Saturday, May 28, 2011

CHILDREN AS SOLDIERS

Child-soldiers were all around Guinea when Sierra Leon and Ivory Coast were warring while I was in Africa.  Even though we were located miles from the borders, children were being trained in our area.  Many of these children were under 12 years.  They were forced to carry arms, shoot people, carry messages,  and do despicable things.  When they were released back to their families, provided they lived through the war, they were mean and violent with their siblings and parents.  Many times the families rejected these children from their homes and then they became children of the street and criminals. 
According to IRIN, this is a problem in many parts of the world.   There are international laws against using children as soldiers and still the problem continues.

COPING WITH DEATH

When I was four, my mother died of brain cancer.  I do not remember much of anything about this time except that she had lots of headaches.  During this time, our house had a fire and my parents were able to put it out.   A few weeks later, my mother was taken to the hospital and I did not ever see her again.  I did not understand or comprehend what was happening. 
I am not sure I did cope  until I was an adult, maybe not until after my divorce when I began counseling.  I know now that I internalized it and carried it with me for years. I know that I was expected to carry an unusual load of work to fill in the place of my mother.  When the family gathered to put up chickens, which they did every summer, I was in the kitchen doing my share for my family while all the other children were playing outside.  I could cut up a chicken as fast as any of the women.  I think that I coped by stepping up to the plate to do my share of work. 
I know now, when I see a movie or hear of a family losing a mother, I cry.  It wells up in me and I cannot force it down.  I cannot read the book, Momma’s Chair without tearing up.  It is a story about a family’s house burning.  I guess, I associate the house burning with my mother’s death. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Example of language learning in a childcare setting

I found this on youtube as an example of language learning in a different language childcare setting and thought it might be of interest to someone.  Actually once you are there you can view settings in several languages.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Nutrition and Agriculture in West Africa

Nutrition and agriculture sectors must work together. Learning to understand one another has been an issue as their policies are written differently and they collect information from a different venue.  Malnutrition is a large problem in most of West Africa, especially Guinea.  Focusing on the quantity of food raised does not eliminate malnutrition as it may not contain the quality that is necessary to nourish.  Education and working together on their policies is a must if Guinea is going to overcome the problem of malnutrition.  Victoria Lebbie, who heads the women in agriculture and nutrition unit in Sierra Leone's Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security Ministry says, “"To them it's just cooking," she told IRIN.  “But nutrition is not only cooking - it goes beyond that. It's agriculture; it's all about production, processing, preservation, utilization."  This information was discussed at a nutrition forum of the Economic Community of West African States – helping nutrition find its place in the agriculture sector.
When I lived in Guinea, there were two seasons, the eating season and the hunger season.  That is how the people perceived their lives.  For eight months “we will plant, harvest and store, then for four months when the food resources are gone, we will not eat.”  This is difficult because during the hunger season the price of rice, vegetables, and gas goes up.  When I was there the price of gas went to $5 a gallon US dollars.  Crime escalated and babies died from starvation.  I saw little children eating the raw mangos off of the trees, get terribly sick and some died.  Mangos were the only thing they could reach and there was no food at home.  Most women tried to feed their families something once a day but sometimes that did not happen.
This affects me because a part of my heart is still in Guinea and always will be. When I went to the corner “market” I would buy a baguette of bread and by the time I got to my house most of it was gone.  I would tear off pieces and give to the children I spoke to on the way.  I am not sure how this impacts my future and what I can do at this present time.  I do pray for them, many of them by name as friends.  It makes me terribly ashamed when I whine that I do not have something.  I did learn what things are important and what a luxury is: a car, a recliner chair, or bed to sleep.  The one thing that I cried over when I arrived home was turning on the water faucet and getting fresh healthy water. Even when running the water through a filter system, it was not good and not disease free. 
Article: WEST AFRICA: Growing food for nutrition, GRAND BASSAM, 27 September 2010 (IRIN) retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org
Article: Efficacy of outreach nutrition rehalilitation centres retrieved from http://.ncbi.nih.gov/pubmed

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Birth of my youngest son

I went to the hospital on December 31st in labor but after two hours it stopped and the doctor sent me home with an appointment to see him on the 5th of January.  January 5th came and I went to the doctor.  In the examining room, he examined me and said, "Get her to the hospital as fast a possible, she is about to crown."
The hosptial was across the street so it was not panic time.  When we arrived at the hospital, the nurses moved like gazelles, they were not going to have the baby hit the floor before the doctor arrived.  I was in the labor room less than 8 minutes when William decided he was ready to see the world.  After a quick delivery, the nurse cleaned him off and laid him in the bassinet.  My husband went over to see him, only to catch him coming out of the bassinet.  He had his feet and an arm over the edge and was on the way out.  William has been on the run ever since. 

My experiences in Guinea, West Africa with the birthing process was limited.  I never saw the actual birth but was there the next day after twins were born.  The grandmother delivered them.   The baby girl was LBW and the boy was a little above.  The girl died almost immediately so they decided that the boy should die also.  They just did not feed him so he died the next day.  There is a great fear of twins when they are born.  It seems that one of them might be from the devil and no one knows for sure which therefore it is not uncommon for both to be destroyed.   Thirty point two of a thousand babies die during birth.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107600.html
Link to Guinea, West Africa

Sunday, May 1, 2011

New Class

I want to say "Hello" to my new classmates of The Early Childhood Development class.  I wish blessings on each one of you.  I truly want to get to know you.