Jambo Jambo!

So yesterday afternoon when I was in the internet cafe, a guy called Said walked in, I met him last Wednesday at shakeboomboom and have spoken to him a few times since then. I had a brief conversation with him before leaving as my time was up. We ended up walking back through town together. He invited me to his house, which I was unsure of, but I decided that I would go to his house.... From his house I could see the vodacom tower, which is the dadas point of orientation in case we ever get lost. We walked through a small shop into the back where his younger brother and parents were sat talking. They welcomed me into their home in Swahili and in English. Both of his parents are teachers and I had a general conversation with his Dad about England, work, my time in Tanzania etc. He turned the television on so that I could catch up on some news and I saw that the black boxes from the missing plane were being passed from Ukraine to UK; I only caught the end of this, is this the Malaysian missing plane?! And are any of the passengers alive?! It was great to catch up on some news and I even enjoyed the sports news, simply because I am completely out of the loop out here, there is almost no contact with the outside world.

Said's dad kept offering me lots of different drinks, all kinds of beer, cider, a malt drink, but I didn't fancy anything, I was happy with water. Said said that his Mum was currently teaching an after school class in the garden; this is for children that want to do their homework and learn further subjects after school. I went outside to have a look; there were around 30-40 pupils sat on four long benches. They all stood up and said "Good Afternoon Madam" to me, it was very polite and took be black slightly, I responded "Asante, Good Afternoon" and they all sat back down. They were learning some maths at the time.

Said, his Dad and I went for a walk to a local bar where we played some pool and I mixed in with some locals. It was a really nice afternoon. A great chance to witness another aspect of local life and have the chance to join in, it was really enjoyable. They offered to buy me some food at a restaurant, but as I was going out for tea with the Dada's I politely declined. Said walked me back to the vodacom tower; by this time it was almost 19:00. The dadas were ringing and texting me wondering where I was. I spoke to Yael and told her that I was 10 minutes away (I think I keep spelling Yael's name as Lael, but it's Yael, oops!). When I got back to the house the Dada's were ready and waiting for me, I quickly put my jumper on before heading back out for tea.

We went to Manyara Gardens, not the authentic African restaurant that Andrea first suggested. We ordered a samosa each, but they only had four left, so we shared. We all ordered chicken and rice, but they had also ran out of this! We couldn't believe it. They had also ran out of beef, so we all ended up with chips mayai. I feel like I am forever eating chips mayai at the moment! The evening was nice. The dadas had African coffee and I had African Chai to finish the evening. We were all very tired and headed back to the house not long after 21:00

Today, the last day at the orphanage :( This morning I had one boiled egg for breakfast, I genuinely haven't had a boiled egg since I was about 6 or 7 years old; as I definitely haven't had one since I started liking eggs again around 2-3 years ago. It was quite nice with a bit of salt! After breakfast Yael, Delia and I went to a cafe before the orphanage, as we were still hungry. Yael and Delia had a coffee with two bread roll type things and I had a tea with a banana and a tomato. We also paid a visit to the ketenge shop again, and all ended up buying some more ketenge's! They are just too nice and too much of a bargain to not buy them.... And we will not find anything like it at home!

When we arrived at the orphanage Kabalo was there and had moved all of the furniture out of his old cafe into the house. It was very crowded. Whilst Yael swept the garden, Delia and I re-arranged the tables and chairs. There are now 8 chairs and a sofa for the 16 children which is a lot better than there 2 chairs and the sofa! There was not much to do with the children this morning, we sung and danced the macarena which was rather funny. We took the children for a surprise... We walked them to a nearby bar in which we bought them a drink of their choice, they all chose either coke or sprite. The bar man put the television on with some music, and their eyes were glued to it. They were laughing at the dances, especially the video where they were all shaking their bums! It was a really special time, and a nice way to spend some time with the children for the last time. The children were very grateful for the drink and kept saying "Asante Sana" to us all, I love to see the children so happy, it always makes my day and brings a smile to my face! The children happily shared their drinks with other children when they had finished theirs; this was amazing to see, even when they have so little, they are always more than willing to share. Anna John is one of the kindest and politest children I have ever met, she always offers whatever she has, even to us dadas, and always says thank you three or four times. Their manners are impeccable. Afterwards we took them for a short walk before returning to the orphanage. Yael and Delia played memory with most of the children whilst I coloured with Prisila. I gave all of the children three pens each and I am going to return later on this afternoon in order to give the children who attend school some pens, pencils and a highlighter. This will also be my last chance to say goodbye.

