Oh how I love children?!

So this morning I got up REALLY early to help Sheri (another nurse) take 21 of our children to get measles vaccines because we have had 2 cases in and around our center in the last week. So, we are doing our best to prevent a measles outbreak! (Prayers for protection from this would be greatly appreciated!) My job was to give out medications and pick up the Baby House kids who were coming with us...there were 3. Doesn't seem like a tough job...
In this picture is Manuel (our newest little guy...you can read about him in the previous post) and Augustinho Pequenio (or little in Portuguese because we have 2 Augustinho's at the moment). Augustinho P is 18 months old and a VERY active naughty 18 months. When I walked into the Baby House at 6:30am Manuel had a towel tied around his neck acting as a LARGE bib that covered his entire body and his bowl of papinha or breakfast cereal sitting in front of him on the floor. Augustinho (who is 10 months younger than Manuel) had Manuel's spoon in his hand and was literally feeding him. I just started laughing and nicely told Augustinho..."Thank you, but I can help him." This is why I LOVE children...babies and toddlers especially!
So we made it through breakfast, I gave them their medications, and we were ready to head out the door...on time even! I picked up Manuel and put him on my back to tie him on (with my capalana as a real Mozambican mama would). A nice smell appeared and I held Manuel's bottom to secure him to my back...it was squishy...VERY FULL diaper. The tias quickly took him from me, stopped bathing the other 30 children, washed him off, changed his clothes, and passed him back to me. Those women are my heroes! (This the second time in 3 days they have taken a child with an exploding diaper away from me and handed them back a few minutes later squeaky clean!)
Oh the adventures of working with children.....!!!!!!! :)

***And if you are wondering...vaccinating 21 children in less than an hour in one room is quite the experience. We brought them in in groups of 5 doing the youngest frist, but number 5 of each group certainly needed to be held down. Lollipops helped a bit but there were many tears. At least we made it through, and we pray this means no more measles on the center! Here's some pictures of the kids waiting on the bus this morning before we left...they all kept saying, "We are going to get shots, but I'm not scared."

(These are siblings, Narcisso, Mae- who lives with us in the Baby House, and Alfiado...what a cute family!)