so I think he'll pick up Swahili quickly.

This is our little family, before the addition of Zedekia, whom will be photographed when he no longer appears afraid of my camera :).

In other news, I've been rounding in the hospital every morning with Gina, who is our chief resident from the University of Tennessee, who will be here until June. We also had Eric and Laura, another doctor and his wife, join us yesterday. They will be here for a month. The big news with their arrival is they brought their 2 yr old, Isabelle. Now we dont see a lot of mzungu babies here, so she has caused quite the stir. I took them on a little walking tour of the village yesterday, and a woman literally yelled out the window of a shop, "Please, can I touch your baby?!" Thankfully, Eric and Laura are pretty laid back, and allowed a gaggle of women to surround them and pat her blonde wisy hair and discuss the oddity of her big blue eyes. She's a doll, and has already made friends with Braven, our 2 yr old neighbor boy who can get into our house with the ease of a cat burglar, and likes climb on the bunk beds.

Stay tuned, more news and pics to come soon!

Jessie

 

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