I told myself I would regret not writing more and I am now. I love how past me knows future me so well, and even though past me is always advising current me, current me just takes it under consideration instead of really doing what it should. Ahh, you never learn, Melissa.
Anyhow, I figured I’d toss in some more interesting things about what we’ve been up to since it probably seems like we’re not working at all.
Andrea and I went out to the community again to talk to the caregiver/grannys. Remember last time when we told them about the mother-baby packs they could get in the hospital? This time we went to talk them about income generating activities. They were the ones who suggested it actually.
So the two of us and Asha prepared a little educational lecture, organized up all the information and decided it was going to be too boring. So instead we created a skit! After we’d explained to the caregivers the ideas of resources, materials, costs, profits, and markets, we threw together a little story illustrating the importance of saving the money you make to put it back into your business.
Short of giving you the script, it’s hard not to go into too much detail, haha. It was great fun to do and the caregivers were laughing at our over-exaggerated storytelling. They got the point impressively well, though, and that’s all that matters!
On top of working with Asha’s caregiver groups, we’ve also been working with the HIV orphans those caregivers actually take care of. On Sundays they all get together and we do a little education and activities with them as well. Also lots of fun albeit a good amount of preparation involved. Two weeks ago we introduced the idea of a “bridge” model where they’re standing on all the knowledge they already have, and through Asha’s program, they’ll create a bridge of life skills to walk over the “sea of problems” over to the side of a “healthy positive lifestyle.”
[Picture soon!]
This week: memory books to help track their progress over the bridge. Asha introduced the idea of “dreams” and “goals” to them, two concepts that we grow up with, but they hardly ever talk about with their teachers or elders. So we gave them each their own notebooks, and let them decorate the cover with their “dream” of what they wanted to do when they grew up!
Most the boys wanted to be soccer stars, but some wanted to be farmers, pilots, and soldiers and it was… so cute. Being boys, we weren’t sure if they were really going to get into the activity, but talking to one of the other Youth Leaders that helps Asha with her program, arts and crafts just isn’t really something Basotho children get to do, ever. The boys dove right into it dreaming up their own little future and gluing it on the cover of their books. Another of Asha’s group leaders reported that though he was supposed to take the books back so the kids wouldn’t lose them, the kids begged to take them home to show their parents, so what’s a guy to do? He let them take them home to show off a little. Hopefully most of them’ll come back next week with their memory books!
Well… this entry is getting sufficiently long, but I promise we’ve been doing work in the hospital, too! Next entry I’ll focus on the work I’ve been doing in the hospital, I promise!
