Bits and Pieces

(This entry was written by Gina)

So again, sorry about the infrequent blogging, but computer access has not been abundant for me (us) lately...

But here are some updates…

Grayson (the boy who needed the operation for his breathing/sleeping problem) is home now, and doing quite well. He still is not a big fan of eating, and had a few complications in the hospital, but we went to see him yesterday with some lollipops and he perked up immediately, and even started running around his house. His grandmother reported that he slept well, and therefore, so did she. It was great to see them doing better, and I’m sure Grayson will be totally back to himself in a few days.

One of our girls who was living in a bad situation (not abusive or anything, just dirty and overcrowded) has now moved out of her old house and in with another relative, and seems better off, which is good because we were worried about her.

Lillian, our one girl who was seven and never went to school, officially started last week, which is awesome. Apparently they gave her a test the first day, and she did not do well on it so they suggested keeping her out of school until January, which is the beginning of the school year, but Luka insisted, as she is allready a year behind age-wise, and they put her in class one. She came to see us at the end of the day, and all her notebooks had big red check marks throughout her work, and I have never seen her with a bigger smile on her face. So apparently she was just nervous on the test, and we have no doubt she will do well.

We are continuing with school visits, and I’m in the process of compiling the data on that. It’s another strange sort of problem where the things you think will be the easiest turn out to be difficult in another country. I figured the easiest thing to do would be list the kids grades in each subject. WRONG. They use a different grading system here, and I think it involves curves, so a 56 in one class can be an A and a C in another. And report cards are not readily available, and different levels of school have grades come out at different times. Ugh. It’s also going to be a chore for the KAFAO/OIT staff to figure out who is going to school regularly, and why not if they aren’t. But thankfully they should be getting a social worker soon, and that will be a good assignment for them.

So that’s a few of the things we’ve been working on. I will have many more stories when I get back to the US at the end of August, as will Molly. Kristie leaves this Thursday, and she will have lots of info for everyone, too. Busy, busy, busy…