Going away party

Sept 10, 2014
We spend another day in Yako at Arouna's orphanage, bonding with him, feeding him, playing with him, getting to know his personality.  After he awoke at about 8:30, we fed him breakfast.  He loves bananas, applesauce and baby cereal and he has been eating that at almost every meal.  They would also feed the kids rice with sauce, spaghetti(with different types of sauces) and to(a ground millet dish that is very common here but that we hated in Mali).  We tried getting Arouna to eat a few of these things and he refused, so we stuck with cereal, bananas and applesauce.  He did eat mashed potatoes at one meal too.  After breakfast, we went into Yako with Ruth and Linda to do some errands.  We bought some items for a going away party for Arouna, a backpack and school supplies for another orphan and ordered supper from an African restaurant (African spaghetti with fish in it).  
We next stopped at another orphanage in Yako run by a Burkinabe woman.  It was there that we took the backpack and school supplies to a 12 year old little girl to encourage her to try hard in school.  School starts in October in Burkina.  As we came into the orphanage and sat down with the directrice, the young girl came from one of the buildings with her best clothes on.  She is partially blind and is albino.  She sat in Ruth's lap and Ruth gave her the backpack and supplies.  She held them close to her face to see them and took each thing and looked at it.  She was so proud and happy.  She told all of us that she is going to try really hard this year and not cause any problems.  She's in 2nd grade this year, but she goes to a regular school with no special class for her.  
After the orphanage, we returned to Arouna's orphanage for lunch.  He ate lunch and we put him in his bed for his nap.  He woke up around 3:30 and it was time for his going away party.  We had Kool-aid, cookies and lollipops.  All the kids at the orphanage came(which is only about 15 during summer) and all the tanties(nannies) came too to say goodbye to Arouna.  Of course, Arouna was oblivious to the whole affair but he had his own snack, so he was quite happy.  We also gave each of the tanties(25 of them) a little gift of homemade soap made by my Aunt Tricia and gave the men who worked there(8 of them) a shirt and dry fit hat.  They were all very happy.
After the party, Robert and I tried to take a walk with Arouna on my back like African ladies do.  We made it about 15 minutes but it was just too hot. I don't know how the African women do it.  Plus it felt like I was going to drop him the whole time he was on my back.   We came back to the guesthouse and Arouna played on the floor til dinner.
We had spaghetti for dinner after feeding Arouna cereal, mashed potatoes and banana.  Then we sat at dinner talking with Ruth and Linda, Mike and Amy(orphanage directors).  Arouna sat in my lap and played and talked and looked at his hands for over an hour.  We then put him in the bath, which he absolutely loves.  He laughs, giggles and smiles the whole time.  You would think we were constantly tickling him.  He doesn't mind when the water goes on his head or in his eyes.  And when I take him out of the bath, with the towel around him, he lays really still and snuggles right up to me.  Then he'll start talking and cooing as if he's telling me something.  After his bath, we got him ready for bed and then put him in the bed.  He will sit and lay in his bed up to an hour or sometimes longer before falling asleep on his own.
My observations of him today is that he was a lot more vocal today than yesterday.  A few times as I was holding him with his head against my chest, he would look up at me right in the eyes.  He also was more cuddly and snuggly today.