Week 4 Report

Today I will attempt to describe the headache, the joy, the mass chaos that is . . . THE BABY ROOM!

Everyone loves babies, right? Then you should all come here and hold some. They're so darn cute and so hungry for affection. When I hold one in a rocking chair, three more stand patiently by my knees, waiting for me to put that one down and pick another one up.

The babies usually either have Christian names, like David in the picture with me, or traditional names that state the day of the week they were born, like Kwasi in the middle photo (a boy born on a Sunday), or Akua in the bottom pic (a girl born on a Wednesday). I'm much better at remembering the Christian names!

Bath time is pretty fun to watch -- childcare assembly line style! The mothers (all of the women who work here are called mothers) strip 'em all down and sit them next to a big bowl. Then one washes, one dries, and one puts on a new diaper. There are currently seventeen babies in there, and babies aren't exactly the best at following instructions, so there are usually a few naked babies wandering around and getting into trouble while they wait their turn!

Once they learn how to use the potty chair, they're out of the baby room and into the toddler room, where they are free during the day to roam the grounds . . . so there are tiny little ones all over the place! They just trust that the older kids will help the younger ones, but the overprotective American in me is absolutely horrified that babies are wandering around! One baby got "promoted" last week and his bed was quickly filled -- two new babies, one six months old and one six days old, were brought in by the police on Friday. It's sad that kids just keep coming in, but good that at least there's somewhere for them to go.