I am happy that I am not in Tanzania during the rainy season (November-December). I would hate to see what it looks like. I think that March is quite rainy enough thank you very much. All of a sudden for about the last two weeks it has been raining cats and dogs every night. I think that it is actually nice because the rain cools everything off, so it isn’t so hot the next day. But the mud in the morning is a real pain. A while ago I was walking home from the dalla-dalla when I stepped on what I thought was a hard bit of mud. It ended up not being so hard. I sunk in the mud all the way up my calf. The worst part was when I pulled my foot out I didn’t have a sandal on it anymore. So I had to stick my arm all the way down in the mud to get it out. The rest of the walk home was fun as well. Every person I saw walking home would look at me and laugh and say “Pole sana, Sister” (meaning “I’m very sorry that happened to you” in Swahili), but I knew they were all thinking oh stupid muzungu. Lucky I wasn’t very far from home, so I got to wash off right away.
This week I had one of my favorite experiences while being in Africa, and I never even thought about it until my friend, Nathalie, mentioned it. We went to an African soccer game. It wasn’t even kids playing in a field, it was professional (or maybe semi-pro) teams in a huge stadium. We went to see a friendly match between the Tanzanian Stars and the Ugandan Cranes at Kirumba Stadium in Mwanza. It was unbelievable. I had such a blast. Conveniently, a little while after I got here back in January I bought a really cheap Tanzania soccer jersey as a souvenir from the market. I thought it would be fun to wear when I get home. I never thought that I would actually get to wear it to a Tanzanian soccer match to cheer on my team… BUT I DID!! I thought that all of the Tanzanians were going to laugh at me, but they were really pleased that I was wearing a jersey and cheering their team on. It was by far the nicest field I have seen since I have been here; there weren’t any dead grass or dirt spots on the entire field. The stadium was huge. We guessed that there were probably about 2,000 people at the game and the stands were only a fifth or a quarter full. It was very exhilarating to jump up and cheer every time that Tanzania scored. The fans were dancing around in the stands and running a huge Tanzania flag that was carried by 6 people across the entire stadium when we were ahead 2-1. Sadly, Uganda caught up and ended up winning the game 2-3, but it was still an amazing time. It was really nice to see the people have such pride in their country, especially because a lot of the locals really get down on Tanzania because of its poverty and other problems.
Everything has been good at the Baby Home lately. Charlie was adopted by a nice Scottish couple, who are overjoyed to be parents. It is quite rare that someone his age (4 ½) is adopted. Lately the big babies have been quite sick; they all have come down with bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. It has hit little Lilly the worst. She has had it for about 12 days now, and has been in terrible shape. She has also lost a pound and a half, which is a lot because she only weighed 17 pounds to start with. So today she was admitted to the hospital and put on a drip to make sure that she stays hydrated. She will also be treated for malaria, even though the tests we did were negative. Amy thinks that she will probably be in the hospital for 6 days. Lilly was one of the first babies that I really clicked with. She was my first favorite (even though I really shouldn’t have favorites). I took the news really hard because I am so worried about her, but also because I am leaving in 5 days. I wouldn’t get another chance to see her and say goodbye. But hopefully if it all works out as planned I will be able to go visit her in the hospital in a few days. It will give me a chance to cuddle her and say goodbye. In the meantime, she could use your thoughts and prayers.
So like I said I am leaving in 5 days, but I actually have 15 days left in Tanzania before my flight home. I decided to cut my stay at the Baby Home a bit short in order to go to Zanzibar. I know I will kick myself if I skip going because I don’t know when I will be in East Africa again. For those of you who don’t know, Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. It is a tropical paradise because of the warm currents that come from Asia across the ocean. My friend, Lynn, just got back from a 10-day vacation there as well and the pictures are unbelievable. It is all white sand beach, palm trees, and hammocks, aka heaven. I am really looking forward to enjoying some time on the beach and touch up my terrible farmer’s tan. It will also give me a chance to catch up on all of the homework that I have fell so far behind on. Hopefully when I get back I can write another post all about Zanzibar and my adventures there.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
19 February 2010
I will admit that I have truly been spoiled since my parents arrived. I have taken some time off from the Baby Home while they are here (although we will go to hang out for a few hours every day). I have also been staying with them at the hotel. You can’t imagine what a luxury this is for me now. I have a hot shower every morning, a beautiful flat screen TV that plays more than the African Christian network, constant electricity (the hotel has a huge generator), air conditioning (so I don’t sweat through my pjs at night), a gorgeous swimming pool and best of all, wireless internet. When I go back to living at the Volunteer House on Monday after my parents leave I will have to adjust to living in Africa all over again. But my parents topped everything else that I have enjoyed during this trip (minus their wonderful company of course) with the safari of a lifetime.
