Lula Care Center

Lula Care Center
Originally uploaded by Heart 4 Orphans

Did some gardening, planting spinach, at Lula Care Center today. This is a care center we visited earlier in the week. Want to be useful but planting spinach with four of us, and two gardeners, and about 50 plants doesn’t feel useful. There is a pre-school class and two nursery classes taking place here during the day too, hard to help there because of the language difference.

Returned 'home' to Caroline's home. The power was on and she cooked Pap. We had some tinned fish with sauce with it. Fortunately I've had Pap before from when I lived in Cape Town, certainly not my favorite but I can get it down, and it is filling. It's a white, very thick paste made from mealie meal. The proper way to eat it is to take a little bit of it in you right hand, roll it between your fingers, dip it into whatever else your eating (veggies, meal or sauce) and then put it in your mouth. Without anything else with it, it's quite dry and hard to swallow. It's fairly tasteless but it's a staple of probably millions of people across Africa every day. Most everyone loves it and eats it every day, and they wouldn't feel like they'd eaten, unless they had some.

Caroline had already cooked and eaten before I arrived so I ate with her beautiful daughter Bonnie. She doesn't speak any English so talking is out, but with facial expressions we enjoyed dinner. After dinner I wasn't sure what else to do so played with Bonnie for quite a while. She's really warming up to me, and is quite open now. I pick her up and play 'horsie' on my lap. She has a tennis ball, which seems to be the only toy she plays with. She (or her mom?) has a lot of teddy bears but they are more decoration than toys I guess. We toss and catch the ball, she's not very good at catching. She's so happy to have someone to play with.

Only see Caroline's brother here and there, he seems to help start the fire, but go away to watch tv somewhere else. He sleeps in another room. Her sister is away until Saturday. Her grandfather doesn’t look ninety andn walks around. He likes to sit by the fire, which is in another building on the same property in which the fourth wall has been torn down (to let our the smoke?)

She again announced that she was going to bed at 6. The lights stayed on, she said her brother would be turning them off. I read until about 8, then went to sleep myself. Her brother never turned the lights off so I was grateful for my eye covers. They again slept all the way until almost seven. That's a lot of sleep. Bonnie probably also gets a nap at her pre-school in the early afternoons. Didn't have a conversation with Caroline today. Was hoping to get to know her better.