Day 329

I spent my last morning in Gabs (for this trip) at the Baylor Clinic and I can't believe how fast time went by, a combination of having tons of fun with the kids and whenever I'm leaving home it feels like the last few hours fly by!

Two other volunteers joined me this morning and we had about 15 kids to hang out with. There were a lot of different activities going on and I was surrounded by a few younger kids - we made cars out of lego and had car races, caused accidents, and drove all over the tables and benches! The kids then drew pictures and wanted to show them off as soon as they got done drawing so I went from one to the next praising their creativity - they loved the extra attention!

Before leaving I sat with one of the younger boys as he read a short story book with me. I asked him questions after each story and he was excited each time he got the question right.

I had a great time meeting the kids and hanging out with them. And I look forward to going back some day! Now back to packing :(

Day 327

I had my largest group of kids at Baylor Clinic today, and it was a lot of work keeping up with them! The kids come to the clinic about once a month for their check ups. It's coming up to a month since my first visit there and today I had three kids from my first week. It was wonderful seeing them again and even more fun because they know me and were eager to talk and play.

I started the morning playing soccer with some of the younger girls - I'm defs getting better :)

Games of Jenga and the world puzzle are my favorites so of course there was a lot of that.

And while all of this was going on I had one little girl who demanded attention for showing off her hula hoop skills! It was a morning of being everywhere all at the same time, but still a morning filled with the kids laughing and smiling - so worth it!

Day 325

Like Jiten said, the internet has been down for the past few days so I was unable to blog yesterday. But here is how my Monday morning went:

I spent the morning hanging out with the kids at Baylor Clinic and had a wonderful time. This was the smallest group of kids I've had, as well as some of the oldest. There were several teenagers in the group who were content kicking around the soccer ball, while teaching me some fancy kicks. I soon left them though to hang out with my newest little buddy.  He's an adorable 5year old. We pushed around hula hoops (which were almost as tall as him); he soon became confident in his skills and started rolling out three at a time, and every time they collapsed would burst out in laughter.

We both then moved on to work on a puzzle. He was adamant about doing it so I helped him and one of the little girls put it together. They were so serious while doing it and had the proudest smiles once it was done.

Day 315

Aarti joined me at the Baylor Clinic this morning, along with one other volunteer. We took out the usual games and activities, and the kids helped take everything outside.

I started with the now famous puzzle of the world. A 14year old put it together today, and while he worked on it we chatted about some of the countries and he told me about one day wanting to visit the UK.

Once he was done with the puzzle, I taught him how to play Jenga, and he loved it! As we were playing some of the other kids caught on and joined in. They were all trying to be really careful because they didn't want the tower to fall over. The higher the tower went the more hands would shelter it in case it was going to fall.

Day 314

Time flew by at the Baylor Clinic today! Two volunteers from the University of Botswana were also there. We met in the toy closet and picked out toys/games for today's group.

Once outside the kids just started picking up the toys/games they wanted to play with. Two young boys took the world puzzle to another table so I joined them in putting it together. As they completed the countries we talked about the ones we knew about - I'm going to try take some pictures in tomorrow of the different things we talked about (rainforest, pyramids, kangaroos etc).

Once they were done I walked to another table where a young boy was challenging the volunteers to a game of Jenga. He was really good and won most of his games. Anytime the tower collapsed he would burst out laughing. Everyone enjoyed watching the game and before we knew it, it was time to pack up.

Day 313

Today I met another volunteer at the Baylor Clinic; he's been going there to volunteer every Wednesday for the past two years! He told me a little more about what the Play Group started out as...each day of the week taught a different lesson (hygiene, oral care) and each day was about building the children's confidence, self-esteem, conversational skills, and creativity. They started the morning with an introduction circle where the kids introduced themselves to each other, sang some songs, and did some easy exercises to warm up. They then played some group games centered around that days lesson. The second hour was unstructured and the children could play with any of the toys brought out and were encouraged to be creative in making up their own games. Before they left they cleaned up the area, picked up trash, and helped put all the toys away. He said that things have slowly changed to where the play group is now more just about playing and less about the lessons they were trying to teach.

We talked about how the play group could move back toward what it was initially meant to be, hopefully we can do something more meaningful for the children! And hopefully, administratively, there will be some support to help with this.

Of course the children were out today and they were very creative in building houses using Lego; one of the girls put together a puzzle of the world and we talked about some of the different countries, she also shared that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up; before we ended the group, two of the kids showed off their skills with the hula hoops!

Day 312

Back at the Baylor Clinic this morning. Today's group of kids were very artistic and most of them wanted to draw and colour, so I had the majority of them creating beautiful pictures.

I had a couple of boys who couldn't sit still for too long so we kicked around a soccer ball (wearing flip flops wasn't the smartest idea!). Once we got a few more people kicking the ball around we switched to little bean bags and attempted to throw around 3-4 of those. We just ended up all throwing them at the same time, but they loved it.

Towards the end of my time there I rolled around hoola hoops with some of the girls and a bubbly 3 year old. Again, we rolled around multiple hoops at the same time and the 3 year old would burst into giggles when the hoops collided.

Today went a lot smoother with having multiple activities out at the same time. Tomorrow I'm hoping to find a few more fun things in the toy closet - really wish there was a Dollar Store here!!

Day 311

It was my first day at the Baylor Clinic. Their mission is to conduct a program of high-quality, high-impact, highly ethical pediatric and family HIV/AIDS care and treatment, health professional training and clinical research. The Clinic is staffed by Botswana and U.S. health professionals, the center of excellence provides primary and specialty medical care and social services for HIV-infected infants, children and their families. BIPAI Botswana maintains an annual mortality rate of <1%, a rate as good as any Western nation, and the majority of its patients are thriving.

This morning I got to spend some time with these patients, kids aged 7-13. While they waited for their appointments I kept them entertained with games of Uno, soccer, tag, and Twister. I was nervous going in because I wasn't sure what to expect. But once there, I got some materials together and walked outside to the play area, and the kids just followed me. Most spoke to me and told me about themselves, I had two little girls who sat by me the entire time but didn't say a word! They were adorable!

One of the boys, 7 years old, was the most energetic! He ran around everywhere, played with everyone, and had so much energy! He was always laughing and smiling and really made some of the other kids more comfortable.

I had a good time and am hoping to be a little more prepared with games and activities for them tomorrow :)