Early Monday morning we took off with our safari guide heading toward the Serengeti. After a two-hour ride to the gate of the park we started our African adventure. It wasn’t even 10 minutes into the park before we spotted our first bits of wildlife: zebras and gazelles. We quickly discovered that the grazing animals are everywhere and there are tons of them. We also saw antelope, waterbucks, duiker, topi, giraffe, wildebeest, elephants, water buffalo, and impala. What was amazing about these animals was either their size (I have always felt short, but looking at a giraffe made me feel shorter than ever before) or their numbers. There were so many zebra everywhere; the size of the herds was amazing and unbelievably beautiful with all of the intermingled stripes.
The first bit of extreme excitement came at lunchtime. We were eating our boxed lunches with our safari guide, Kupama, at a park rest area when my dad spotted something moving across a nearby field. He said “It looks like there is a lion over there,” so we all looked and sure enough there was a lioness walking through the tall grass about 200 yards away. Of course, my mom and I started to run toward the Land Cruiser to get our cameras. Thank goodness Kupama was thinking straight and brought us back to reality; he quickly said “We get in the car now.” He was the only one to realize that we weren’t in the safest position out in the open with lions so close. So we hurriedly packed up our lunches and headed off to get our pictures. We found three lionesses lounging in the shade of a tree in the field. To my delight they had a cub with them as well (although he wasn’t that young, maybe a month or two old). We were in awe for about 20 minutes before moving on.
Our next exciting stop was at the watering hole where we saw a swarm of huge crocodiles. I honestly can’t believe how big they are. The amazing part was that they were feeding. Although we didn’t see the kill, we saw them ripping apart a zebra carcass. The head of the zebra was the only part that we could really make out anymore. It was a feeding frenzy in the water, which was unbelievable to see. A crocodile would grab onto a piece of the zebra flesh and then quickly roll over about 5 times in the water (popping their big white bellies up into the air) to rip the piece off. After the flesh was free, they would throw back their head (snout up in the air) and swallow the piece in two quick chomps. It was horrific and beautiful all at the same time.
Probably one of the funniest things that we saw was also on the first day. We found a huge herd of elephants. I couldn’t believe how many there were, possibly 200. Right at the front of the group we saw a large male attempting to mount a female elephant. It didn’t last long because the female ran away, but the male continued to pursue her and mounted again. The most hilarious part of it was they were doing it right in front of a little baby elephant. I got the most amazing picture of it ever! If you would like to the see photos from my safari you can check them out on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204280&id=505738097&l=37f31770ba.
The second day of our safari was just as exciting as the first. We drove right though the wildebeest migration. I cannot express what it is like to see wildebeests for as far as the eye can see. I believe there are 1 million wildebeests in the migration. We attempted to capture in effect in photos, but they really don’t do the sight justice. It was amazing. On top of that it is baby wildebeest season. Apparently all of the females are calving, so there was baby wildebeest everywhere. They were so cute, which is kind of amazing because the adults are so ugly. The mothers seem to stick together, most likely for protection from predators.
Our safari was 4 days and 3 nights. We drove across the entire Serengeti to reach the Ngorongoro Crater, which is known for its large population of predators. The Serengeti and Ngorongoro were both beautiful landscapes. I expected that the Serengeti would be all savanna and plains, but the landscape changed around every bend of the road. We passed through rolling hills, mountains, plains, and woodlands. The plains were unbelievable because it was just grasslands for as far as the eye could see. Ngorongoro Crater passed all my expectations. We stayed in a lodge on the rim of the crater. It was a breathtaking view of the steep jungle-like slopes that ended in grasslands all the way across the Crater. In the middle was a very large salt lake that had thousands of pink flamingos around the edge. If you ever go on safari in Africa it is a must-see.
I could probably write 10 pages about our safari and all that we saw, but I unfortunately have tons of homework that I have to do and I’m way behind on. If you have any questions about the photos or my safari feel free to comment or email me.
Early Monday morning we took off with our safari guide heading toward the Serengeti. After a two-hour ride to the gate of the park we started our African adventure. It wasn’t even 10 minutes into the park before we spotted our first bits of wildlife: zebras and gazelles. We quickly discovered that the grazing animals are everywhere and there are tons of them. We also saw antelope, waterbucks, duiker, topi, giraffe, wildebeest, elephants, water buffalo, and impala. What was amazing about these animals was either their size (I have always felt short, but looking at a giraffe made me feel shorter than ever before) or their numbers. There were so many zebra everywhere; the size of the herds was amazing and unbelievably beautiful with all of the intermingled stripes.
