A Day in the Life

A typical day for the kiddos at Sanyu looks something like this:

            5am- Morning Feed (for young babies)         

            7am – Breakfast

            8am – Potty & Getting Dressed

            9am-12pm – Class Time (separate classes for age groups)

            12pm – Lunch & Potty

            1pm -3pm – Naptime

            3-3:30pm – Snack time & Potty

            3:30-6pm – Playtime

            6pm – Dinner, Bath, & Potty

            7pm – Bedtime

            12am – Midnight Feed (for young babies)

A typical day for the Mamas (Caregivers) at Sanyu:

            *in addition to children’s schedule

            8:30 am – Wash dishes, cups & bottles, mop & clean dining room

            9am – Wash toys, mats, floors, bed sheets, mattresses, shoes, mosquito nets

            11am – Laundering and folding of clothes

            12:30 – Wash dishes, cups & bottles, mop & clean dining room

            1pm – Lunch

            3pm – Bathe small babies

            3:30pm – Separate and sort children’s clothes

            4:00pm – Supervise and play with children

            6:00pm – Wash dishes, cups & bottles, mop & clean dining room

            6:30pm – Bathe older children

Needless to say, these caregivers are saints. Their backbreaking work of completing these chores by hand goes relatively unnoticed by the children and it is exhausting. Not only do they complete all of these tasks, but they also serve as emotional support to these children. Saints, I tell you.  

In addition to completing a portion of my research here, I try to be of aid in whatever is needed. My typical day looks something like this:

            6:30am – Wake up, eat breakfast, occasionally call home (yay time change)

            7am – Answer emails, annotate research, and outline goals for day

            9am – Wash bottles and dishes

            9:30 am– Fold and sort laundry, a lot of it.

            11:00am – Aid in meal prep, document menu

            11:30am – Feed babies/Baby holding

            12:00pm- Feed the masses

            1:00pm- Wrestle older kids into clean clothes for nap

            1:15pm – Research, study, read, write this blog thingy, nap (varies by day)

            3:00pm – Bathe small babies

            3:30 – 6:00pm – Be repeatedly attacked with love by children in forms of sand                  throwing, hugs, hitting, slobbery kisses, hair pulling, and hand holding.

            6:00pm – Dinner, assist with feeding

            6:30pm – Dishes and Clean-up

            6:50pm – Helping dry off and dress children for bed. (No lie, the hardest part)

            7:00pm –Shower, dinner, facebook creep, meet up with friends

            8:00pm – Pretend to study, watch the fourth season of PLL on repeat, reflect

            9:00pm - Sleep

It’s what I like to call, “living the dream”.

Laundry Room 

Cooking Porridge 

Making Mango Juice 

Sick Baby not amused by pictures 

Well, not quite.

Don’t get me wrong; working here is rewarding and so much fun. It’s like working in a daycare for about forty kids under the age of 4. You have age-appropriate activities for cognitive/physical development (lots of playtime), eat yummy food and snacks, hang out with other kids your age, it’s a good time. The twist being, at the end of the day, these kids don’t go home. Sanyu is their home. Just like 2.4 million other little Ugandans, they are orphans.

In terms of population, Uganda is the youngest nation in the world with their median age being 15. They are also the country with the highest number of orphans, half of which are a result of parental death due to HIV/AIDS.

Uganda children are tough. They play and run around with no shoes, wouldn’t know what to do with meal utensils, and live without a lot of supervision. Often, they are seen as extra hands on the farm, many times the eldest aiding in child rearing. It’s a survival thing, a culture thing, and a different way of life thing. 

The kids at Sanyu are the lucky ones. They have a roof over their head, a bed, are well fed, (now to break the rhyming pattern) and are the most likely age group to be adopted into forever homes. Lucky is a relative term, of course. Children are not meant to be raised in an institution. The emotional damage of being abandoned or losing both parents has got to severe. & Not all of these kids get adopted, meaning they move on to homes for older kids, life gets harder.

It’s a sobering reality.

My role in all of this is to make it easier for the primary caregivers to do their job. I am only a temporary presence in Sanyu and it is not my place to have the children be dependent on me then leave. (Quite frankly, they’ve experienced enough attachment issues for a lifetime) I look for ways to improve their health and aid the Mamas.

Often times that means kissing wounds and keeping the kids busy.

No complaints here.