June 6th 2012,
Karibu (welcome),
This morning we got a little bit of a late start out of the house, mainly because the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed. But nonetheless, just the thought of seeing the kids made me excited and out the door we went, headed to catch the dala-dala from Soweto to Moshi. After each dala-dala ride I enjoy them a little bit more, mainly because I am happy I survived but also because what else can you do but laugh? Just the thought of a dala-dala ride makes me laugh because it's unlike anything I've ever experienced back home. Once in town we didn't see any of our usual "friends" aka flycatchers which was kind of sad because I thought maybe they got tired of us telling them hapana asante (no thank you). I will admit it is quite entertaining talking to these people because it makes for good conversation. I think mom gets a little more frustrated than I do with them, but I have a hard time ignoring them. In fact this afternoon one of our daily flycatchers literally sat outside the restaurant we ate at for lunch waiting for us to leave so he could try and persuade us to go to his shop. I will admit, this one guy kind of creeps me out, so I was nervous to leave the restaurant but mom kept saying "head down and don't say a word" ........ That didn't work because as soon as he saw us exit the patio he came running over and I just bursted out laughing, and mom was like "Rebecca stop laughing!!!" but I couldn't help it (as usual). But dont worry too much, he eventually gave up but I wouldn't put it past him to show up randomly again tomorrow. As for the others that we usually see in the morning, we saw them in the afternoon walking through Moshi. The one, who seems pretty attached to me, calls me his dada (sister) and recently he's been trying to get me to go to Pasua to see his own orphanage with him one day but I am very skeptical. The best part was he introduced me to his "director of the orphanage" who was with him... a man I had seen only once, today at lunch. At the time I was wondering who on Earth this person was because I didn't recognize him, which is unusual for me (even here), but he just kept waving at me like we had been best friends for years. And it wasn't until I ran into my "good friend/brother" that I recognized the man and I thought to myself "ok this is creepy, a man I've never met seems to know exactly who I am so that means you must be telling him all about me." It is very hard to tell if these people actually want to be your friend or if they are just trying to get money off of you, or worse a ticket home aka marriage. All my friends at work made a daily joke about me going to Africa and getting married, but now I'm seeing how common that is around here, and how persistent they can be when asking.
As for the time spent at the orphange, as usual it was another eye-opening experience. I feel so blessed to spend this time with these kids, but I'm sure they appreciate it even more. Yesterday one of the girls, Bright, wasn't in class. We learned that Lucy had taken her to the hospital and turns out she is HIV positive. I know thousands of children in Africa are HIV positive but for some reason when you personally know that child it makes it even harder to swallow the facts. I know she will live a difficult, uncomfortable, and short, life if she is not provided the proper medication. I'm not positive on whether the orphanage will be able to support her and her illness or not, because even though the center is supported through an Alaskan organization I'm not certain on what kind of money is available. Emmason, one of the guys who started Foot 2 Afrika with Johnson, speaks a lot about the troubles of children who are diagnosed with HIV. He says that many of the children of this generation are born with HIV and that the likelihood of them living a long life is slim to none, mainly due to the lack of money to buy the medication. And even those select few who can afford the medication, he says the kids don't want to take the medication because it makes them feel sick. It breaks my heart knowing that these children are forced to deal with either death, or a medication that makes them ill everyday. What kind of life is that? However, Bright was back in school this morning so that made me happy to see her. As usual, she had her "bright" smile across her face but I could tell she wasn't feeling well. A couple of times she started fights with the other children, making them cry, and a couple of times she cried. It's hard to see this every morning but it's a side of life that many of us will never experience or are even aware of. I hope that by writing about my experiences I can spread the knowledge and let others know that there are children out there who NEED help.