I will be very sad to say goodbye to the children. Although I have only been here just over a week I feel like I have gotten to know each of them and always enjoy the time that I spend with them. Today Prisila kept asking me if I would be staying at the orphanage tomorrow night, this made me sad, I told her "Meme kesho Dar es Salaam" (Tomorrow I am in Dar es Salaam) her response was "Hapana!" (No!) and I had to reply "Pole sana" (I'm very sorry). It must be so hard for the children to say goodbye to so many people, as they get attached to each and every volunteer. As I said, I've only been here for just over a week, but I feel so comfortable around the children and that is mainly because they have been so welcoming, friendly and willing to accept and allow me to spend time with them. At first, Titto was very reluctant to speak to me and quite withdrawn towards me, however, over the past 3-4 days he has started high fiving me and holding small conversations. I understand that not every child will accept the volunteers straight away. They are used to people leaving their lives, the orphanage and the volunteers are the only family that they have. Last night Andrea was telling us the background to some of the children; some of them have been there 1-2 years and others have only been there 3-4 days, there is a complete range of lengths of stay. Andrea told us about the eldest child, Naomi, she is 15 years of age and the police brought her from Dar es Salaam to Karatu as her parents put her into prositution and using the money to fund the family living. Naomi has been at the orphanage almost two years, and was in Dar es Salaam for just over a year, this calculates for her to have been around 12 years of age when her parents put her into prostitution until one evening the police took her off of the street. Naomi has a bed wetting problem. Andrea (who works with children and is currently studying social care) says she thinks that the images from Dar es Salaam come back to Naomi when she is sleeping and that is the reason behind her bed wetting, she is scared. I couldn't believe it when Andrea told us this. It sent shivers all through my body and brought a tear to my eye. Naomi is a lovely girl, I can't believe that someone so young has had such a traumatic past and been put through such a vile past. Truly horrifying. The other children have not experienced such pasts, or atleast, not of the pasts that Andrea knew of. Some children were living on the streets, some childrens parent's could no longer afford to have them, or had passed the children to family friend's who could then no longer afford to have them. They are all very sad stories.

Today, Salma showed me her suitcase which contained all of her belongings. She was wearing a dress, a jumper and flip flops. In her suitcase was one dress, three tshirts, a jumper, two pairs of knickers, a flannel and a toothbrush, and that is all Salma owns. It's very sad to see that a child can pack up their life and belongings in to one very small suitcase, a suitcase which was half full and the size of what we would use as a weekend bag. They take great pride and look after all of their belongings as they are fully aware the chances of them getting new or better things are slim, unless volunteers or outside doners give the children items.

For lunch I had vegetables and chips, the chips were cold and slipping around the plate in grease, but I was so hungry, I couldn't leave them! The other dadas had spaghetti. Afterwards we had some papaya followed by some Cadbury's fruit and nut in which Yael and Delia found in one of the shops.... Lunch turned out pretty well, and I felt rather full up for once! Almost felt like last Thursday when I ate the mango and cashew nuts after tea. I felt like I ate like a queen today and it was a great feeling.

This is my last trip into town before my departure tomorrow morning. We hope to catch the Noa and leave Karatu by 11am in order to be in Arusha for around 1pm. Yael and Delia are staying their until Saturday. We plan to go to a market whilst we are there. We have asked Andrea where it is, but she hasn't been very helpful at all, and is almost holding back in telling us where it is, so we have given up trying to ask and are just going to ask when we arrive in Arusha tomorrow.

I am going to be very sad to leave Karatu tomorrow; mainly because of the children, but also because of the dadas; they have made me feel ever so welcome here, especially Yael and Delia. I have made a good friendship with Yael and Delia which has been really nice. There has been no arguments between the dadas, although, some of the dadas are now getting edgy as they are getting ready to leave Karatu. Some days the moral in the house is very low, and so I try and spend my free time out and about in the town, walking or in the garden, otherwise it would send me crazy. There is no privacy in the house. It's lovely that all of the neighbours can walk in and out of the house, but sometimes it can feel very unsafe with them walking around. On my first day Yael's phone got stolen, and so Kabalo put locks on the bedroom doors, this made all of us feel a bit safer, but you just never know.

There is one neighbour, the mother has we think, four children, one girl and three boys; you never see the children in any other clothes other than the clothes on their backs. The clothes are chafu sana (very dirty) as are the children, flies constantly around them, but they always say hello and quite often spend some time with us. I have some tshirts, soap and toothbrushes left over, so I am going to give them to these children. The five of them live in a very small house; it is roughly 2m x 2m, there is a door and no windows. The fire is outside in a shelter made by sticks. There is one bed for the mother and a bed in which the children share. This family have nothing and so it would be my greatest pleasure to give them my remaining items in hope that it will improve their lives just a little. I wish I could give something to all of the children here, but it is not possible. The flipflops and some remaining pens I will give to some other neighbours that I sometimes play with or sit in the garden with, and I think they will appreciate this gesture.

Although I have been to Tanzania before, living within a small community has opened my eyes even further to the poverty that is around. So many people here have nothing, no water, no light, no clothes, just a fire and a small house, but they are forever smiling, laughing and always welcome everyone with open arms. Despite the poverty, there is a very positive atmosphere here. Walking down the street there is music playing, people are dancing outside of their shops, talking to whoever walks by and there is a nice happy vibe flowing. Not like at home, if you said hello to someone on the street, they'd think something was wrong with you.

I shall be heading to the orphanage in just over an hour to say my final goodbyes and give the children my final gifts. I shall then head back home to start packing my things up and making the most of my last evening here in Karatu.

A huge thank you to everyone who sponsored my 10k run and gave gifts. With the money I raised I was able to buy so many gifts for the children, and they have loved everything they've been given. You have all helped put a smile on each and every child's face and you should all be very happy that you have done that! They have been very grateful and hugely appreciate the gifts! It really has been a special time for me here. Hopefully some changes will be made to the orphanage which will enable it to grow and develop successfully in the future.

Enjoy your afternoon!

H