Nanny day 1...sort of

Due to my nerves, the heat in our bedroom, and the fact that I did no baby work yesterday I had a horrible time sleeping (as did rach; we were flopping fish in our beds) and ended up coming to the couch to sleep because it was cooler. So 7am came early and Rach and I parted ways, she to the nursery and me to the main house. When I walked in they were so surprised to see a white person so early in the morning and were on top of me immediately. It is certainly not me though, they are 100% indiscriminate with their love and it’s the saddest thing that really they just want to touch you or be in your lap all the time. I only got to play with them for about half an hour before another volunteer came in and said that we needed to go to Arusha and we were leaving then. Davona, Susan, Ilse, and I made the trip to Arusha because Davona needed to go to run some errands as well as Susan, and Ilse and I had to go to the immigration office. I needed to get Rachel’s and I’s passports stamped by immigration regarding our work permits and Ilse needed to change the date of her leave on her passport to a later date. We did everything pretty quickly while there but it still took us until about 1230 to get back to the compound. We were all starved so we went up and ate lunch and then back down to check on the kids and realized that the kids I will be having had already gone down for a nap so there was nothing I needed to do. I got to rest until about 230 and then went back down there and the kids were waking up or already up from their naps but we figured out that the nanny that I’m taking over for is still here and not leaving until next week so I will just be helping them out until then. So I just got to play with my ‘chosen ones’ (by that I mean the kids that are assigned to me, which also happen to be some of my favs) I have got to take pictures of them because they are the cutest toddlers ever! The ones I have are James, Amina, Jackson, Selemani, Nina, and Anya. Nina and Anya are 2 of quadruplets. They had a brother who died at a young age and their sister is Tessa. Nina and Anya are identical twins though and their sister just looks a little like them as well but lighter skinned. Around 5pm is when they get dinner so I fed Amina and Anya (who happened to be sitting next to each other) and then the 2 other babies that were next to them as well. I’m really trying to remember all the names but its most difficult because you can’t do it on clothing at all because someone else will likely be wearing it the next day. From there they just went and played and then the nannies come and get them one by one to get changed, washed, and jammies put on. At that point I went back upstairs because all the volunteers were there and I was starving. Ilse decided to make us dinner (one that she called very simple) of coconut milk rice with peppers and tomatoes. We all ate in about 5 minutes and decided that we were tired and probably going to bed very soon. I was trying to stay up till 10pm so that I wouldn’t wake up early in the morning for the next 8-5. Rachel has the even earlier “night shift” which is going in from 6-8am and then tomorrow night from 5-8. After tomorrow we both have Sunday off so we are looking forward to that for sure! Onto the next day…and more loving on sweet babies.