Its been a few days since our last update and thats down to a few reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, Nicole has not been feeling up to her usual bouncing hyper self due to her injuries not healing as they should. Secondly, we had a bit of down time at the weekend took a well needed break.
Those that know us, know that Nicole has a stomach ulcer which resulted in her being admitted to hospital for a week nearly a year ago. Unable to eat or drink anything without vomiting, we were really worried and had no idea what it could have been. This is an on going problem and it flared up on again on Sunday through to Monday leaving Nicole tired, weak and unable to keep anything down at all. Luckily we have medication to treat it now, so we were able to avoid yet another hospital visit. Still, its not exactly ideal when time is running out and Nicole so desperately wants to be there for every moment with the kids.
Then on Tuesday it was time for her stitches to come out and that hopefully meant that she’d be able to walk sooner rather than later. This, unfortunately, wasn’t the case. Her wounds still hadn’t healed properly and new butterfly stitches were put in place. All told, its been a hard few days if we’re honest. She’s still hobbling around, but its harder than ever to get things done.
That said, whilst she’s been resting up, I’ve managed to get a few things done at the house over the last few days.
First up was the long awaited addition of a full family sized fridge freezer in the house! You wouldn’t believe the excitement that his brought about, but it certainly brought a smile to our faces seeing their faces light up at the sight of it. We’d had this on our list for a while, but we’d been trying in vain to get a good quality 2nd hand one without any luck, so finally had to stump up the cash from our donations money to pay for it. We tried our best to get the most for the money and are happy with the one that we eventually found. They certainly love it.
Once again, John Kinnaird came to help like a knight in shining armour and his pick up truck. Not sure where we’d be if he’d not been around to help us since we got here. At first we, obviously, wanted to put their brand new kitchen appliance in the kitchen. I mean, where else would it go, right?
Other bits and pieces have been ticked off of our to do list this week too. Seemingly small things, but essential to day to day life to the children. They had, I’m not sure if I’d already said in a previous blog post, been living with only 3 working lightbulbs in the house (inside and out) and as soon as the sun would set, the main rooms were plunged into darkness. So, we’ve gone out and provided them with a full set of bulbs. We’ve also had a local electrician come in today and plough through a ton of things like: replace the plug on the old fridge so that it works properly, replace the bare wires with actual plug sockets in both of the bedrooms, replace a light socket that had been broken, replace both exterior lights with low cost LED bulbs and replace the rear door lock so that it finally works too.
We were also able to provide the house with some more pillows, pillow cases, mosquito nets, cloths, oven mits, rugs and this adorable chair for baby Makanaka.
Finally, this week is the first week that Martha has stepped in to help Hildar, the house mother, with looking after the children, showing her how to cook, clean and discipline the children in the correct manner. Certainly the place has appeared much much cleaner these past few days and the fly problem seems to have been vastly reduced. We hope to keep her on in a semi permanent capacity so that the children can get the care and attention that they need. These last few weeks have been truly amazing seeing how the children have opened up like flowers in spring. The youngest ones especially no longer look sad and distressed, but happy and smiling. This is how all children should be, no? Or at least how all children should have the possibility of being anyway. We don’t like to think that anything we are doing is pointless, that the changes we are making will have no affect. We KNOW that what we have done has had an impact already and its only been 5 weeks. We intend to carry on working with the children of Tariro and we intend to do all that we can to never let them down and to never let them suffer through lack of opportunities.
All in all, a satisfying day even if its one that Nicole wasn’t able to enjoy as she stay’s off her feet.
Now, its time for a well earned shower. Its sweaty work playing tickle chase with 2 toddlers for 3 hours today. If this video doesn’t make you smile, nothing will.
Wow amazing guys.
LikeLike