Tantrums are Universal

Thursday, May 28, 2009
After two days of traveling we made it to the Namwianga Mission in Kalomo, Zambia. Everything went so smoothly. Praise God! We made all of our flights with plenty of time AND all of our luggage made it with us. Apparently that’s a HIZ first. Even customs was a breeze; we mentioned that we were going to the mission and they let us right through. As B. Weave said, those must have been the magic words. I’m pretty sure we had the “missionary look” down too-long skirts, no make-up, Chacos, and angelic expressions. :)
Once we got settled into the mission we had a few days to get acclimated which was nice, but by Monday we were ready to get to work and feel as though we were doing what we came here to do. The Haven is where I’ve spent most of my time so far. This portion of the orphanage is made up of Eleanor’s House, where the baby babies are, and Kelly’s House, where the toddlers are. I think I speak for us all when I say that the children are even more precious than we imagined they would be. I cried nearly five times upon meeting them.
Flexibility is definitely the name of the game in this setting. We’ve learned several times already to expect the unexpected and go to with the flow. Mrs. McLain has put together six Language Enrichment Therapy Units (LETU’s) on the subjects of food; body parts; fish and ducks; wild animals, sun, moon and stars; and people and things in this world. The first day we used them at Kelly’s House the kids sat perfectly the entire time. We were highly impressed and went on and on about how children in America would have been all over the place. Now that we’ve been here a few days the newness has worn right off. We have discovered that while in general these kids will sit quieter for longer periods of time than American kids (we’re still impressed), pinching, tantrums, slapping, scratching, grabbing, and pushing are universal. However, it all stems from the fact that they are starved for love, touch, and individual attention. The caretakers at the Haven are absolutely amazing. I cannot imagine doing what they do every day and night. I have no doubt that they give the babies all the attention they possibly can, but there are only three of them and thirty-something kids. We’ve noticed that many of the children talk more when we are working with them one-on-one, but it takes a while to draw them out even then. We wonder if this might also be because they’re not used to being talked to much on an individual basis.
So, there’s an overall account of the past couple of days. Here are a few exciting specifics of today. Bright is a three-year-old little boy who was not talking to us at all when we first came. His caretakers said he talks but we hadn’t heard anything from him until a couple days ago. Now we’ve heard him imitate colors, food, animals, two and three word phrases and even heard some spontaneous speech. In addition, today Sara heard him say, “I love you.” It’s so exciting to think of the progress we’ve made with him already and what will happen in the future as he continues to feel more comfortable with us.
Love to all of you back home. Know that you are greatly missed, but are here with us in spirit. Muwone kabotu (Good night)!

-Meredith Pietzman