Busy Month and Bravery

It's hard to imagine I am already into my second month here at TTL. But they always say that the busier you are, the faster time goes, and we've been quite busy here.

The number of babies in the safe home is now up to 10, with the addition last week of two more clients.

A new five-month old boy has the long first name of Matta a Morena, which means "power of the chief." He had long, wild hair on the top of his head that stood straight up when he first got here, and I've taken to calling him "Chief" even though the bo m'e promptly gave him a haircut and he lost his regal profile.

The other new child is Nteboheng, who is so brave despite everything. She is almost five years old, and is horribly thin. Being the age she is, she is entirely aware of everything going on around her, and is noticeably nervous.

TTL had to take her to see a doctor at the hospital the other day, and Kirsten said she kept saying she wanted to go home. She is shy around me still, but smiles at some of the antics I get into to amuse her.

Seeing her sitting silently in the play room, or eating slowly from a bowl of food prepared by the bo m'e, makes me think of a five-year-old child back in the states being separated from her family. I just see wails and tantrems and demands for "mommy," and yet with Nteboheng there is only the hushed requests that she be returned home and a stoic patience in the face of being denied that request.

Thankfully our bo m'e caregivers here are warm, and win the children over quickly. When Nteboheng lays down in the play room, still lethargic from her malnurished state, she often does so against the leg of one of the bo m'e sitting on the floor.

Seithati, our almost-three-year-old girl who has really started coming into her own, has been whispering reassurances to Nteboheng -- probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

It's amazing to see how many children have entered TTL's doors in just the last month. It's a testament to how many children here need a lifeline just like TTL.

Fire pit and more fun

Check it out: We built a new TTL fire pit!

When Reid, Bridget, Will and Ellen were here, they had their own fire pit that I think they used quite often -- both for cooking and lounging around at night and on the weekends.

That pit was swallowed up by the new building here -- which is nearing completion, by the way -- so for about six months the TTL campus has been without the joys of outdoor fires.

Well, no more.

TTLF all-stars Sheila Block and Maura Costello, who arrived in town for a 12-day visit last Friday, joined me last Saturday in the construction effort. We all set to work digging and designing, and successfully built what you see in the picture here -- a solid pit made of cinderblocks and rocks that we have already used to cook steaks, chicken and sausage.

The sausage was provided by the caregivers here at the safe house, who we had a big party with this weekend -- along with the rest of the TTL staff -- to send Sheila and Maura back home in style.

The party was a blast, with lots of ululating and dancing among the bo m'e, or women, and classic Basotho stick fighting among the bo ntate, or men. It was sweet.

As for the new pit, it's good fun to stoke the fire and chop logs -- something I've perfected at a novice level -- under all the stars here, and I'm excited about the pit's potential.

There is something about stoking a fire that just puts me at ease.

Check out these videos from the party:

A picture is worth...

...a thousand words.

Here are shots of TTL outreach in action; Thuso, who I have mentioned here before and who loves grabbing cameras; my rondaval; and Mokhotlong as seen from the mountain peak behind TTL.

VHW: Our Extra Eyes and Ears

This week I had the privilege of witnessing firsthand one of TTL's most promising initiatives: the Village Health Worker Program.

Since November 2008, our outreach workers have been meeting with local men and women in villages throughout the region in order to train them on important aspects of malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and breastfeeding options for HIV-positive mothers.

Dozens of matriarchal and patriarchal individuals have been driven to attend these meetings by a deep-seated desire to better their communities and protect their children from the ravages of food shortage and disease.

Our support and their commitment have translated into a new network of basic health workers who can call TTL with referrals whenever they see a sick baby in their remote communities -- essentially multiplying the eyes and ears of our outreach network.

The village health workers routinely use their training to check babies for malnutrition using weight scales, height length boards and MUAC strips to measure the babies' "middle upper-arm circumference."

They have also been trained to use World Health Organization Z-scores, which allow them to use a baby's weight and height to get an accurate measure of malnutrition.

I saw all of this in action when I accompanied two of our outreach workers and TTLF leaders Sheila Block and Maura Costello on a site visit to one of the villages participating in the program. Site visits are our way of seeing how things are going.

