Monday-Tuesday March 12th and 13th

Monday I worked until 2 of course when it closes. Ha ha.

Mid-afternoon I went outside to go find some crooked legs to take pictures of and when I did Abduh and his buddies came RUNNING OVER wanting to play ball and take pictures. I ended up just telling them to put their tongues out, then stand with one leg up, make moose antlers, lay down and put a leg in the air.. and do all these weird things I could think of. Every time I took a “snap” they all came RUNNING to me looked at the picture and RAN back to take more. It was pretty cute. There were like 10 of them that showed up in the process. Bintu was in trouble so she couldn’t come up for the pictures.

For dinner Prisca made omelets. Basically eggs with tomatoes carrots and green beans (diced so small you’d never know they were green beans) and made into a flat thing she rolls up. Basically just an omelet. Terry said with the number of westerners who’ve been around they kind of know some fairly typical foods. It was really good and on the side it was potatoes, which were like made like fries but not completely fried like fries. Terry puts jam on them cause that is what her grandmother always had done. It’s pretty good that way as well.

Tuesday I worked til 2 again. We went for a walk to Bochain (which is a neighborhood within Njinikom). Up on the hill we could look back over at the hospital. It was a great perspective. Then we walked through Terry’s school and saw the dormitories and classrooms. The girls dorm room we saw were old school rooms with about 12 bunks in them… I mean 12 spots where a bunk was sitting, some with two but a lot with three beds per bunk. So we’re talking 30 to 40 girls sleeping in one room. The different rooms are separated by “forms” or the grade levels essentially, of the secondary school. The lower forms are typically 10 year olds but it’s very easy to repeat forms or to start when you’re older. So there is a bit of an age range. I mean they didn’t even each have a space for their suitcases. There were clothes hanging from the bed posts, the ceiling the window… drying or just for storage.  If that was college for me I would have dropped out. They do their own laundry and dishes because they each have their own little dish set they bring for meals. The food for all the boarding school students is cooked in this one tiny little room with an open fire. I couldn’t even stand outside of it cause of the smoke.

The kids are just too easy to take pictures of because they love it. Here are some from Monday and Tuesday.

For dinner on Tuesday night Prisca made beans and rice; basically black beans and white rice and this tomato saucy stuff to put over it, with some vegetables. It was delicious.

Here is St. Martin De Porres Catholic Hospital. The convent is down in front on the right above the barn thing. That is a cow pasture that the Sisters take care of and make cheese from their milk and what not. Up to the left is the house we are in. It's straight down from the tree line where the one round looking tree bump is in the sky. the Yellow one. The yellow one slightly more to the left of is it Dr. Eugene and Dr. Dabo (Spelling?) duplex. This is the most impressive of the buildings in the area. 

Here is Sister Xaveria with her newborn great niece. They all sang and danced praising the happiness of a new baby. It was quite amazing to see. I guess when she was born the night before Sister dropped the head of the mother she was holding screaming screaming ran out to see the rest of the family and yelled "Matrina is back!" She had just lost a niece and two other family members and I guess their family was very down and when a baby girl was born she was named Matrina (spelling) and another word that means "no more crying." It was pretty amazing to see them all so happy and rejoicing. Sister X is the Matron of the convent and so basically runs the hospital. She is from Njinikom so a lot of her family is around. She is always so happy and cheerful seeming and always singing and dancing. 

I have homework, and it actually downloaded correctly does that mean I have to do it?? :(