Life at Neema House

Hi!
So since we’re at Neema full time now, there probably won’t be a lot of new and exciting adventures to report. For my blog tonight I’ll just give you some fun facts about life at Neema house:
1.Sing Maria is a game that I have literally played one million times. Basically what happens is you play patty-cake while singing a song. When you sing the word ten, you try and hit the other player’s hand before they can pull it away. Clearly this would get a little boring. We’ve been trying our hardest to introduce the children to new games. They seem to enjoy them but eventually we return to Sing Maria. Any game suggestions would be much appreciated.
2.We drink tea all the time. Today we drank it at breakfast, had a 10 o’clock tea break, a 4 o’clock tea break, and then we also drink it after dinner.
3.Callie and I are going to be ridiculously strong by the end of this month. Whenever we walk anywhere in the vicinity of a child they ask us to pick them up. They are just so adorable that I can never refuse. After I pick up one kid, the rest of them see that I’ve given in and mob me. I usually end up swinging kids around for the next hour.
4.Today I changed clothes three times because of throw-up, mud, and boogers. We’re going to be doing laundry a bit more often than we planned.
5. School is taken very seriously. Almost all of the kids had homework even though it was the very first day of term three.
6.The children are adorable when they drink porridge. Callie and I just sit and photograph them as they chug and then tip over their cups to make sure there isn’t any more left.
7.When I asked Anne (the oldest girl at Neema, she’s 12) to describe life at Neema House in one sentence she said, “We enjoy it.”
8.During the recreational time after dinner, I went to see what the oldest Neema student, Stephen, was reading. Turns out he was studying the different postal service prices from around the world. The children here find odd ways of entertaining themselves.
9.We have started having a lot of dance parties. The kids have learned disco, the tango, some swing dancing moves, the grocery-store, the monkey, and more! They are getting pretty good. We are trying to get them to memorize “Lean on Me” and The Jackson 5’s “A.B.C.” Hopefully by the time we leave they will know all the words. Anne’s favorite song is “Dancing Queen.”
10.Neema House is definitely one big family. The three year olds are already taking care of the babies and the primary school students put the toddlers to bed every night. All the kids have so much respect for Stephen and they always listen to Anne. I love seeing how each child has a spot to fill. Margaret is always with the babies, Ruth is the comedian, Kennedy is the social butterfly, Tawna is the cheeky one. At first I thought that with so many kids, some of them would have to feel neglected or unimportant. I’ve learned that it’s actually very obvious when a child isn’t present because each one of them has such a distinct personality and presence. I’ve loved getting to know them all.

Love and miss everyone!
Annie