Playtime

            Although our days have not been jam-packed 12 hour shifts, you could definitely tell it was Saturday morning as there were yawns all around the breakfast table this morning.  Personally, I had a temporary moment of panic when I thought we were out of coffee but we figured out the coffee grounds had been put in the container labelled tea so crisis avoided!

            Today we went to an orphanage we had never been to.  It is in a poorer area of Arusha and the neighbourhood looked different than most we’ve seen so far.  Most of the orphanages we have been to have been in neighbourhoods where most of the houses are constructed of cement.  In this area most houses were constructed with clumps of mud and you could see the patch jobs that had been done.  The orphanage itself was small and very basic, definitely not as well off as some of the ones we have visited.  I am not sure if the children there get many visitors because it took them awhile to warm up to us but once they did we had a lot of fun with them.  Most of our group headed off to a soccer pitch down the road with the older kids from the orphanage where they were joined by many neighbourhood children.  An exciting game of soccer ensued and a good time was had by all both on and off the field.  Some of those in our group hung out on the sidelines with those children who did not want to play.  This afforded the opportunity for them to get to know some of the older children.  Samantha had a really good conversation with a very mature 18 year old whose dream is to become a lawyer one day.  Samantha exchanged contact information with this girl so they could keep in touch so it was neat to see that connection being made.

            Three of us stayed back at the orphanage with the youngest children as they did not seem to want to go to the soccer field. (One of the girls tried leading a child that way but she did not want to go past a certain point so we figured they were probably told not to).  It took them a bit to warm up to us and they didn’t speak any English other than the phrase “take a picture!” so communicating was hard at first.  However, the good news is that smiling is a universal language and before we knew it they were smiling and letting us pick them up. We soon became human playground pieces, swinging them around, bouncing them on our knees, tossing them in the air, chasing them around etc.  Before we knew it the yard was filled with giggles and laughter and we were starting to get tired!  The sky above was gloomy and gray but the laughter and smiles we were able to bring to the children’s faces soon brightened the day.  We will definitely sleep well tonight!

From rainy Arusha,

Karen