Swimming and...."chimp...ing?"

Nicole and I have decided that we want to start taking some of the kiddos we’ve been working with out in smaller groups as a way to get to know them better.  We have a monthly beach get together with some of the ex-pats in our area so we decided to start our experiment by taking a couple of the smaller girls to the beach.  I knew if they were anything like Marie, who was TERRIFIED to go into the water her first time to the beach, they would probably be happy just playing in the sand. 

We didn't have swim suits for the girls so tied up one of Marie's for Abiatu (on the right) and loaned Messie (on the left) a pair of Ben's shorts and t-shirt.  She ditched the t-shirt pretty quickly :)

Sand Mermaids with Auntie Nicole 

They seemed to have a great time, although I noticed that at one point, little Messie was shivering. I figured it was just because she was cold so I took her up to where we were sitting. She was super snuggly and Nicole noticed she was really warm. After lunch she didn’t want to play, but wanted to take a nap.  A nap!  At the beach! (Which incidentally is MY dream at the beach, but hasn’t happened since they kiddos arrived because they would never dream of taking a nap….at the beach.  After the beach I took her home to check her for malaria and…sure enough.  Poor little kid was trying to party hard at the beach but just couldn’t keep up.

So snuggly!

We learned a couple things at this trip. Number one, too many white people.  They were so shy that they didn’t really come out of their shell and talk because there were too many strangers speaking a language they didn’t understand. Next time we’ll go with just our family.  It was fun to see them start chatting with each other sometimes, albeit done in whispers.  If only I knew what was going on inside their heads. J

We were watching the monkeys behind a giant net because the chimps kept throwing rocks at us.  The boys loved it! :)

We had a good time with the girls at the beach, but decided to take a few of the boys to a chimpanzee park that’s here in Sierra Leone. They’re boys, right? They should love animals.  They seemed to have a good time but honestly, I think their favorite part was when we brought them back to our house to eat lunch and they rode Marie’s bike and played with random toys.  Ben’s toys were a particular favorite.