So thankful :)

As everyone back home celebrates Thanksgiving today, I can’t help but think about all of the things I am thankful for this year.  I love playing the “what are you thankful for” game at the dinner table but I think my list would take all day this year!  While I am so sad to be missing my favorite holiday and Aunt Ann Marie’s mashed potatoes, being in Africa has truly opened my eyes to what is most important in life.  At home, we take so much for granted and are usually too busy to stop and appreciate the little things that make our lives special.  This year, I have had the time to really appreciate all of those things and I must say- I feel very lucky with the life I have been dealt.  I won’t bore you with my entire “I am thankful for” list but here are some more stories from 50 of my little friends that are on that list.

It’s been a busy week of playing catch up!  Instead of coming back to the usual overflowing inbox of emails after a week and a half away, I was pleasantly greeted by 50 shining faces who seemed to have missed me a lot.  The kids climbed all over us and wanted to hear all about the beach.  We showed them a few pictures of what a beach looks like and I handed out the seashells I collected for them. Sadly, most of them wanted to know if the shells were chakula (food).  I think its safe to say that they didn’t fully grasped the idea of the beach!

The day before we left for Zanzibar, we put the finishing touches on the desks and moved them into the classroom.  The kids were ecstatic!  Some of the boys carried the desks into the room without us even asking while the rest of the kids were all jumping around the room and picking out their new seats.  They were so excited that they sang us a few songs as their way of telling us how thankful they were.

After being wrestled around by all of the kids on Monday morning, we had to go pay the boys school fees at Amani (Matt is also sponsoring a boy from our orphanage, John).  It was lunchtime there so the three boys came out to say hello.  They were all dressed in new, matching green tracksuits given to them by the school.  The director told us that they were so excited to for the tracksuits because they have never owned a brand new piece of clothing, everything has always been a hand me down.  He said as soon as the boys got in the office, they stripped down because they were so excited; the teachers had to tell them to put their clothes back on and wait a few more minutes! The boys were happier than I have ever seen them even though they were at a loss for words and a little shy.  Pascal did some video interviews with each of them individually asking what they loved about school and if there was anything they wanted to tell Matt and me.  They all said “Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to go to school” and gave us a kiss on the cheek; it was a very special moment.  I don’t know if I will get to say goodbye to them again before I leave but it was really nice being able to see how happy they are in their new environment.  Sending them to Amani is definitely money well spent!

The boys of Amani sporting their new, green track suits

I spy a Mzungu!

On Tuesday, we took the kids on a long overdue field trip to the Arusha National Park on a mini safari.  We rented two dalla dallas for the day, packed some peanut butter sandwiches and juice boxes for lunch, and were on our way.  We arrived at school around 8 and were surprised that we were not greeted by tons of excited children running through the field towards us like most days.  We saw the one dalla dalla and figured that the kids were in the school waiting for the other dalla to arrive.  But as we got closer, we heard the faint chants of “teacha, teacha, teacha!!” and realized it was coming from inside the dalla dalla.  The van was basically shaking from the 50 balls of energy that were inside.  They couldn’t contain their excitement…it was adorable!

After the other dalla dalla arrived, we split the class in two and drove the 20 minutes to the park.  We drove around for about 3 hours and saw tons of baboons, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, and white colobus monkeys.  The kids were so happy to see all these animals; the smiles were endless. One of the boys, Eliah, was sitting behind me for the whole ride and he kept grabbing my shoulders when he would get excited and then say “Asante sana, teacher!” and give me a kiss on the cheek.  I am so happy I was able to take them on this field trip because it’s crazy to think that these animals basically live in their backyard and they have never even come close to seeing them in real life.  I was pretty nervous about how this day was going to play out since the kids can get pretty crazy but they were actually very well behaved!  It will definitely be one of the days that I will never forget J

One of the teachers has been sick all week so it has been difficult to control the class without her.  The kids don’t listen to us when we try to teach and just run around the room.  Just to give you an idea, this is what a typical day with no teacher is like…The classroom with no teacher  So when they kids are acting up like this, I have no other choice than to make them run off all their energy in the field.  I know that sounds harsh but I swear, they like it haha- Laps in the field So on Wednesday, there was no teacher for the baby class and that’s what the day was like, the kids were terrible!  I think they were still riding the wave of excitement from the field trip so there were plenty of sprints across the field that day.  We also had two of my friends from the program who are doctors come and check out some of the kids.  Thankfully, they didn’t find anything too serious other than some skin rashes and surprise, surprise…ringworm!  We went to the pharmacy afterwards and bought all of the necessary creams to treat them as well as a bunch of band aids and other medical supplies.

As my time here comes to an end, I am trying to wrap up the last few projects I have in mind and spend as much of the money I have raised as possible.  Any money that is left over at the end of next week will be saved to pay for year two of school for Augustino and Edwin. I cannot believe that I only have one week left; three months sure does fly by! 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Zanzibar

I just got back from a great week long vacation to Zanzibar, a small island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of mainland Tanzania.  It was really nice to take a break from life in Arusha and relax on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

We spent the first night in Stone town, the main port on the island.  Stone town has about a 90% Muslim population so it was important we dressed appropriately and didn’t draw too much attention to ourselves.  It was even difficult to find a restaurant that served alcohol!  On Friday, we visited the historic slave chambers which was incredibly eye opening.  Stone town was used as a slave port to hold and sell East African slaves in very small quarters.  I remember learning all about the slave trade in school but it was so sad to see first hand the conditions they were forced to live in.