The first bit of extreme excitement came at lunchtime. We were eating our boxed lunches with our safari guide, Kupama, at a park rest area when my dad spotted something moving across a nearby field. He said “It looks like there is a lion over there,” so we all looked and sure enough there was a lioness walking through the tall grass about 200 yards away. Of course, my mom and I started to run toward the Land Cruiser to get our cameras. Thank goodness Kupama was thinking straight and brought us back to reality; he quickly said “We get in the car now.” He was the only one to realize that we weren’t in the safest position out in the open with lions so close. So we hurriedly packed up our lunches and headed off to get our pictures. We found three lionesses lounging in the shade of a tree in the field. To my delight they had a cub with them as well (although he wasn’t that young, maybe a month or two old). We were in awe for about 20 minutes before moving on.
Our next exciting stop was at the watering hole where we saw a swarm of huge crocodiles. I honestly can’t believe how big they are. The amazing part was that they were feeding. Although we didn’t see the kill, we saw them ripping apart a zebra carcass. The head of the zebra was the only part that we could really make out anymore. It was a feeding frenzy in the water, which was unbelievable to see. A crocodile would grab onto a piece of the zebra flesh and then quickly roll over about 5 times in the water (popping their big white bellies up into the air) to rip the piece off. After the flesh was free, they would throw back their head (snout up in the air) and swallow the piece in two quick chomps. It was horrific and beautiful all at the same time.
Probably one of the funniest things that we saw was also on the first day. We found a huge herd of elephants. I couldn’t believe how many there were, possibly 200. Right at the front of the group we saw a large male attempting to mount a female elephant. It didn’t last long because the female ran away, but the male continued to pursue her and mounted again. The most hilarious part of it was they were doing it right in front of a little baby elephant. I got the most amazing picture of it ever! If you would like to the see photos from my safari you can check them out on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204280&id=505738097&l=37f31770ba.
The second day of our safari was just as exciting as the first. We drove right though the wildebeest migration. I cannot express what it is like to see wildebeests for as far as the eye can see. I believe there are 1 million wildebeests in the migration. We attempted to capture in effect in photos, but they really don’t do the sight justice. It was amazing. On top of that it is baby wildebeest season. Apparently all of the females are calving, so there was baby wildebeest everywhere. They were so cute, which is kind of amazing because the adults are so ugly. The mothers seem to stick together, most likely for protection from predators.
Our safari was 4 days and 3 nights. We drove across the entire Serengeti to reach the Ngorongoro Crater, which is known for its large population of predators. The Serengeti and Ngorongoro were both beautiful landscapes. I expected that the Serengeti would be all savanna and plains, but the landscape changed around every bend of the road. We passed through rolling hills, mountains, plains, and woodlands. The plains were unbelievable because it was just grasslands for as far as the eye could see. Ngorongoro Crater passed all my expectations. We stayed in a lodge on the rim of the crater. It was a breathtaking view of the steep jungle-like slopes that ended in grasslands all the way across the Crater. In the middle was a very large salt lake that had thousands of pink flamingos around the edge. If you ever go on safari in Africa it is a must-see.
I could probably write 10 pages about our safari and all that we saw, but I unfortunately have tons of homework that I have to do and I’m way behind on. If you have any questions about the photos or my safari feel free to comment or email me.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
11 February 2010
Guest post by Bernie (Emily has a paper due!)
Well, we have arrived here in Tanzania; a very anxious Emily met us at the airport. She looked really good, nice and tan and ready to show us around Mwanza. We were immediately surprised with her knowledge of Swahili! We were even more surprised when a cabby who knew her by name approached her. “Emily, Emily, do you need a ride.” It turns out that Castro had become Emily’s favorite cab driver in the little while she has been here. A very generous tourist helped Castro purchase a car so that he could start his own taxi service and thus better support his wife and new twin boys! Anyway, back to Emily! Emily has carefully planned our visit with her and we even have an itinerary to follow (she was just a little anxious for us to come). First order of business was to get checked in to our hotel. The Ryan’s Bay Hotel is located right on Lake Victoria, the largest lake in all of Africa and the second largest lake in the world. We were very happy with our room and the lake view. We have a beautiful pool and a nice restaurant right at the hotel. Since it is about 85-90 degrees by the middle of the afternoon, the pool will come in handy.
All our flights went really well, if any of you ever get the chance to fly Emirates Airlines, please do, it was wonderful. Hot towels to freshen up with, complimentary refreshment bags with toothpaste, toothbrush and other little goodies and your very own 10” television with an endless array of movies, television shows and music at your fingertips! The only disappointment was that the food wasn’t much better than any other airline, but it didn’t cost extra, like U.S. airlines do now. Oh, and the combined twenty-one hours of flying time wasn’t that bad, the movies helped a lot!
This part of Africa is very lush and green (this time of year anyway), flying in you see farm after farm. Mwanza itself looks quite poor, lots of half finished construction and run-down buildings. The people are very friendly though and eager to be of service if you can get through the language barrier. Most of them speak some English, thank goodness!
