Bula Gang,
An exciting and hopeful 5th week, there were a lot of visitors who were very generous with donations. One family donated 4+ massive boxes, the husband is Fijian Indian and his wife is Australian, they reside in Australia now and it’s so nice they still think of those that need their help back in Fiji.
Another visitor from Australia came especially to see the 8 year old twin girls. He and his wife are going through the process of adopting these two girls. He gave them new dresses, school shoes, school bags, amongst a lot of other goodies and also for the other children in the house. I love hearing that children have been either adopted or able to return to their families. All going ahead, they’ll be living in Melbourne and I just thought how great that will be, open to a big world and a culturally diverse city. Although, they may take a while to get used to the forever changing climate, I know I do and I’m from Canberra haha!
There were more testing times during toilet training! I had to bath and change one of the 2 year olds Jacob twice in 20 mins! It’s so hard 6 toddlers undergoing toilet training and accidents are imminent, I feel sorry for the laundry lady! However, that wasn’t the worst of it… I thought to myself, I don’t think anyone gave Caleb chocolate so why is it melted on his fingers… OMG, it’s POO! He has developed a habit of pooing his nappy and touching it. I was holding Daphane so I couldn’t attend to him but I alerted the staff pretty well and they acted swiftly before he could touch anything or anyone! He has done that twice now that I know of.
I remembered a trick my Nan Harvey said she used to do with my Dad and had him toilet trained by 9 months old! I’ve never heard a baby trained so young so I’m not sure if the truth is somewhat stretched haha? Anyway, she said to make the baby wee you blow air into their face while they’re on the toilet, I’m not sure if it worked but I will try again with this method haha, maybe sometimes wives tales work?
We are being strict with Daphane’s mobility effort, haha I’m used to talking about mobility in an IT sense but a little girl’s mobility is much more interesting! We have noticed when she’s standing against the couch she doesn’t necessarily take a step but she manages to shuffle gradually from one end to another. She’s curious to see what the other children are doing and is laughing a lot more. She is also putting her hand out for me to do “round and round the garden like a teddy bear”, as the toddlers do. She may not be able to communicate vocally but she seems to understand quite a lot. When she feels like walking she does very well and even laughs and smiles, however walking is very much on her terms. We are seeing small results every day, that’s the main thing.
I had a really good cuddle with baby Joel, he was awake as well and pulling lots of funny faces. I have noticed he has dimples when he (sort of) smiles, they are the cutest and I can’t wait until he’s smiling properly! He liked his chin being lightly tickled with my fingernail and his cheeks which are a lil chubby hehe. Later in the day he made another appearance but he was mainly asleep, I got to put him back to bed and he looked so peaceful and didn’t stir at all, bless his little heart.
Some of the older girls have asked me about showing them some of my music as they aren’t allowed to listen to chart music. They are 12-14 and haven’t heard of the likes of One Direction. They have heard of Beyonce but don’t know any of her songs, saddens me! I spoke to the supervisor, unfortunately music even without swearing isn’t allowed but I can show my pics. I respect and understand this is a Christian house and these are children and they are trying to protect them. Although at 14 when Destiny’s Child came out with “Independent Woman”, I believe that played a part in how I wanted to live my life haha!
They did enjoy looking at some of my recent Europe photos but hadn’t heard of most of the countries. They would like me to bring in some more pics. Some of them said they wanted to travel when they’re grown up and asked if it was hard… I didn’t want to discourage them since they are children and should be able to dream, so I just said if you study hard, do well in school and take every opportunity which comes your way, the world is what you make it.
I’ll leave it on that positive piece of advice!
Vinaka vakalevu,
Loloma levu xox
Alice Sophiarcely Travels 