After Stone town, we spent four nights at a beach called Kendwa on the northern tip of the island.  We stayed at a place called the Sunset Bungalows and sure enough, the sun set right in front of us every day- it was so beautiful!  We went on an all day snorkeling excursion on Saturday.  We rode out to the coral reef on a wooden sailboat and then snorkeled for about an hour or so. We then had lunch on a secluded beach and swam around a little bit before sailing back home.  A few days later, we went out on a boat to go line fishing for the morning.  I can’t remember the last time I went fishing so it must have been beginners luck when I caught the biggest one!  We had the restaurant at our resort cook the fish for lunch; it was delicious J

Once we got tired of the gorgeous sunsets in Kendwa, we headed to a Nungwe- a town about 10 minutes north.  We stayed in Nungwe for three nights and just enjoyed relaxing on the beach and hanging out at a few of the local restaurant/bars.  After receiving a few phone calls and text messages from Pascal, Francis, and the kids, I decided I needed to bring them back a souvenir of some sort from Zanzibar.  I would be shocked if any of them (adults and children) have ever seen the beach so I collected about 70 shells to bring back. While I was out collecting shells one afternoon, I ran into a man with a pet monkey!  I was so happy when he let me hold him, even though he bit me a few times.

It certainly was an amazing week but its crunch time back in Arusha.  I only have two weeks left at the orphanage and so much left to do!!

The Gift of Opportunity

We have been busy at work trying to finish up the desks we are making for the baby class.  Last week, Francis brought Matt and me to the workshop so we could shave and cut the wood.  They showed us how to operate some of the machines and let us cut up the wood however, we both agreed later in the day that we didn’t feel very welcome there. It wasn’t until the next day when Matt went to the workshop alone with Francis that we realized they were only cold to us because there was a girl in their workshop!!  On day two, Matt was talking with everyone, drinking beers, and doing much more work on the desks because I wasn’t there.  Apparently, they were very uncomfortable with having a female in their workplace…sipendi (I don’t like!!).  Despite not being able to do much work in the workshop, I was able to help sand some of the wood down at Francis’ office and put together some of the pieces. Today Francis was working on applying the finishing paint so hopefully they will all be complete and ready to be used by the end of the week. At least these pictures makes it look like I put a lot of hard work into it!

On Friday, we went to town and bought over a week’s worth of groceries, laundry detergent, and soap for the school.  Tonight we will also be preparing peanut butter sandwiches as a special treat for the kids with their porridge tomorrow.  How could I leave here without introducing them to my favorite food?? 

The shorts rains in Tanzania usually last about 2 weeks to a month in November and the torrential downpours started like clockwork on November 1^st. Since all of the roads are dirt, it’s pretty difficult to get around with so much rain.  Just walking to the main road can take double the time it normally takes and sometimes the dalla dallas don’t operate on certain routes.  I really tested the roads yesterday when I was walking to school by myself and got stuck ankle deep in the mud.  The road was fine in the beginning so I was just truckin’ along until I came to a part of the road that was completely mud with no where to go.  My only option was to tip toe through the mud, crossing my fingers that I didn’t get stuck.  Well guess what- I got stuck.  My shoes got suctioned in the mud and I was pretty helpless.  The other people walking by, whom have clearly embraced a rainy season or two before, just kept saying “Pole, Madam!” (I’m sorry!)  After a minute of laughing at myself, I finally managed to pull my feet out of my shoes and placed them directly into the mud.  For some reason, mud feels so much better on bare feet than being in heavy, wet shoes (I know most of you wouldn’t agree…haha). I grabbed my shoes and walked barefoot the rest of the way to school.  As soon as I got there the kids took my shoes out of my hands and brought them to the back of the school to wash them- I have never seen them cleaner. They all laughed and told me I had mbongo feet, or black people feet…I’ll take the compliment! Anything is better than being called a Mzungu these days! 

Hopefully the class won't have to work like this for much longer!

Even though my day started out on the wrong foot (pun intended), once I was able to make myself presentable again, we took Augustino and Edwin to primary school to take their entrance exams.  The two of them were very quiet on their walk to school and gave me one word answers when I asked them questions.  I knew they were pretty nervous so I just held their hands and listened as Pascal gave them a pump up speech in Swahili about being confident.  The tests took about 3 hours and we went back to school today to hear the results.  While the boys didn’t do very well on the tests, the school is willing to tutor them for the next two months so they are brought up to speed with the rest of the kids in their class.  Before taking the test, we figured the boys could be placed in one of the lower grades since their English and math skills are not where they should be for their age group but there are laws in Tanzania not allowing this; they will have to enter Class 3 with the rest of the 11 year olds. The school is very accommodating and has recognized the potential in both boys so they are letting them start class on Friday! They are going to have a very busy two months playing catch up but I know both of them will be able to handle it because they are so anxious to learn new things.  When we came out of the meeting with the director, they were just sitting on the side watching all of the kids play in the schoolyard- I can tell they are also excited to make new friends with all of the other students in their class. They were so much happier and relieved on the walk home.  They talked and laughed the whole way and really enjoyed the sodas and cookies we bought them as a celebration treat.

Post test treats :)

The director kept saying “But what if one of them is destined to become a really important doctor, how can we deny them of an education?”  I loved his philosophy!  There are so many children in Africa who are denied education because they cannot afford it or their families don’t care enough to force them to go.  You never know a person’s potential until you open their minds to the world of possibility.  While I am really sad that I will not be here to watch them excel in school, I feel so very lucky that I was able to give them the gift of furthering their education and opening up their minds to the endless possibilities that lay ahead and will lead them to a successful future! When the director asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, Edwin said a doctor and Augustino said a safari driver- looks like we picked some pretty ambitious boys to sponsor!