Our next order of business on Emily’s itinerary was a visit to the Baby Home. We went just after lunch and after a tour of the home we went outside and played with the big toddlers. Just so you know, at the baby home the babies are put into categories. There are tiny babies, big babies, little toddlers and big toddlers. There were about twenty-five toddlers outside playing under a large tree. They immediately came running over to see us. Several of them were saying “Mama Emily, Mama Emily”. It amazed us how they wanted us to pick them up and hold them. No shyness at all. They are really all so beautiful. We played with them for a couple of hours, until it was time for them to go in and have dinner. The baby home runs like a well-greased clock. Every minute of the day is thoughtfully planned and thus everything seems to run pretty smoothly. Don’t get me wrong though, there is still at least one baby crying at any given moment. But it really seems like a very happy place for these innocent babies that have suffered so much misfortune in their short little lives.
Well, we have arrived here in Tanzania; a very anxious Emily met us at the airport. She looked really good, nice and tan and ready to show us around Mwanza. We were immediately surprised with her knowledge of Swahili! We were even more surprised when a cabby who knew her by name approached her. “Emily, Emily, do you need a ride.” It turns out that Castro had become Emily’s favorite cab driver in the little while she has been here. A very generous tourist helped Castro purchase a car so that he could start his own taxi service and thus better support his wife and new twin boys! Anyway, back to Emily! Emily has carefully planned our visit with her and we even have an itinerary to follow (she was just a little anxious for us to come). First order of business was to get checked in to our hotel. The Ryan’s Bay Hotel is located right on Lake Victoria, the largest lake in all of Africa and the second largest lake in the world. We were very happy with our room and the lake view. We have a beautiful pool and a nice restaurant right at the hotel. Since it is about 85-90 degrees by the middle of the afternoon, the pool will come in handy.
All our flights went really well, if any of you ever get the chance to fly Emirates Airlines, please do, it was wonderful. Hot towels to freshen up with, complimentary refreshment bags with toothpaste, toothbrush and other little goodies and your very own 10” television with an endless array of movies, television shows and music at your fingertips! The only disappointment was that the food wasn’t much better than any other airline, but it didn’t cost extra, like U.S. airlines do now. Oh, and the combined twenty-one hours of flying time wasn’t that bad, the movies helped a lot!
This part of Africa is very lush and green (this time of year anyway), flying in you see farm after farm. Mwanza itself looks quite poor, lots of half finished construction and run-down buildings. The people are very friendly though and eager to be of service if you can get through the language barrier. Most of them speak some English, thank goodness!
Our next order of business on Emily’s itinerary was a visit to the Baby Home. We went just after lunch and after a tour of the home we went outside and played with the big toddlers. Just so you know, at the baby home the babies are put into categories. There are tiny babies, big babies, little toddlers and big toddlers. There were about twenty-five toddlers outside playing under a large tree. They immediately came running over to see us. Several of them were saying “Mama Emily, Mama Emily”. It amazed us how they wanted us to pick them up and hold them. No shyness at all. They are really all so beautiful. We played with them for a couple of hours, until it was time for them to go in and have dinner. The baby home runs like a well-greased clock. Every minute of the day is thoughtfully planned and thus everything seems to run pretty smoothly. Don’t get me wrong though, there is still at least one baby crying at any given moment. But it really seems like a very happy place for these innocent babies that have suffered so much misfortune in their short little lives.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
3 February 2010
It surprises me that it has taken me this long to write about the Mosque Man. Down the road from my house by the market we have a local mosque. It is actually quite cool because the imam broadcasts all his calls to prayer over loud speakers so the entire neighborhood can hear it. The problem is that the morning call to pray usually begins at about 4:30am! The stupid loud speaker wakes me up every morning. But that isn’t even the worst part; the prayer usually lasts until about 6:30am. Two whole hours of prayer that doesn’t even make sense to anyone here because it is in Arabic. The prayer also includes what I believe is singing but sounds more like moaning and grunting for about 30 minutes. I hope that everyone understands that I respect all religions and their right to practice, but after the first week of waking up every morning at 4:30 the situation becomes quite frustrating. Thus my housemates and I have started calling the imam “Mosque Man” whenever we discuss our lack of sleep. I suppose giving him a nickname may be a bit rude, but it is quite cathartic. It is better than our other discussions of how to solve the Mosque Man problem, which involve disconnecting the electricity to the mosque so he simply cannot broadcast it in the morning. One morning the power did actually go out during the prayer to my relief, but unfortunately came on again about 20 minutes later so the prayer continued. From what I understood about Islam and their five daily calls to pray, they are each supposed to last less than 10 minutes (but correct me if I am wrong it may be longer), so it makes me wonder how this short process is elongated into a two-hour session. I guess all I can really do is either hope to sleep through it or learn to live with it.
