Caregiver Meeting

On the first Wednesday of each month, there is a meeting for all the Lighthouse caregivers. I was able to attend the meeting in June, but was still quite jetlagged at that point. This month, not only did I attend, but I also got to get up and do some teaching. Janis had asked me to be observing the caregivers while I'm helping out with the babies and toddlers so that any possible improvements could be made.

Overall, I have been very impressed with the caregivers. Even though they have very little training, they do a fantastic job taking care of the kids. Unfortunately though, they are so busy feeding and changing and bathing that they are not left with much extra time to simply play with and love on the kids.

This may surprise some of you, but I really hate having to stand up and talk in front of a group of people. Somehow I ended up being the one who did announcements each week at our campus ministry, and each week I would be so anxious about standing up there. It never did get less scary. Once I start talking, I feel so much better, but the anticipation is awful.

So after about a week of feeling anxious about this and trying to tell God that He needs to find some other way for me to serve that doesn't involve public speaking (and Him reminding me over and over that Moses said the same thing and look how God used Him), I finally did it. Of course, the meeting started around 3:45 instead of 3 since the caregivers operate on African time, but finally I did it.

First, I encouraged them not to give water to babies who are less than 6 months old. It is common in the South African culture to give water and tea to babies, but because their kidneys are still immature and cannot yet concentrate or dilute the urine to best benefit the body, giving them water causes them to lose some of the proteins and electrolytes that they need.

Then I talked them through the form that is used to assess a new baby who arrives at the shelter. I taught them how to take a baby's pulse, count its respirations, and measure its head circumference, as well as how to check for lice and how to identify several common rashes and infections. We also discussed a few indicators of dehydration and malnourishment since these are unfortunately common in abandoned babies.

Next month at the August meeting, I'm going to be teaching the proper procedure for giving a newborn bath and for changing a diaper (and probably a few other things too).