Wednesday 22 August 2007

Talandira

Johanna is back. We look after the babies the all morning and start painting after lunch. It will take more time that we thought… But it looks great. I mean the crocodile looks like a crocodile...

Mambo comes back around 3.00pm. He was away doing some “families follow-ups”. It’s time for Fiuni and Joseph to go back home. They don’t need milk anymore and their health is good. Mambo has to check on the relatives first, to make sure that their living conditions are good enough to bring up babies. I met Joseph’s family last month at the Social Services. They were so happy to see him. It’s their extreme poverty that made them decide to give up Joseph to the nursery. It would be nice to see him going back to them. I’m more worried about Fiuni’s situation. He’s almost 2 years old, only got a few visits since he arrived at the nursery and was even up for adoption until recently. Fiuni couldn’t stand on his legs 2 month ago. He was a sad little boy refusing to use his legs. He wasn’t getting the right diet and his future was uncertain. Johanna and I have been working a lot on his case… making sure he exercises every day, varying his food and trying to find a good place for him to be after Crisis Nursery. We don’t know the reason why his relatives changed their mind.
Mambo also picked up a baby on his way back… a little girl who has been dumped by a river. She’s very pretty… She has colourful strings of beads around her neck and her waist. I ask if she comes from a particular tribe… They don’t know but explain that these beads could also be charms to protect the baby. It looks like someone really wanted her to survive. The mothers name her “Talandira” which means “We have received”.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Quelles aventures! Les scènes de vie que tu nous décris semblent assez intenses.
Profites bien de tes derniers jours sur place et surtout sois forte pour ton départ / retour.

bises.

Loïc

Unknown said...

Nous apprécions toutes ces informations bien que la traduction ne soit pas toujours évidente.

Maman Yann