Needless to say, I kept it together and made it through the day. Being hungry has made me think about so many food related issues. For one, in the afternoon I was so hungry and was getting really grumpy. Made me think, how many of these kids are just moody and grumpy because they are hungry? Probably a lot of them. Some days I feel like some of the boys are ticking time bombs, ready to explode at any second over nothing. And it is always before we eat. Food has a huge impact on your mood and I never considered it before.
Ok so it was just one food issue. :-) but I thought about food so much today, it felt like much more...
Today was a great time with the boys. I took the boys from the home where I stay, my 3 boys, an uncle and all of the boys from his house, 2 of another aunt's, and about 4 other boys that stay with my 3. We were close to 40 in all. The highlight of swimming was Bwanika and his dog. Bwanika is staying with another aunt and has a dog that follows him everywhere. The dog is still on the streets so when the dog sees him, he is so happy. As I was at the main entrance of the swimming pool, counting the boys, the dog runs past me. I was SO positive they were going to scream at us and kick the dog out, but they didn't. So it was 40 of us and a dog. The boys all jumped in the pool and the dog was running around the pool wherever his friends were swimming. It was the cutest thing ever. Towards the end, this man came and was disturbing me and the other aunt and the dog came up to us. The man freaked out and the other aunt said to him, "Oh, he's fine. He's ours." To which the man responded, "He's vaccinated?" We just had to laugh and then she tells him, "No, he's a street dog." The man was so unhappy and disturbed by that that he left very shortly after.
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| Alfonde, the dog that follows everywhere and went swimming |
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| Bwanika |
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| Police |
The other highlight of my day, was Ronald again. All of the boys know that if I am around they cannot be mean to the dogs(there are many street dogs/puppies around). I will get up and chase them and do to them whatever they did to the dog. Sometimes this backfires on me because they will bother the dogs just to bother me or they think it is funny. Today one of the boys, Junior, was bothering a dog named Police. She is always around and the kids will feed her. He kept bothering her, pouring water on her, pushing her, etc. and I kept telling him to stop. Then he kicked her and I got up. Ronald was standing by and another boy picked Junior up and brought him over to Ronald at his request. Ronald then started yelling at Junior for kicking Police. Not sure what all was said but the message was definitely delivered. As I was leaving later, I walked by Ronald and told him I would see him tomorrow and he didn't seem to care but then said, "Tomorrow? Ok." We are making progress...
On to day 5...
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