Day 6 and 7

This morning we did teaching rotations with all of the kids. We had 5 groups of 8 kids for about an hour each, I focused on English, Math and Personal Finances. The kids were all different skill levels but they really enjoyed working on math problems and made some good progress.

In the afternoon we went back for their Saturday afternoon sports time. We participated with them in different physical activities, we ran baton relays and soccer. It brought back memories of elementary and middle school.

Day 7

Today we went to Arusha a city about an hour west of Moshi for the afternoon. We walked around the city had a good lunch and went a large market where they sold tribal paintings and sculptures. Since it is low season and it was pretty empty when we were there it was very easy to bargain and get some ridiculous deals for amazing art work.

In the evening when we got back we went to another orphanage that just started up about 2 months ago. It was very depressing, the person who started it had good intentions but just does not have the business skills or money to run the orphanage and refuses to turn any child away even when he knows he cant support them. The children are all very young and there is only one woman who takes care of all 31 of them during the day. They are underweight and are lucky to get one or two good meals a day. The children are all very timid and you can tell they are unhappy. The worst part is that they are extremely unhealthy. The director cant afford the health care for the kids which is very cheap for us about $2 per child but that is a days salary here. We ended up taking 24 of the 31 kids to the local clinic for blood tests and medicine. Half of the kids tested positive for Malaria and the others had all kinds of infections and parasites and some also have HIV. We bought the medicines for the kids at a whopping cost of $60 but this is only a short term solution. They are currently sleeping 4 to a bed so anything that one kid has spreads quickly. It is a sad situation with no good solution because there is nowhere else for the kids to go. So we are in the process of figuring out a solution because the kids cant keep living like they are. So far we have arranged health care for the kids when ever they need it. Now we need to figure out a sustainable food source and additional beds. Hopefully we can figure something out.


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