Gifty: 11 years old and in the 4th grade. She loves to dance and has taken a liking to the song "True Colors." If she isn't smiling it is because she has some intense idea that she is about to wrestle to the ground or challenge she is about to overcome. Gifty is helpful without complaint and wonderfully outgoing. She likes pink and purple. If you sit still too long she will braid your hair. (I had a hard time getting just a picture of Gifty. She is always surrounded by other kids.) I'll try for a better one.
Kai: 8 years old (almost nine in January) and in the 2nd grade. He has insatiable curiosity and is active. If there is a door he must open it or a hole he must look in it. He loves soccer and basketball and his favorite colors are blue and red. He makes the third left-handed Taylor! He asked me for a remote control car so don't tell him that one was already hidden in the closet at home for Christmas.
Kumba: 7 years old and in the 1st grade. She also likes pink and purple. She plays well by herself but is easily distracted by other things. She is the most shy of all of them but when she feels comfortable she is goofy and fun-loving. As the baby of the family, she is used to being pampered. Kumba loves to eat and an eat more than me and definitely eats more than Gifty.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, their orphanage has no running water so when I brought the to the guest house they were amazed by the showers, sinks, and toilets! They had never seen a shower, didn't know how to flush the toilet, and didn't know how to turn on the faucets in the sink. Kumba loved the shower and giggled through the whole thing. They each took two a day and I had to force them out. They washed all their underthings with the soap and hung them up in the shower because that is what they thought they were supposed to do.
Their diet consists mostly of eggs, rice, chicken, or fish at the orphanage. Everything is spicy. But they specifically were excited because they love sausages (hot dogs) and wanted them for every meal...which I did not give them. They don't use buns but Kai will fit right in with Shiloh because he licked all the ketchup off his plate and then asked for seconds on ketchup only. After being introduced to ketchup they wanted it on everything including hardboiled eggs in the morning. They are also big fans of peanut butter but think jelly is too sweet. They have never had butter or cheese on a sandwich but ask for just mayo on bread. I introduced them to spaghetti (meatless). Gifty ate it to be polite but Kumba and Kai both thought it was great. Liberians as a country refuse vegetables and the only sell it in supermarkets to foreign visitors. Apparently they are expensive. I did try some frozen veggies and I will never do that here again...yuck! They hated raisins. But give them a good biscuit (cookie) and they will eat the whole box before you turn around.
Everything is so new to them and they are not afraid to touch, take or ask about them. Kumba wanted to know what was inside the light covering and Kai asked which bag I brought the lamp in from America. They never shut a single door because they have never had one to shut...and that includes the bathroom. Kumba seemed scared of the stairs but got over it pretty quickly. Kai started carrying the TV remote with him everyplace he went. They had seen more TV than I had anticipated and Kai instantly started flipping channels to find his favorite on. Not surprising, they had never seen a Kindle and insisted that it was a big phone. They DO understand phones and can use them very well. They instantly found the music and the games and started playing them like they had one of their own.
The wanted to see pictures of their room over and over and over again. And at the orphanage that was the picture they wanted to show their friends. They also wanted to see pictures of Daddy and more Daddy.
We took a day and went to the beach. The kids LOVE the beach and, I think, will be disappointed to feel the cold Pacific. None of the kids know how to swim but that doesn't stop us from chasing the waves.
I also went to church with them. Church is a whole other blog (that I probably won't write) but it was the fact that the kids sat silently and still for two hours while sweat drenched them. Church was loud, small, and full of dancing-but not by the kids which I thought was odd. They looked bored but never talked, fidgeted or complained.
Liberian English doesn't sound like English at all. The educated adults can switch knowingly back and forth between more proper English and Liberian English. Every sentence is said in one big word and no words seems to actually complete themselves. They use a lot of idioms that make no sense to me whatsoever (but then again I doubt they would understand if I asked who cut the cheese). So while the kids speak "english" they don't speak in a way that I understand a lot of. Sometime Gifty can rephrase what the younger kids are saying so that I can understand. For example, we read a book and Kai kept asking, "Readiaback". I got "read" but no idea on the rest. I thought he wanted me to read the back. In a sense I did understand his words which were "read it back" but Gifty translated that to mean "read it again."
They use a lot of terms that we understand but don't apply daily or use differently:
pants/shorts=trousers
all girl's shirts=blouse
flip-flops=slippers
hot dogs=sausages
Vasaline= grease
to take with me = carry on
cookies=biscuits
pack it= fold the laundry
At the orphanage, they are very social and after the first day they spent their time mostly with their friends instead of with me. The love to swing (Jason you better get that swing set secured) and play group games. They played something like duck-duck-goose only with singing and more hitting and they played a dance game. All the kids have once a week chores of washing dishes, sweeping, collecting trash, etc. And apparently they know how to slaughter a chicken but thankfully I haven't seen that yet. At night before bed they have a Bible devotion, watch one TV show, and then off to bed with no talking.
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