When spending time at the Baby Home simply observing the daily routine between the Mama and the children it is amazing to find how smoothly things actually run. Every minute of the children’s day is scheduled into a neat and repetitive routine, so that the staff know exactly what they are supposed to be doing. On a good day it doesn’t even seem like the volunteers are needed because the Baby Home makes sure to employ enough staff to complete all the necessary tasks, therefore volunteers are simply extra helpers. We seem to be more a form of entertainment and distraction than required help. Being at an orphanage that runs so well and has so much help sometimes makes me wonder if I am actually more needed somewhere else. Yesterday I was reminded why we are needed here. I was discussing the youngest babies, a set of twin Shalom and Charles, with Amy, who is the director of the Baby Home. Shalom (girl) and Charles are 3 months old now, but came to the Baby Home at 1 month. The twins’ family went to Social Welfare out of concern for the children because the mother had left home, leaving the babies with their old grandparents. The family is incredibly poor and was unable to buy proper baby food, so they had been feeding the babies whatever they had around at the time, mostly tea with a few odd bits of fish and potatoes! As you can imagine the babies were not doing well on such a diet. The grandparents were sent to the Baby Home, but Amy said she could not take any more babies because we already had 53 (which was 3 over their legal limit of 50). She went to the home with the family, bringing milk, bottles, and tablets to sanitize believing that she could simply teach the grandparents how to care for the twins properly. Upon seeing the home and the twins Amy realized that she had no choice, the babies would die if they did not come to the Baby Home. The house was filthy having no sanitation or running water, there wasn’t even a place clean enough to make a sterile bottle. The twins were in an even worse condition, at a month old each weighted about 2lbs (from what I heard they were a heartbreaking sight). Amy decided to take the babies home with her limit or not because they were not going to survive there much longer. Now they are doing much better. Shalom is quite a bit bigger than her brother, Charles, but they are both over 9lbs. Unfortunately the situation is still quite difficult with the family because the agreement with the family when the twins arrived was that they should go home when they reach 7lbs because we were at capacity. This issue of going home needs to be addressed within the next week, either the grandparents can take them home and try to care for the twins or they can relinquish their rights and make them available for adoption. Either way I hope they continue to be happy and health because they are truly beautiful and sweet babies, but I would rather they don’t leave the Baby Home. Every time I am on the early morning shift I sneak away into the Tiny Babies House for 9:30am so that I can give Shalom her bottle. I love feeding her because it gives me a break from the noise and chaos of the older children, and she always falls asleep in my arms right at the end of her bottle.
Hearing a story like Shalom and Charles reminds me how important it is to have a place like the Baby Home. There is one other orphanage in the area that accepts young babies, since the Baby Home was opened about 3 years ago they had not received any new babies. Now that we are at capacity they have started receiving babies again, and unfortunately are not doing very well. They have had 7 babies die in the last three months, and their justification is that they are too small (2lbs). But as seen with Shalom and Charles just because they are 2lbs doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to die. They need the proper love and care, and this is what the Baby Home provides. The volunteers make it possible because provide all of the funding with our rent and fundraisers. Amy also explained to me why she decided to open a Baby Home in Mwanza. A few years ago (before the Baby Home was opened) when a new baby’s mother died or couldn’t care for the child they simply lived at the hospital until they are 2 or 3 years old when they were old enough to go to an orphanage. The problem is that the hospital does not have any system at all. They children are often just forgot about. They stay in the nurses’ station or linen closet and get spare bits of food or milk whenever there is some. If they are really lucky when a new mother is in the hospital nursing her own baby she will also feed some of the other babies that are just lying around. It boggles my mind that it is possible to just put a child aside like that, but it happens all the time here. The Baby Home is a necessity for these children to survive, and as a volunteer I am helping make that possible. I guess because I see the effects of the Home on daily basis (50 happy and healthy kids) it is easy to forget what it would be like without it. To remind myself how we have helped these kids I simply look at the arrival pictures. It’s hard to believe that some of the fattest kids at the orphanage (Musa and Adamu) were so skinny when they arrived. I guess I am needed here.