All together there seemed to be a lot of crying this morning. Maurina cried twice, once because I handed back the wrong paper to her and didn't realize, and because she doesn't speak much English I couldn't understand why she was passing it to someone else. In the end it was my mistake, and frankly a silly thing to cry over, but it just goes to show how fragile these children are. Husseni cried when he got his finger stuck between his chair and the desk behind him. Shabani, one of the older boys also cried, which I've never seen him do. For a good 10 minutes I sat next to him rubbing his back but couldn't get him to stop. Lucy came into the classroom and told him that if he didn't stop crying he wouldn't get the piece of candy he was promised earlier. Mom made the comment later on in the day that she felt Lucy is a little harsh on the kids and doesn't show much affection. I understand her point of view, but I also know that being assertive is probably the only way the children listen to her. And it's true because everytime she walks in the classroom the children go dead silent, unlike for us where it can take me five minutes to get one child to sit down and by the time they sit down there are four more running around like maniacs. Luckily, I was able to put a smile on Shabani's face when I told him it was time for porridge, which secretly meant he didn't have to sit in the classroom! haha
I was able to get a bunch of new pictures of the children, especially of Shabani, Vicenti, Juana, Bisuni and Bright. It is so nice to be able to capture these moments so friends and family can see the children that we are working with, thank goodness for technology! It doesn't hurt that these children practically beg to have their picture taken :) For anyone out there who is not friends with me on Facebook but has somehow found this blog feel free to check out the pictures, or even add me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.4049820887536.2179070.1342404391&type=3
I'm not sure where I left on the whole discussion about Cessy and her children at Hope Village but we met with her yesterday (Monday) and had an open and honest conversation about what was best for her. We were aware that she would more than appreciate us spending time with the kids but we also discovered that it would cost us about 50,000tsh a week to go to the house in the afternoons. To us this isnt a lot of money, but it would be for Cessy. We brought up the option of us either using that money to transport back and forth everyday to be with her and five kids, or to simply give her that money to buy food, water, electricity, etc. Ultimately she couldn't decide because for her personally she would rather us be with her and the kids. She is a single 27 year old woman who has given up her entire life for these children and a lot of people dissaprove, so consequently she is lonely. But she is also aware that the children would ultimately benefit more from having the money because currently they need new uniforms for school and Cessy's rent on the house is due August 1st. Back home Deb, mom and I had a long discussion and Deb suggested that we could still give her the money, and possibly meet her in town (or somewhere less expensive than her house) and spend time with her either shopping or getting lunch. I like this idea best because I feel that between the other two options, whichever one I chose, I would feel like I wasn't doing enough. I say this because I know how valuable time is here in Africa and the kids would enjoy having us around everyday, but I also know that money is scarce here and how nice it would be to not worry about where you are going to find money for a few weeks. Tomorrow we are meeting Cessy for lunch in Uhuru Park so we can give her our decision.. I'm hoping that when we finally say it I will feel at ease, as if I'm doing her good.
On the brighter side, yesterday we met a friend of a friend I have back home in Uhuru Park for lunch. His name is Luka and he has his own orphanage center in Mgengo (?) called The Salama Center. His fiance, Gina, was also there and she is a mzungu from Boston who currently lives in Nairobi (it's cheaper to fly from there). They met when she volunteered at his center back in 2009.. little did she know she was meeting her future husband ;) They are scheduled to get married on July 21st, which is great but I was told June 21st by said friend back home. I was also told that I was invited to the wedding... but unfortunately I will be back home in NJ, most likely working .. bummer :( Anyways, Luka is a fascinating person and like all the other people I've met here, I am inspired by his dreams and aspirations. He has a VERY infectious laugh and everytime he laughed I would laugh. Mom was telling her stories of adjusting to Africa, and even though I had been there and witnessed these stories first hand, I couldnt help but laugh to the point of tears simply because he was laughing. He is such a sweet man with an enormous heart, and he accepted me as his new friend immediately. In fact, we are going to his center on Saturday when all the kids will be there and he will be hosting dancing lessons and drumming lessons. I can't wait! It's kind of funny to think that I have a real friend here in Tanzania, besides everyone at the volunteer house, who I feel so comfortable with after meeting him once. So asante sana to a special someone back home for giving me his number so I could call him and start a new friendship :)
It's getting late and I'm starting to not think straight so I think I'm going to head to bed.. I will post more tomorrow about another day full of adventure!
Usiku mwema, lala salama.
(good night, sleep well)
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