The Orphanage

This morning I went to the clinic because my death cough (bronchitis) has returned.

The story of how the clinic was established is awesome so I will retell it: The owner and his wife climbed Mt Kilimanjaro for his 50th birthday and he got altitude sickness. He was so sick that he had to go to a hospital. In the hospital he discovered that the healthcare there was very bad and there were very few places that people in rural areas could receive care. Once he got better, he returned to the US, quit his job, sold his house and everything, came back to Tanzania, and set up a mobile clinic. After a while of running his mobile clinic he bought some land and set up a permanent clinic. Currently he has a clinic, a lab and a pharmacy and is in the process of building a hospital with a surgery suite and everything on the land next to the clinic.

The other amazing thing about the clinic is that he provides care to locals for a dollar or two a visit. He makes all of the money to run the clinic through donations, check up fees for tourists (about $50 a visit), and donations. Also, SFS students are considered locals so I paid about $15 for my visit (including medication).

After the clinic I came back to camp and napped. Napping is amazing. Especially cause it is cold here in the mornings and I was coughing a lot last night so I didn't sleep very well. Curling back up in my sleeping bag was totally awesome!

In the afternoon we went to volunteer at the local orphanage. The children were mostly orphans of parents with AIDs but some were from families who couldn't afford to care for their children. There were normally 40 children at the orphanage but the orphanage was in the middle of moving locations the children who had families were temporarily sent home so they were only 20 children there.

When we got the orphanage the children ran up to us and sang us a welcome song. The director then told us information about the orphanage and gave us a tour of the area. It was a very small area for 40 children but apparently it was better than the old site that they were at. At the old site there was only one toilet for 40 people. Can you believe that??? One toilet! During the tour the director pointed out the beds that SFS had donated to the orphanage. I was proud that some of my tuition money is going to a better cause than just the SFS organization.

After the tour of the site we went out to the yard area and helped them clear it so that it would be a safe area for the children to play. There were people everywhere moving rocks, pulling up plants, breaking up the ground to help level it, etc. It was really cute how many of the kids came and helped us. It was kind of dangerous work though because we were disturbing a lot of bugs: Keri got stung by a scorpion. I had to sit down about half way through because I was starting to black out every time I stood up.

It was very hot so I wasn't the only one sitting out and soon a group of kids had come and sat with us too. They kept stealing sunglasses and waterbottles and wandering off. Then I pulled out my Iphone to take pictures and got completely swarmed with children. It was a little nerve wracking because most of them barely understood English but they were careful with my phone so I let them flip through my pictures for a while.

When I went to the car to get my water bottle Ninah, one of the staff members, was walking around with a toddler. He put the kid in the car and told him to sit on one of the seats. The kid walked to the back of the car where I was and I asked him to sit with me so he climbed up next to me. Then Ninah told the kid that I was his mom and asked him if that was okay. The kid put his hand on my leg and said okay. It was absolutely adorable. I carried him around for a while after that.

There was one kid at the orphanage who was mentally disabled and all he wanted was to hug everyone. He would walk up to random people and just throw himself at them. He kind of made me uncomfortable because he probably sat and hugged me on and off for about five minutes. But at the same time it so obviously made him so happy that I couldn't help but smile. After he was done hugging me I was spinning another kid around by his hands and he was watching me. When I put the kid down he ran up and wanted me to do it with him too but he was too tall for me to do it. That turned out to not be a problem though because he jumped into my arms and wrapped his legs around my waist. When I spun him around he was squealing from joy. It made me glad that I got over my discomfort and played with him.

Before we left the children sang us more songs. My favorite was when they sang Old McDonald. It was about halfway through the song when I figured out what they were singing because a lot of the kids were young and they all had accents but it was adorable.

I would have loved to stay at the orphanage for days. Hopefully we go back at some point before I head home.