Today we put on our Kids Christmas Party, and I'm finally done with all the pictures. It went great, even though it had to be different than usual because of Corona. We brought the kids in in groups of 50 (government regulation)(getting a number and a mark so they could not come in twice, as well as a chocolate), stayed outside, where they first sang a song, then heard the gospel, then Paul did a Q&A about what he had said, with Candy for correct answers, and then he prayed with them to receive Jesus. Then they went inside our dining hall one by one to receive a pair of shoes and a drink, before leaving our base again. Once all 50 had received their gifts, the next group of 50 came in.
Each child had received two identical numbers, so they could come back later to pick up a bowl of food in exchange for a number. I had brought those plastic bowls with me from Europe, and I'm sure glad I did. In the past, they would all eat on our base, but that was not possible this year. It was a little chaotic to hand those bowls out to them at the gate, but I'm not sure how we could have done that better without taking forever. All our children were wearing masks, so that if anyone accuses us of breaking regulations or causing a Corona cluster, we should have done enough and have pictures to prove it. We don't want to give our neighbors any more reasons to accuse us.
Paul and our kids did a great job executing everything we had planned together. In the end 450 kids had come in in groups of 50 and received shoes and a drink, then those were out, and so Paul went outside the gate and preached the gospel to the remaining 200 kids or so that we couldn't give any gifts to. What was also missing because of Corona was playing games with them. In our house, it was a day like any other.
The little ones have been getting up early, and today it was 6:15. My belly was suddenly hurting real bad again at 2 am last night, and it's starting to hurt tonight as well, the third night in a row. I wasn't feeling too great all day and laid low until 3:30 pm, when I finally gave up on trying to get Tammy and Emmy to sleep. There had been too much commotion when we put them down, which in the end kept them from sleeping. So I took them and went to the living room with them to join the others, which was my first time there today.
Considering they hadn't slept, they did pretty well for the rest of the day. They showed me their dance skills, and that they have figured out how to climb up the couch. It's not easy to keep an eye on all of them to keep them from falling!
Amadou and Jonathan came over for something at one point, and both Emmy and Tammy wanted them to pick them up, and Emmy refused to be put back down. And so they were stuck for a while, until they finally put them down anyway and left. It tried to put Sammy into Amadou's arm, but he started whining before he even got there. He just doesn't want to be held by anyone but us, most of the time.
The little ones ate pretty well today, and Tammy only had a bowel movement in the morning. It seems that Sammy still has the worst diarrhea. They do like the carrot-oat soup that is good for diarrhea, and had it again today.
Tonight at bathtime I weighed them again, for the first time in 2 weeks (of diarrhea). Tammy weighed 9.6 kilos (+300), Emmy 8.9 (+500) and Sammy 7.3 (+400). So very good numbers in spite of everything, but last time they had all lost weight, so I guess they made up for it. That's probably why the pediatrician said to only weigh them once a month.
At bedtime, it was Sammy for the third day in a row who was just crying and crying. He never used to do that. We fed him, and held him, but he kept crying anyway. In the end we just had to leave him alone until he fell asleep.
It's 2 am, which has been my typical bedtime recently, and even though there is always more work to do, I'm probably just gonna go to bed. Thank you for praying!
