This posting arrives as our new day begins due to internet issues. Enjoy. Diane
Jambo!
This is Jasmine Frye reporting the events of day 12. I am a senior nursing major. Today was a fun-filled, busy day. We had an opportunity to spend much time with the children of Tudor Village this morning. This afternoon we provided teaching to those who are in charge of keeping things orderly here.
After a delicious breakfast we immediately began setting up for our carnival. We each had a station to set up and prepare for. Ally set up a fishing station. The children were to throw a "fishing pole" over a sheet to fish for a prize, which Ally would attach. Karlie had a basin filled with water and had floating ducks with a number on the each of the bottoms. She would give the children a prize according to the number on the bottom of the duck. Grace's station was bean bag toss. She made a target for them to throw the bean bags onto and gave them a piece of candy for making it in the circles (and for just looking cute J). Melinda was in charge of pin the tail on the "zebra" (we drew stripes on a donkey). Rachel and Sarah painted pretty colors on the finger nails of many sweet, adorable girls and tattoo stickers for the boys. Hannah was in charge of the water balloon station. We had children toss water balloons back and forth, backing up after each toss, whoever could keep the balloons from popping the longest were the winners. Katie and I set up an art and craft station. We had coloring pages, stickers, pipe cleaners and blank paper for drawing. At the very end of the carnival I hung a piñata on a tree for the children to break open. The children had a blast. They were beaming with joy the entire day. We absolutely loved spending time with them and having the opportunity to spoil them.
After the carnival we had a lunch break and then headed to finish up some of our projects. Karlie, Grace, Ally, Rachel and Hannah finished painting inside of Happy House. The house looks fantastic. The girls did a great job. The painting made a huge difference; Light in Africa really appreciates the work we put into it. We hope other volunteers will come and paint the other four houses. Sarah and Melinda taught hand washing to all of the mamas and the children of each of the houses. Katie and I did a follow up teaching for our passive range of motion (PROM) presentation for the mamas of Tumaini house (which is the home for the children with disabilities). We decided to do a follow up teaching because we were unsure of how well the mamas understood our presentation on Tuesday. We were concerned the mamas were not being careful enough with the exercises on the children. Our intentions are to improve the quality of life for these children and prevent them from being harmed. We began our follow-up teaching by demonstrating passive range of motion exercises from head to toe on one of the children. We intentionally chose one of the more stiff children so we could demonstrate to them how careful they should be while doing the PROM exercises. Katie and I were thrilled with the improvements the mamas made today. One of the mamas did some exercises on a child and she did amazing. It was obvious that she listened to what we had taught her. We are very proud of the mamas and excited our teaching has potential to make a difference in the lives of the children in Tumaini house.
We completed the projects we had planned for Tudor Village! Yahoo! We are very excited (and so is Light in Africa). Sadly, completing our projects means that our time at Tudor Village is coming to an end. Tomorrow we are attending church here at Tudor Village. We are leading a message for the children tomorrow. We are reading the story of Noah and the ark. After the church service we are packing up and getting ready to leave and head to Rambo. While in Rambo we will be spending much of our time in a hospital.
WARNING: We may not have access to internet while we are in Rambo. We will have access on Thursday when we return to Ahadi Lodge in Arusha. If you do not hear from us, do not fret, I assure you we will be well taken care of.
Thank you for your continued prayers and faithfulness. We appreciate your support. Also, thank you for your prayers for the new boy. He was taken to the hospital last night and doctors were talked to this morning and we have started to find some answers. Please keep him in your prayers as he adjusts to being part of the family here at Tudor Village and as he battles health difficulties.
Mungu akubariki sana na kwaheri (God bless you and goodbye),
Jasmine Frye
