We made it! We have been working at the orphanage since Tuesday! Its amazing...challenging at times, but so worth it. Its pretty intimidating to stand in front of 10 little faces staring up at you, especially when they don't speak the same language! An and I have been picking up some Swahili from the kids and the duka (shop) owners around our house. The people we live with (volunteers) have done an amazing job of getting us orientated in town and the culture. We have already been invited on a boat tomorrow and had a trivia night with all the other expats here. There is a big community of miners, doctors, teachers and volunteers here so they have nights out and events. We have already decided to extend our stay here for a couple of weeks because there is just so much work to do! We have 50 kids and only the Tanzanian couple who run it, a cook, a couple of nannies and us. The kids are just so love starved, they just want to be picked up and played with. I have started to get names but its hard, there are so many of them. There are always the few that make themselves known more than others who I know already butr it will take time to get a grip on them all. There are twins named Happy and Joy. They are 3 years old, I dont know their story but they are just the happiest cutest kids I have ever seen in my life!!
This weekend we took some of the donations and bought them a basketball hoop, since they all seem to love to play bball but just dribble back and forth and try to steal the ball from each other. We also bought school books for primary english and word games. I am particularly excited about putting up the hoop! Our house is about a 20 minute walk from the orphanage and its no frills. We have a cold shower, a well in the backyard and a use a bucket to wash clothes / dishes. We have a gas stove and a kettle in the kitchen. The best accessory of the place is without a doubt the Masai warrior that is our night watchman. He comes at dusk and stays till dawn. He is reeeeeally tall with the biggest smile ever and dressed in traditional Masai dress. He has those big earing hole things and can plant a arrow firmly in a tree from 100 miles away. He is so cool. So now its the weekend and we are just in town which is a 30 minute dala dala (bus) ride from our place, we have to go back now and plan our lessons for the week!
