By Sr. Emma de Guzman, ICM

Sr. Emma discovers (what some men never realize) that looking after a child is a full time work-unless you are very creative!

I thought that baby-sitting is not one of my qualities, until it was put to the test one day. Nicole, the two-year-old daughter of Kudji who works with us in the Center, was alone at home. Her brothers and sisters were in school and Kudji needed to o to the dispensary with their three-months-old baby. Being the only adult at home, I was requested to look after Nicole.

Nicole is a healthy two-year-old girl with big black doe eyes. She is learning to speak. We began by learning some sentences on how to indicate parts of the body; interspersed by running when she is tired or when she refuses to learn. Next is allowing her to play with one of our reserved pails of water which is a very tempting game. But this interest for water does not last long; I had to be more creative to keep her going. I tried to coax her to sleep but she won’t. It’s too early. More running on our cemented floor.

Then all of a sudden a bright idea struck me - - ant hunting. We have plenty harmful ant-houses. I pointed out one to her, a small black ant quickly scampering on its way to the grass. In her 2 years old mind, this is an interesting toy; she quickly followed it.

Then she saw another and grabbed it. Poor ant, I told myself, you’ve just been discovered as the most interesting toy for a two-year-old African girl. No dolls, no plastic toys, no paper or pencil to scratch some words on but live house ants for two-year-olds. Inexpensive, interesting, harmless, non-boring toys. Ant hunting! I’m not sure if the Society for the Protection of Animals will accept this, but this bright idea took Nicole’s attention fro the rest of the morning. We gathered in an empty match box all the ants he had collected. They were dazed ants; but after a while in the match box, they’d start moving and escape that prison where a two-year-old giggling child had just placed them in security.

After two hours of watching this two-year-old girl, was able to do a bit of reading while she did some ant-hunting. All I needed to do was point out the ant- path on the cement wall or on the ground. It actually occupied our whole morning until her mother arrived with the baby. I enjoyed this morning’s baby-sitting with Nicole. It was a real break and a change from our normal daily life of In-Service-Training of Youth and Adults.

Your prayers are requested for the full recovery of Sr. Emma who recently had a heart attack.