Women's Christian Orphanage

We are volunteering at the Women's Christian Orphanage, which is located in the outskirts of Arusha.  It is located in a very poor area.  It takes us two dala dala rides and a 20 minute walk to get there from our volunteer house each day, about an hour on a good day.

It is the rainy season in Arusha, so we have a large field of mud to travel across each day to get to the orphanage.

The orphanage is owned by a Tanzanian women, she speaks virtually no english.  We are going to take one of the House Managers from our volunteer organization with us, so we can find out what they need most.  We brought lots of classroom resources, but they lack so many other items.

In the picture below you can see a green building, a red door and the roof of another building.  The green building is the actual classroom.  The very bottom picture shows the interior of the classroom.  Really the only reason you know it is a classroom is because of the desks.  They have nothing on the walls, no alphabets, numbers etc.  We have these things to put up, but we are having trouble locating something that will allow them to stay on the walls.  The walls are very damp so things don't stick to the wall well.  We are looking to find something that will work, but there is no department store or stationary store.  As the volunteer who have been in Tanzania say TIA (This is Africa), so we continue to look and ask at different stores each day.

 This is Gabrieli.  He is 8.  He goes to school in the morning before we arrive.  He comes back around noon and participates.  He loves to colour and is very proud of his work.

 The orange and blue mat is what we use when we are doing group activities.  Since Mama doesn't speak english, it is the children who tell us through actions what things such as using the mat for group activities.

Emma brought bananas for all the kids one day.  Having them sit on the mat in a circle and sit while they ate the bananas was a huge achievement.  When we arrived the first day the children would not sit still at once, or really sit at all.

All of the kids at the orphanage are very familiar with a camera.  Vero and Nema are hamming it up for Emma in this picture.

The picture below is the youngest of the children at the orphanage.  His name is Johnny and he is adorable, quite the ham!

This is the playground for the children.  The space behind the swing set is their garden (and a steep hill).

The picture below is the older children, 7 and 8 pumping water for their bath.  It works like a step machine.  It takes two of them to work it.  When the Mama is not near by I do the the pumping and haling of water for them.  The 7 and 8 year olds bath all the children each afternoon.

All of the children want to try on Emma's glasses.

xo xo Julia and Emma