When spending time at the Baby Home simply observing the daily routine between the Mama and the children it is amazing to find how smoothly things actually run. Every minute of the children’s day is scheduled into a neat and repetitive routine, so that the staff know exactly what they are supposed to be doing. On a good day it doesn’t even seem like the volunteers are needed because the Baby Home makes sure to employ enough staff to complete all the necessary tasks, therefore volunteers are simply extra helpers. We seem to be more a form of entertainment and distraction than required help. Being at an orphanage that runs so well and has so much help sometimes makes me wonder if I am actually more needed somewhere else. Yesterday I was reminded why we are needed here. I was discussing the youngest babies, a set of twin Shalom and Charles, with Amy, who is the director of the Baby Home. Shalom (girl) and Charles are 3 months old now, but came to the Baby Home at 1 month. The twins’ family went to Social Welfare out of concern for the children because the mother had left home, leaving the babies with their old grandparents. The family is incredibly poor and was unable to buy proper baby food, so they had been feeding the babies whatever they had around at the time, mostly tea with a few odd bits of fish and potatoes! As you can imagine the babies were not doing well on such a diet. The grandparents were sent to the Baby Home, but Amy said she could not take any more babies because we already had 53 (which was 3 over their legal limit of 50). She went to the home with the family, bringing milk, bottles, and tablets to sanitize believing that she could simply teach the grandparents how to care for the twins properly. Upon seeing the home and the twins Amy realized that she had no choice, the babies would die if they did not come to the Baby Home. The house was filthy having no sanitation or running water, there wasn’t even a place clean enough to make a sterile bottle. The twins were in an even worse condition, at a month old each weighted about 2lbs (from what I heard they were a heartbreaking sight). Amy decided to take the babies home with her limit or not because they were not going to survive there much longer. Now they are doing much better. Shalom is quite a bit bigger than her brother, Charles, but they are both over 9lbs. Unfortunately the situation is still quite difficult with the family because the agreement with the family when the twins arrived was that they should go home when they reach 7lbs because we were at capacity. This issue of going home needs to be addressed within the next week, either the grandparents can take them home and try to care for the twins or they can relinquish their rights and make them available for adoption. Either way I hope they continue to be happy and health because they are truly beautiful and sweet babies, but I would rather they don’t leave the Baby Home. Every time I am on the early morning shift I sneak away into the Tiny Babies House for 9:30am so that I can give Shalom her bottle. I love feeding her because it gives me a break from the noise and chaos of the older children, and she always falls asleep in my arms right at the end of her bottle.
Hearing a story like Shalom and Charles reminds me how important it is to have a place like the Baby Home. There is one other orphanage in the area that accepts young babies, since the Baby Home was opened about 3 years ago they had not received any new babies. Now that we are at capacity they have started receiving babies again, and unfortunately are not doing very well. They have had 7 babies die in the last three months, and their justification is that they are too small (2lbs). But as seen with Shalom and Charles just because they are 2lbs doesn’t mean they are necessarily going to die. They need the proper love and care, and this is what the Baby Home provides. The volunteers make it possible because provide all of the funding with our rent and fundraisers. Amy also explained to me why she decided to open a Baby Home in Mwanza. A few years ago (before the Baby Home was opened) when a new baby’s mother died or couldn’t care for the child they simply lived at the hospital until they are 2 or 3 years old when they were old enough to go to an orphanage. The problem is that the hospital does not have any system at all. They children are often just forgot about. They stay in the nurses’ station or linen closet and get spare bits of food or milk whenever there is some. If they are really lucky when a new mother is in the hospital nursing her own baby she will also feed some of the other babies that are just lying around. It boggles my mind that it is possible to just put a child aside like that, but it happens all the time here. The Baby Home is a necessity for these children to survive, and as a volunteer I am helping make that possible. I guess because I see the effects of the Home on daily basis (50 happy and healthy kids) it is easy to forget what it would be like without it. To remind myself how we have helped these kids I simply look at the arrival pictures. It’s hard to believe that some of the fattest kids at the orphanage (Musa and Adamu) were so skinny when they arrived. I guess I am needed here.
Monday, January 25, 2010
25 January 2010
If you have ever experienced riding on a dalla-dalla you should know that it is the best form of transportation ever. A dalla-dalla is technically a “mini-bus” (although it is actually the size of a van), which is the local form of public transportation. Dalla-dallas are all over the place, covering every main road (any road that is paved). Every ride is 250 Tanzanian shillings (Tsh), which is about $0.19 no matter how long or far you ride. Honestly, I love the dalla-dallas because I can get to town and back for less than 40 cents. On every dalla-dalla there are two crewmembers—the driver and the money collector (who jingles a handful of change in your face when he wants you to pay). Because every person pays the same amount of money to ride, the crewmembers want to fit as many people in the dalla-dalla as possible for every trip down the route. A dalla-dalla is built to seat 18 people on average. When there are only 18 or so people the ride is quite comfortable. The issues arise when there are 30 people crushed onto the dalla-dalla, and for some brilliant reason the money collector thinks that he can fit two more. The good thing is that there are rails around the inside roof of the dalla-dalla (hopefully) that way when you have to stand you have something to hold onto. Along with fitting as many people as possible on them, the dalla-dallas also race with each other to get to the waiting passengers up ahead. Speed is not only good to get to the people ahead first; it also means that they can complete more trips along the route, which inevitable means more passengers. In these races the dalla-dallas pass each other constantly, which would be fine if it wasn’t in busy two-way town traffic, and try to find shortcuts in the little turn offs so they can cut the others off. If that isn’t enough when more than one dalla-dalla is at a stop the money collectors are fighting for passengers pushing people toward the dalla-dalla where you want to ride or not. The government has actually built speed bumps into the road about every quarter to half-mile attempting to get the dalla-dallas to slow down. It was a good try on the government’s part, but now the question is how fast can the driver get the dalla-dalla to go in between the speed bumps while still being able to slow to a crawl in time to meet the next one. As you can imagine, riding on a dalla-dalla is quite an experience. It actually isn’t as bad as it sounds, and is a lot of fun because you meet so many people. Tanzanians are extremely friendly so even on a 15 minute dalla-dalla ride I can find tons of things about the person sitting next to me, like his schooling, family, interests, and career aspirations (his name is Frank).