In an empty stone building with a corrugated metal roof at the center of a small village of rondavals, a dominate and matriarchal village health worker rallied her village together with the help of a group of other dedicated women.

A gathering of children sang to us at the urging of one of our outreach workers, then filed into the building, which was owned by the village chief, to have their measurements taken. Scores of women carried in younger children, many of whom cried torrents and screamed at the slightest clue that they would be weighed on a scale.

Regardless of the protests from the younger ones, we managed to weigh a total of 40 babies and toddlers. Of those, we found three in need of our help. One was already a client receiving our help, another was already receiving food from the WFP, and another one was wasting away with no source of help at all.

The third baby is a new client of TTL, and that reality is one that makes every last measurement made during that long day in the hot room worth it.

If it weren't for the Village Health Worker Program, these sorts of communal check-ups probably wouldn't be occurring.

And even though our outreach teams are already out in the villages and getting referrals from rural clinics and village chiefs, we may never have found out about this little baby if the village health workers hadn't helped organize this meeting.

Update on the Babies

SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED IN A WHILE.

For one reason or another our phone line hasn't worked for the last week, meaning our super-slow dial-up Internet connection hasn't worked either. Ah well. TIA.

Anyway, last week was a busy one for the safe house.

First, Rapelang, the one-year-old boy pictured here, went home last weekend after about 7 months here.

Although his mother passed away when he was only a few months old, he thankfully still had a family to go home to. On Sunday he headed back to Thaba Tseka, the district where he is from, with some of our outreach workers. He was dressed in a new outfit and brand new shoes (which you can see in the photo). He didn't like the shoes at first because he couldn't walk in them, but he got used to them.

I'd gotten relatively close with Rapelang in just two weeks, and when I first carried him out to the car and handed him to one of the outreach workers, he screamed and began to cry, reaching toward me to take him back. I did for a few minutes as the outreach workers continued preparing to leave, and he buried his face in my neck and pouted. But then I had to hand him over again.

It was sad, and I'll miss him around the safe house. He was one of my first buddies here. He has a good laugh and a sweet demeanor.

But I know he has gone back to where he belongs as a healthy young boy, and that soon he will be running around his village with his own pack of friends, just like all the kids I see around town here in Mokhotlong. We'll continue checking up on him, and I think he will be happy.

Even with Rapelang's departure, the number of babies here remains at eight.

Midweek last week, a new baby named Liteboho arrived with a severe cough after having been discharged from the local hospital. His very young mother didn't know what to do with him, as he still seemed quite sick, so we took him on as our newest safe house resident. We'll be administering his medicines prescribed by the hospital doctor and hopefully nursing him back to good health.

He's a tough little guy who seems to be dealing with his wheezing OK for now, but hopefully he won't have to deal with it for much longer.

In other news, Seithati -- the almost three-year-old girl I wrote about before who we found malnourished at a rural clinic -- seems to be getting better and better. Since she got here she has become more talkative and engaged. She is still tiny for her age, but hopefully she'll start packing on some pounds. She is really smart.

She now screams quite a lot, not in a whining way but in a playful way. It's such a far cry from when we picked her up and she was so sullenly silent for a three year old. It may be that she was so malnourished before that vocalizing at all took too much energy. And now that's she's getting better, she's letting out everything that's been pent up in her for so long, hidden behind her lethargy. With that mindset it's difficult to get tired of her screaming, which shoots out of the play room and fills the office regularly.

Thuso, the other little toddler I've gotten close to, is still rambunctious and funny. He gets pretty difficult just before lunch when he's hungry, but other than that he's pretty happy. He chows down whatever he's offered in the way of food -- the other day I fed him his lunch of papa, sweet potato and beans -- and is super curious about cameras and cell phones and anything else he can possibly break.

When I first got here he would cry whenever I got anywhere close to him, but now he often walks right over to me when I walk into the play room and screams, 'Ntate!', which is how everyone greets men here. I think I've officially won him over.

The rest of the little babies all seem to be happy and doing relatively well also. Our youngest, three-month-old Nthati, is still tiny but seems healthily curious about his surroundings. I fed him a bottle the other day and he drank until it was half empty -- a good sign.

All in all, a lot going on in Baby World!