Day 829. Last night it was 12:45, when I headed to bed. Of course, even though they had slept quietly all evening, which I was really thankful for, that ended right after I had gone to bed. And so I was kept awake for a while, by kids waking up, wanting milk. All night long it went like that, plus struggling to have enough room to sleep on our bed with two little kids on it as well. They just don't want to sleep in their bed.
After 5 hours of being woken up frequently, including having to refill their milk bottle, Emmy was up first, as usual, and it was 6 am, which is 7 am in Vienna and the time they usually get up. Soon his sister was up too and joining him, and at 6:40 I finally got up myself. Emmy was insisting on seeing the cats again. We left the bedroom, and they soon saw the cats. I gave them some wet catfood, and then gave the kids a cat treat to give to her, which they enjoyed doing. Emmy is still scared of the cat and does not want to touch it (yet).
We went to the kitchen, where I started thinking about what to feed them for breakfast. While I was getting things ready, Tammy and Emmy were running around in the kitchen. I took bowls, and Tammy wanted peanuts, and so I put some peanuts into each of their bowls and was surprised how much they liked them. As for breakfast, I had taken some of the baby cereal from Austria with me that we still needed to use up, but only for Sammy who still likes eating it, while the other two rarely eat any. I made one portion of that, while I make two in Austria that I split among the three of them. As expected, Tammy and Emmy did not want any, but then, there was no fruit in it at all. So I got a few other things out to give to them and was glad they ate the watermelon.
After breakfast it was time to read the Bible. But first we had two advent calendars to open up, as it was the first of December after all. One has a button behind each door that plays a Christmas song, when you push it. The other one is a Playmobil nativity set. The third one I kept to do at night (little books), but then I forgot. After the advent calendars, we opened the Bible to read a few stories. Emmy didn't stay long. Then I started praying for each one of them. Then I left them with Randy.
There was SO MUCH to do, but I was so very tired after the short night with little sleep. I had no choice but to lie down and get some sleep and slept for about 2 hours. After waking up I went to the living room, where Margit and Randy were with the kids, and I ended up getting busy there for a little while, before finally getting started on work. I unloaded our two main suitcases and started putting stuff away that was lying around everywhere. The plumber came to fix our flooded toilet, and Paul was in and out of our house doing his work. He found out why our Malian SIM cards were not working any more. They changed it so that you have to put credit on your number every 6 months or you lose it. They had given our numbers away to other people! I've had that number since the very beginning, when I came to Mali 18 years ago! Now Paul had to get new numbers for us, and he'll have to put credit on them, if we're away for longer than 6 months.
As 11:30 was approaching, Sammy was getting cranky and the others asking for food, so I went to the kitchen to make lunch. Paul had already bought some food for us, and so I made chicken with rice and vegetables. The kids were around me, hungry and cranky and asking for food. I couldn't get it done fast enough for them, but we sat down to eat pretty much exactly at noon.
Margit had already left to eat the Malian food again and then take her siesta. I put the food into their bowls and was glad to see them eat really well, much better than they have been in Austria. They ate nearly everything in their bowls.
They weren't as dirty as yesterday, so I just took them to the sink to clean them up, then we went to the bedroom to put them to bed for their nap. Sammy fell asleep really quickly, but the other two refused to sleep in their bed and wanted to sleep in our bed instead. And so Emmy was in my spot and Tammy in Randy's, and I put pillows between them as a barrier. Randy stayed with them at first, while I took care of the kitchen, and then I returned and Randy left. At that time only Tammy was still awake. Once she was asleep, I was able to get to work, even though I was tired myself and would have loved to sleep. However, our bed was taken anyway.
Randy and I were both working, taking advantage of them being asleep. Sammy was the first one awake again. I picked him up and took him to the living room, where Randy was. Emmy woke up next and joined his brother, and Tammy woke up some time after 3 pm. She was attached to me at first, which is typical for her after waking up, and didn't want to eat anything.
Soon she was busy playing, and then everyone started coming - Margit, Fanta, and Esther who is one year older than them and Amaga who is one year younger than them. They stayed all afternoon to play, which was great. They kept pretty busy, and so did I.
At some point they kept coming to me, and so I stopped working and got one of the two sticker books out that I had bought for our Mali trip. We sat down on the couch, and Emmy was impatient to get an animal sticker and put it on the page. Then it was Tammy's turn, but Emmy wanted to continue. He threw a little fit, and did so every time, when it was Tammy's turn. They each got to stick three animals into the book, then I put it away.
Emmy wanted a balloon, so I blew one up for him. Amaga (1) took Emmy's balloon, and so I blew one up for him too. In the course of the afternoon Amaga hit the kids several times, starting with Sammy who was crying hard as a result. Fanta said that he does a lot of hitting and asked me to help. So I corrected him every time he did it again.
Our oldest Amadou, an ex-street kid who we raised and now works for us, is raising chickens on our property and has a lot of chicks right now. When he came over, Emmy pointed at the door saying "kikeriki", which means rooster, and so I translated for Amadou. Then Amadou left to get a rooster for Emmy. Emmy was too scared to pet it, and even Tammy was a little hesistant and only briefly touched it.
Fanta was doing the dishes and some cleaning, and the kids watched her in the kitchen at one point. They started talking about food again, and Sammy was cranky. Amadou went to the little stall closeby to get some bread for us. Before they sat down to eat, I already gave them some of the sausage we had taken with us. I put mayonnaise on the white bread, and gave them some of the old, Austrian bread, and nobody ate either bread. They did eat some watermelon and a few solettis. And a strawberry yoghurt that Paul had bought accidentally, as well as the remaining cereal from breakfast.
Then it was bathtub time. They immediately wanted to turn the whirlpool on, and I let them before Sammy came, but then we turned it off as he's scared of it. It had made plenty of foam by then anyway. Emmy was doing a lot of playing with the knob that switches between shower head and faucet and was having fun. They were all having fun, even though they only have two ducks we brought from Austria, and a little Malian bucket.
Sammy came out first and went to bed first. As soon as he was gone Emmy touched the whirlpool button. As the water level had gone down, two holes the jets come out of were right above water level, and so water was flying everywhere, greatly scaring both Tammy and Emmy. I immediately turned it back off, but they just wanted out of there. I got Emmy out first, which didn't make Tammy happy, and then the girl. I forgot to do the third advent calendars, as we put them to bed the same way we do every night.
Once again they did not want to sleep in their bed but in ours. Sammy fell asleep fast. They were lying in the same spot on our bed as they had at lunch, but of course they were not going to sleep right away. Randy stayed with them first, while I went to get some food, and then I stayed with them - unable to eat - and Randy left to eat. But they simply would not sleep. Instead Emmy went back and forth between our and his bed a few times, not making up his mind. It was challenging and took a while before they were finally all asleep.
I finally got to eat, and then started working. After a while I moved the sleeping kids to their own bed. It's only a matter of time before they wake up and climb into our bed again. It's an easy climb, with the two beds touching each other.
Even though it was still early, I got really tired while writing my report. I sure hope I'll get more sleep tonight, and that I make it to bed earlier. In any case, the internet is really slow in the evening, making it hard to upload pictures as i have to wait so long.