There are not very many things that make me sad when I spend time at the Baby Home (which is a bit surprising). I probably feel basically every other strong emotion in the course of the day—happiness, frustration, and anger—but not sadness. The kids are all happy, health, and loved, so what more is there to ask for? So far I have only been sad for the kids twice, both of which happened this week. On Thursday I was doing a shift in the Tiny Baby house from 6:30-10am. I really like working with the Tiny Babies because all I have to do is sit and give them bottles (the kids range from about 3-6 months in age). During my shift 4 of the Tiny Babies started to wean off of their bottles for the first time. This means that I got to feed two babies (Anna and Wakuru) their first bowl of porridge. It was a ton of fun because they had no idea what to do with the food or the spoon so it kind of just dribbled down their cubby chins, which was hilarious. You are probably asking what is sad about that. As I was feeding them I realized how big of a deal this would be if they were still with their families or some place in the Western world. The family would be overjoyed, taking pictures and putting it all into the baby book. Honestly, we do our best to give them that at the Baby Home, but it is so difficult when you are caring for 50 children. Luckily we do put together “Life Books” for when the kids go home or transfer to a different orphanage. These contain a small biography of how the child came to the Baby Home and a dozen photos from over the years at the Baby Home. But feeding Anna and Wakuru their first bites it made me so sad that they didn’t have their family there to share the moment. The other moment of sadness was just a few days earlier, when a set of twins (Noah and Moses) came to live at the Baby Home. From what I have heard the boys, who are a year and a half old, are now orphans after their mother died a week or so before because of AIDS. The family does not know who the father is, and the grandmother is over 80 years old and unable to care for such young children. It is truly sad that these boys lost their mother, but what struck me is the state that they are in both physically and mentally. Noah is incredibly skinny; I don’t know how his neck and hold up his head because it is so tiny. He back is all skin and bones and hunches over all the time. Both of the boys are so quiet, sad, and scared. They barely walk even though we know they both can. Amy (the director of the Baby Home) says it will only take 6 weeks for the boys to fatten up and probably about two weeks for them to cheer up and become comfortable at the Home. I am looking forward to being able to watch these changes happen.
On a bit of a brighter note, as well as receiving two new kids this week two have also gone home. Today, Mayega went home with his family after being at the Baby Home for two years, and a few days ago Joyce went home with her family as well. It is definitely a bitter sweet moment, and it is incredible how well I have come to know them in only a few weeks. Joyce was one of my favorites because she was so loud and would yell “wewe” (pronounced way-way) all the way across the garden whenever she sees someone coming to announce it to the rest of the world (wewe basically means hey you). Mayega on the other hand is quite quiet, even though he is a bit of a bully when he thinks you aren’t looking. Whenever he is upset he walks over to me with his thumb in his mouth and looks up at me with terribly sad eyes, which of course makes me melt, and wraps his other arm around my leg and will not let go for anything. I will miss both of them very much, but it also makes me so happy that they are going home to be with their families, which is the way it should be.
There are not very many things that make me sad when I spend time at the Baby Home (which is a bit surprising). I probably feel basically every other strong emotion in the course of the day—happiness, frustration, and anger—but not sadness. The kids are all happy, health, and loved, so what more is there to ask for? So far I have only been sad for the kids twice, both of which happened this week. On Thursday I was doing a shift in the Tiny Baby house from 6:30-10am. I really like working with the Tiny Babies because all I have to do is sit and give them bottles (the kids range from about 3-6 months in age). During my shift 4 of the Tiny Babies started to wean off of their bottles for the first time. This means that I got to feed two babies (Anna and Wakuru) their first bowl of porridge. It was a ton of fun because they had no idea what to do with the food or the spoon so it kind of just dribbled down their cubby chins, which was hilarious. You are probably asking what is sad about that. As I was feeding them I realized how big of a deal this would be if they were still with their families or some place in the Western world. The family would be overjoyed, taking pictures and putting it all into the baby book. Honestly, we do our best to give them that at the Baby Home, but it is so difficult when you are caring for 50 children. Luckily we do put together “Life Books” for when the kids go home or transfer to a different orphanage. These contain a small biography of how the child came to the Baby Home and a dozen photos from over the years at the Baby Home. But feeding Anna and Wakuru their first bites it made me so sad that they didn’t have their family there to share the moment. The other moment of sadness was just a few days earlier, when a set of twins (Noah and Moses) came to live at the Baby Home. From what I have heard the boys, who are a year and a half old, are now orphans after their mother died a week or so before because of AIDS. The family does not know who the father is, and the grandmother is over 80 years old and unable to care for such young children. It is truly sad that these boys lost their mother, but what struck me is the state that they are in both physically and mentally. Noah is incredibly skinny; I don’t know how his neck and hold up his head because it is so tiny. He back is all skin and bones and hunches over all the time. Both of the boys are so quiet, sad, and scared. They barely walk even though we know they both can. Amy (the director of the Baby Home) says it will only take 6 weeks for the boys to fatten up and probably about two weeks for them to cheer up and become comfortable at the Home. I am looking forward to being able to watch these changes happen.
