Kids, Kids, and More Kids

At Itipini, there are always lots of children around! And I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this plethora of young ones. On one hand, they are so darn cute! On the other hand, they can be rather annoying. For example, it’s almost impossible to take out my camera without a mob of preschoolers coming towards me shouting “Shooti me! Shooti me!” (ie. take a picture of me). I do enjoy being around the kids because they are easier to interact with than adults with the language barrier. Kids are easy to build relationships with without words—making silly faces, holding their hand, dancing and singing—anyone over the age of 5 isn’t going to be my friend as a result of me tickling them, so in that sense the preschoolers are a lot of fun to be with. But then whenever I give one child attention, the others all demand the same. One day, as the result of letting one girl sit on my lap, it didn’t take 10 seconds before 3 other children were climbing on me, whining and crying to also have a turn. I want to give the children of Itipini attention and show them love, but I find myself getting overwhelmed much quickly, and I do feel limited in not being able to talk to them. It’s hard to teach a child how to be nice or how to share without using words.

Tuesday is our baby clinic day. This is when mothers bring in their children under the age of 2 to get a check-up, immunizations, formula and baby cereal. This is most definitely our busiest day of the week, as we see upwards of 80 patients, whereas normal days around half this number of people come to the clinic. What strikes me the most about “baby day” is the number of teenage mothers. It is a safe estimate to say that most women have a child/ren by the age of 20, and some moms that come in are as young as 15. By the time some of these girls are my age, their child will be old enough to be in school. Childhood ends much to early around here. Sometimes women don’t have a choice and will become pregnant against their will. I’ve also heard speculation that young women will have babies as a means to access government grant money. In a city where finding employment is next to impossible, why not tap into a system that will provide a few extra funds? One of the problems in that when the child is 12 years old and the grant stops, and my prediction is that this often means that the child is left to fend for themselves, and will soon have a baby of their own just so they can “earn” some money. On one hand, it is good to see that the government is helping to support the cost of raising a child. On the other hand, it is feeding into a vicious cycle of teen pregnancy, and one may also question if this money is actually all going towards supporting a child. This of course is all speculation, and I may be very wrong in my ideas around this issue. And I also give many of these mothers a lot a credit for taking on so much responsibility and doing all that they can to care for their child, especially in light of the difficult circumstances they face.

When all is said and done, the reality is that there are a lot of kids around, and they bring joy to my day!