Tanzania 2010

Monday

To the Children’s Center today. We bought muffins as a special treat for the kids. We have also been saving our large (1.5 liter) water bottles and took 8 of them with us. The kids helped us fill about an inch or so of the bottoms with dirt and rocks to give them some weight and then we got the soccer ball and taught them how to bowl. Katherine, their teacher, also made up a game with the bottles. The kids absolutely loved it. We also played London Bridge before handing out the muffins. It was adorable to watch them eating and they obviously found them delicious.

I had my camera to take pictures because we want to do profiles on all the kids. We took each child’s picture individually and then showed them their picture. The delight and amazement was so special as they saw themselves in the camera. Mirrors are not commonly found in their homes.

We returned to the office to work on identifying the kids for the profiles. We then planned what we would be doing with TAFCOM and Nie for the reminder of our stay. It was not a happy reality check that our time here is so short. Both of us would like to accidentally lose our return ticket!!

We ate lunch at the Corner Café which is set up through the Kilimanjaro Young Girls In Need organization. KYGN is composed of a pre-primary school, primary academic support, secondary education and vocational training for girls. They work in the restaurant and all profits go to the organization. (www.kygn.org)

After returning to the hostel, Megan took a nap and I ventured over to Unique Batik, a fabric store where Lee Ann and I bought material last year. I want to make bean bags for the Children’s Center and Neema orphanage. I ran into our friend Danstan and he walked with me for awhile. The woman at the shop agreed to give me scraps that we could use to stuff the bags and it turned out there was enough material as well as some of the scraps were large enough that we could both make the bags and stuff them without having to buy extra fabric. The woman at the shop wanted to give them to me for free but I gave her a small amount. I also ended up buying a bracelet from this guy who had pestered us several times to buy his art. He was very kind to interpret for me so I felt obligated (and easy)!!

We met the cyclists, Julie & David on the rooftop of the Kindoroko (our favorite place last year) for their farewell dinner. Farryl and Mona joined us and then we all went to dinner. The company where Mona is interning has a motorcycle and they are going to let her use it to go back and forth to work. She had her first ride today and crashed. She was cut up on her arms and one knee. You could not pay me enough to ride on one of those things let alone try to drive one!!

We ate at an Indian vegetarian restaurant but they also offered a few “American” type sandwiches such as a cheeseburger and veggie burger. Megan ordered a cheeseburger and being true to the fact that this was a “vegetarian” restaurant brought her a sandwich consisting of a bun and a piece of cheese. (I have proof in a photo!!) We all had a great laugh and Megan was a good sport.