Hi all,
I can't believe I'm leaving Moshi tomorrow, the last 2 weeks have gone so quickly! I've just taught my last class at the Uwawayaki / Emerald Gael Secondary School. I'm really going to miss those kids, they've been so sweet, and so well behaved too! Today I did as little grammar as I could get away with and then played games For hangman, they had a go and their anwsers were 'goodbye to teacher sandra' and 'thank you for teaching us so well we will miss you'. Bless!

I've had a busy week again though. On tuesday I braved the dala dala to Bomangombe, to visit the Kilimanjaro Joy Foundation Orphange. I went out on my own so got stared at a lot. The stickers in the dala dalas always make me laugh 'Buying tax is a sign of patriotism', and 'This vehicule is protected by the blood of Jesus'. Lucky since they're definitely not protected by the road sense of the drivers ;-) Anyway, I digress. I got horrendously lost looking for the orphanage (big surprise I hear you all cry, given my finely tuned sense of direction). Everyone I asked for directions in my basic swahili was really nice and wanted to be helpful, but didn't have a clue what I was on about. Eventually I bumped into a nice man who couldn't speak any english, but who took pity on me and walked me to the nearby english speaker, the local doctor. The doctor happened to be opposite a primary school which had just finished for the day, and by coincidence when I asked the doc where Mama Lucy's orphange was, one of the kids in the crowd from the school that had come over to gawp at me, piped up to say that he was mama lucy's son and he'd take me. He was sweet and led me the right way with hoards of other kids following too.

The orphanage was amazing. Very basic and the kids were really scruffy, but they were all happy and well enough fed and pretty healthy. I was expecting the worst, but it really struck me just how happy they were, given how little they had. Mama lucy I think must be a saint, she is the kindest, loveliest woman I've ever met. Really humble and you can tell she adores the kids and they adore her. She's been looking after random kids for over 20 years and now has 120 under her wing, only one of which now is hiv+. The kids were so cute and came running up to me. There was one young girl called Sarah who wouldn't let go of me most of the time i was there so I had to carry her around everywhere. I couldn't stay long though unfortunately. They gave me, and 3 other volunteers who happened to be there too, a lift back to the dala dala stop in their old pick up truck. Some of the kids came along for the ride too and sang english and swahili songs most of the way. I'm so glad I went, I'll never forget that place.

On wednesday just after class a group of us went to arusha to see the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. We got to sit in on witnesses to the genocide being interviewed. It was really interesting, but very slow going. Because we arrived late, we only had an hour or so there but it was well worth it.

Anyway, I need to run now. My last masai class is in a mo and I still need to get back.

Hope you're all well,
xxx