Les bebes

Friday morning I saw the tantines and babies for the first time! It was so exciting to spend the morning playing in the totspot again. My first morning back at the tot spot I was reminded how much I love that beautiful, quiet moment when a baby falls asleep in your arms. I had three fall asleep in my arms in the span of a couple hours and was really enjoying my morning's work!
The tantines are still the same and I love them. As we care for the babies we have intermittent conversations about everything Brukina and some things Canada, like my lack of a fiancé.
The fiance conversation goes a little like this: the women ask if I'm engaged yet, I say I'm still a student and they all promise to find me a husband in Burkina. One of them suggests her son, who is far too young to be married, but apparently a suitable suggestion because evidently I'm not doing the work of finding a fiancé myself. We all laugh about her suggestion, I ask her how her about her family and the topic of conversation changes.
And our mornings progress as we tickle babies, change diapers and stop tears.
Here are some brief updates on the four babies I know from last year, all the other babies I knew are back with their families or placed with new families! We have 16 babies right now and I look forward to getting know them. Already I'm learning names and seeing personalities come out.
Joseph: still an old man in a little body(a wise soul). He is now the oldest baby and sometimes, I think, bored with the lack of children his age to play with. He is ever adorable and a petit bandit.
Jules: has grown a lot and it makes my heart glad. Last year he was in and out of the MSF creche every other week very sick and malnourished. I used to lose sleep worrying about his health but he is now healthy and spunky! While last year we would struggle (unsuccessfully) to get him to drink his milk we now have to keep a close eye on him because he goes around the totspot stealing the other babies' bottles.
Emmanuelle: She started walking while I was here last year but she's improved dramatically. She is now running around and keeping up with Joseph. Her personality is starting to show and she's absolutely adorable!
Wendenmie: Last year she was SO tiny! When she came to SW she was dehydrated and the soft spot on her head had started to sink in (the villagers filled this in with putty). She became so sick we worried she had meningitis and the nurses struggled to give her an IV because she was so dehydrated. For a few brief hours we feared she would die before we could get her to a hospital- and then she pulled through. Now she is so big didn't recognize her: she is walking and healthy. Praise.