I don't even know where to begin. The afternoon that we got to Happy Life was utter chaos. They put the children in this "playpen" which is more like child prison, and told us to go play with them in this metal cage thing. Over the course of an hour I was spit on three times, hit, grabbed, hanged off of, cried on, two kids peed, and another kid tried to drink his pee off the disgusting floor. It was a bit overwhelming. We weren't instructed at all as to what our duties were, and we've had a lot of misunderstandings, but it's only the second day and we're beginning to figure things out. Basically you can choose what part of the home you'd like to focus your time on, such as feeding the babies, changing/playing with toddlers, or playing with the kids. The babies eat at 5am, 8:30am, noon, 3:00pm, 7:00 pm, and 12am. We have the choice of going at either 5am or at 12am. Today we tried going at night but we fell asleep and the alarm was useless. So tomorrow we're going to try to wake up early. It's pretty exhausting and I've seen, smelled and felt some interesting things... Lots of baby spit up and yucky poopy diapers. But it's pretty easy to make free time between feedings. Yesterday I bought some mangoes which I can't wait to eat when they ripen.
Today we took 3 of the babies to the hospital and it turned out that one had a virus, one a bacterial infection, and the other pneumonia. I was holding one of them while they got an injection and I almost fainted. I felt like a total wimp but it freaked me out. The baby didn't even begin to cry.
The food has been great so far. Nothing that I can say is specifically my favorite but some great potatoes, lentils, and lentil like grains. They have this white tasteless mush stuff that is actually really good with veggies and other stuff. I've been drinking a lot of tea too. Also- no mosquito bites yet! But then again, I am kind of in the city, or at least 30 minutes outside of it.
My feet are so gross. Just walking down the dusty street for 15 minutes and they're black. We actually do have a shower in our room, but it's electric so I keep shocking myself. The accommodations are quite nice compared to what I would have expected.
Excellent blogging Katy...fascinating insights galore! Fair play ;)
ReplyDeleteWow. Life suddenly got intense for you! Are any of the children at all endearing or sweet? Your description makes them sound more like animals than children or babies. How do you wash all those nasty bodily fluids off of you?? I hope there is decent sanitation for you so you can maintain your own health. And to think that you were paid big bucks for babysitting here in the US and you are now paying your own $$ to get spit on! Oh the irony.
ReplyDeleteHope there are more hugs in your future!
I love your mom's comment. I couldn't stop laughing. Also, embrace the grunginess.. meanwhile, I am mentally sending wipes your way. I can definitely sense some hostility towards the man who invented the "play pen." Do they seriously stick all the children in there? Or just a few? And what do they do with all the diapers?!? Also, don't feel bad about the shower thing, my mom didn't know how to turn on the electric water heater coil thing until right before she left so she took cold showers. Do you room with the other girl? Does she know how to use it?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Carry on, noble steed. Everything will be fine and you'll slowly adjust. If you need a pick me, up just look at my letter ;) You know the drill.