Another day with the flu, another day stuck in this house without my kids. I've had this thing for 10 days now and it's not showing any signs of retreating. It's one step forward, two steps back.
I was well enough this weekend to go out during the day but by nightfall I'm a mess again. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful weather on Friday so our trip to Robben Island wasn't canceled like so many before us. What an amazing trip! The ferry ride made me quite sea sick, as I already wasn't feeling well, but once we hit land and I began to take it all in I felt much better. At one point I likened it to the concentration camps in Germany. The creepiness and the aura of it all really made the hair on the back of my neck stick up. Our tour guides were both former inmates and had met Nelson Mandela. We are so lucky to have lived so close (in time) to apartheid that we were fortunate enough to have such guides. One day it won't be like that and the experience for future visitors just won't be the same. Turns out, Robben Island the 3rd largest penguin colony in the world so we got a glimpse of more of the little guys and hundreds of rabbits that run around the place. It was really an amazing excursion, one that I will never forget.
After Robben Island our group (about 15 ladies) had made reservations at the nicest restaurant on the V & A Waterfront-Belthazar. It's this lovely steakhouse, very very nice. The sommelier and the butcher both came to our table. And here I am, stuck in the middle of booth, ordering hot tea and the cheapest side dishes I could find since I could taste nothing. At one point everyone just sort of looked at me because I was so miserable and they all started to ask if I was okay and I just burst into tears, right there are the table. I was miserable. Couldn't breathe, couldn't taste, and sinuses were under so much pressure I thought perhaps I was 60,000 ft. up in the air and just didn't know it. Some of the girls took me home early and I was able to go to the pharmacy for more medicine. I've been stuck with this nasty TheraFlu-type tea ever since. Not so bad though considering I can't taste anything...
Back to my kids though. I miss them so much and I want to make the most out of these last 2 weeks, that's why I'm going back to the doctor in an hour and demanding the most powerful drugs God has allowed to be created. This week we're making hats out of half a paper plate and some string. I'm also bribing them with lollipops to sing their songs the best they can so I can get some great videos to bring back to ya'll. Next week I'm creating a HUGE collage with all of our pictures to hang on this wall where all of the old pictures are falling down. And on my last day we're doing nothing but dancing and screaming and singing and I'm bringing in every junk food known to man for a party. And some party favors. It's going to be a riot...I want to make it as happy a day as possible so I can avoid thinking about how awful it's going to be to leave them. I've already shed tears a couple of times (i.e., right now) thinking about that last day. I dread it.
My kids, like all kids here, LOVE digital cameras. They are obsessed with having their picture taken and then they love to check themselves out. To see what they look like right away gives them so much satisfaction. It's becoming a status thing-the more pictures I take of them, the cooler they get.
The Go Bananas! song is still going strong. They still do it every day and I use it when I want to get them quiet. What I love most, however, is watching them do it for other people. No one knows what to expect when we start it and once we get to 'Go Bananas' they are in stitches just watching the kids. In the morning I have trouble getting their attention and getting them all to participate in songs because we do them every day but once an audience walks in (my program director will stop by from time to time, one local policeman visits a few times a week, etc.) the kids turn in to Broadway stars, giving these Tony award winning performances. Once they start singing they don't stop until that person has left. They LOVE and audience!
Now that I've been there for so long I've learned all of their personalities and who I can trust to help me and who I'm going to have to put in a time out every day. I have an older 3-year old who cries all day long and insists she be fed her porridge, even if it's by another child. I have one boy who was quite the misfit when he sat with the diva girls but when we moved him to the big kid table with the smart kids he turned his act around. Now he's one of my favorites and is always attached to my leg, looking for a hug. But what I love to watch the most is their relationships with each other and the way they look after one another. I have a few sets of cousins and siblings and you can always tell who is older and who takes care of whom. I know who is in what clique and who are the not so popular kids. And when one of them gets hurt you can see who their friends are, rushing to their aid and lending them a hand-hold and a kiss. It's incredible to watch these little people develop. Uchk...I can't WAIT to be a mommy.
I witnessed my own little personal miracle this week, something that no one else there will appreciate. The 'autistic' boy I mentioned before? The one who I never witnessed emotion from? Well when I took the big kids outside to play on Friday, the little ones were let loose in the courtyard. I peeked in for a second to check on my baby Lisa and I caught the
little boy RUNNING AROUND AND SMILING. I watched him for a minute or two and shed my own happy tears because I was seeing this child come to life for the first time. It was like watching him being born because before that moment he was so lifeless. But once he caught sight of me watching him he immediately stopped and hid against the wall. I was sad when he stopped but I was so relieved that he had been happy for a moment. So perhaps it's me that fears, the unknown, the new person. And that's fine. I'll steer clear of him if only to watch him run around like that again.
My program director stopped in on Friday for a moment to check out the playground. She delivered the happy news that sometime this week workers would be coming in with bags of sand for the ground and would be mending the broken play set. She said that a group of volunteers from the house would also be asked to come out and paint and clean up the garbage all around it . I was thrilled to hear this news and was so happy that it would be done when I was there so I could say I helped with something before I left. It's hard to say you made an impact when you can't see the results of it but helping with this playground would give me satisfaction that I did contribute to Luthando because I'll be able to watch my kids play on a safe and beautiful playground. I'll let you know how that goes...
For now though, it's back to Dr.Wigens. Hopefully the next time I write I will have once again tasted food and slept without breathing through my mouth. Wretched feeling, eh?
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