I'm Officially a "Babyhugger"

The term “babyhugger” is what some of the ex-pats living here call us volunteers. I find it extremely appropriate, as that is what I do every day! The first couple of weeks at Tuleeni was an eye-opening experience. Aside from not really understanding what any of the kids were saying, I also was able to see just how simply they live. Their clothing is worn and tattered, they wash dishes and their laundry for multiple hours a day by hand and everyone works hard to keep the place clean. Their lives are not complicated by material things. In my time spent with the kids, I've been reading a few books (although they do not have the patience to listen to me read in English---they just flip through the pages to look at the pictures and point out things they know in English like "caterpillar" from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"), taking the kids to and from school and just getting to know them better, though there's still a lot lost in translation. We've definitely found ways to communicate---they either call me "teacher Hana" or "muzungu" ("foreigner") over and over and over. I'll call back to them, then they'll do something really "silly", like jump up and down a million times or sing a song or something. I found myself missing them over the weekend...