Hi everyone,
Today is a lazy Sunday so I have had some time to look around on the internet and I found a link to the orphanage I volunteer at. Here it is: http://www.gloriousorphanage.com/home. Someone who had volunteered there created it and it's actually pretty good. I love the pictures and bios of Alice and Julius the most -- they are some of the most amazing people I've met and the website doesn't even tell half of what they do. They are so amazing! There is also a way to donate using PayPal... but I would love to talk in person once I'm home about what your money would be used for, should you choose to donate.
I'm really excited because there's a five-year-old boy at the orphanage (Juma) that has some disease that makes him unable to walk without assistance and fills his head with lots of fluid, enlarging his head quite a bit. The other day some of the volunteers who have been there a bit longer than we have took Juma to the special needs hospital about an hour away and set him up with crutches for at least two years and physical therapy for the next two weeks. Since it's so far away, Juma is staying at the hospital, so we will miss him lots... he is the sweetest kid ever! We're going to go visit him though once he gets settled in... it was just so great to see people my age making such a difference. I'm excited to find a great way to spend the money that Peter has raised!
I have some time on the internet so I'll just give some random updates I suppose... no need to read if you're pressed for time! Just a funny story. On Friday, we woke up just a bit late to get to Glorious. Somehow we had all overslept, so we decided we would take a cab there instead of a daladala. One of the girls who lives at our house had gotten this huuuuge box of shirts she wanted to donate to the orphanage, so it was also good that we were going to take a cab because the box probably would not have fit on the dala. Our plan was to walk to the main road and find a cab there... but about two steps out of our gate we had already dropped the box like 5 times and were seriously struggling. Thankfully, our really nice neighbor was driving by and offered to drive us to a spot where we could get a taxi, even though she was going the opposite way. We had never really spoken to this woman (although we talk to her husband sometimes) but we were so thankful -- I have no idea how we would have made it!! We got a taxi to the orphanage and were happy that we were bringing gifts, as we were a bit late. During lunch, we opened the box and realized that all the shirts were adult extra larges...a bit too big for the kids. They were bright yellow collared polos with the logo of a local airline... very funny looking. We decided we would take some to the AIDS widows that Alice has to her house every day to make jewelry and batiks and then Alice could sell the rest at the market for money for the kids. We went to see the women and they were all pretty old and they were just so happy to see us and got a total kick out of the shirts. They all put them on and were dancing and strutting around and laughing their heads off. It was pretty funny to see and we had no idea what they were saying, but we were laughing as well. It was just a great time and we want to go back and hang out with the women more often. I think I told this story pretty poorly but regardless, it was a great time. I'm very tired so I apologize for the rambling, but hopefully a couple people enjoyed it! My internet time is running out, I'm sure I'll have more exciting updates to give after my trip to Zanzibar! Kwa heri!