On a bit of a brighter note, as well as receiving two new kids this week two have also gone home. Today, Mayega went home with his family after being at the Baby Home for two years, and a few days ago Joyce went home with her family as well. It is definitely a bitter sweet moment, and it is incredible how well I have come to know them in only a few weeks. Joyce was one of my favorites because she was so loud and would yell “wewe” (pronounced way-way) all the way across the garden whenever she sees someone coming to announce it to the rest of the world (wewe basically means hey you). Mayega on the other hand is quite quiet, even though he is a bit of a bully when he thinks you aren’t looking. Whenever he is upset he walks over to me with his thumb in his mouth and looks up at me with terribly sad eyes, which of course makes me melt, and wraps his other arm around my leg and will not let go for anything. I will miss both of them very much, but it also makes me so happy that they are going home to be with their families, which is the way it should be.
Monday, January 18, 2010
17 January 2010
I am starting to get into the routine at the Baby Home. I know the schedule and what I am supposed to be doing at the different times of the day. I also know the names of all of the kids (minus the tiny babies because I don’t see them often). My favorite time of the day starts at about 4:30pm when I help feed the Big Babies (7-14 month olds). After dinner the mamas change and wash the Big Babies, and I dress them in their pajamas and play with them until I am need to help entertain the Big and Little Toddlers. The rest of the evening is spent dressing and playing with the Toddlers until story time at 6:45pm. I am usually out the door of the Baby Home by 7pm to go home and make my dinner. The end of the day is so great for a few very simple reasons. 1) Everyone is clean and smelling good. 2) All the kids are tired from the day so less likely to climb all over me. 3) The mamas always put a movie on at 6:15 during which a few kids cuddle up on my lap and give me kisses.
I am also finding myself a lot more confident with the children already, especially the special needs children that I didn’t really go near for the first couple of days. Last night I feed Katy for the first time. Katy has cerebral palsy. She cannot sit up on her own even though she is somewhere between 3 and 4 years old (I think but I’m not sure). She keeps her limps very stiff and straight and basically just flails around on the floor all day. We are not sure how much she can actually she because she does not focus on anything. I have been terrified of feeding her because she slides down in her chair and needs to be repositioned quite often. She also flails around when she eats and gets the food everywhere. You have to be careful that she keeps her head tilted properly, or else she can choke on her food. Needless to say I was a bit worried that I would do something wrong. But yesterday I finally did it, and it actually went quite well. A lot of the mamas and volunteers don’t like feeding Katy because it take between 45-60 minutes to feed them one bowl, but I don’t really mind it. Just like Katy, I enjoy eating slow (I believe food should be enjoyed not swallowed whole), so I don’t mind that she takes her time. Plus, feeding Katy means that I get out of playing with the Big Babies after dinner but before they are bathed (so they are covered in food as well as the grime of the day).
Lynn and I went to the Saba Saba Market for the first time today. It is a Sunday market that basically sells thrift cloths and little pieces of junk. I will admit that after about an hour in the market both of us had had enough. We were the only Muzungu (white people) there, so we were getting an insane amount of attention. A teenage boy came up to me, and said his friend really needed to talk to me. So another teenager came up to me and kept saying “I luf you, I luf you so much.” At first I didn’t understand what was going on, but once he repeated himself a few time I realize I had a suitor. All I could say was “You don’t know me” and “Hapana” (no) and “Kwa nini” (why). It’s the type of situation that I have found I just have to walk away from because the boys here are very persistent. I would have guessed that being such a hot commodity would be nice and fun, but it actually isn’t. I can’t even walk between my house and the Baby Home (about two blocks) without getting asked for my number or proposed to. The funny part of it is that give me your number is one of the few English sentences that these men know. The only other things they can say is hi how are you and I’m fine.
Now I am off to take a cold shower because I am sunburned to a crisp from the market.
I have put some pictures up on facebook because it takes so long to put pictures on Blogger. The address is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=192183&id=505738097&l=cc26eb1efc I hope you enjoy.
I am also finding myself a lot more confident with the children already, especially the special needs children that I didn’t really go near for the first couple of days. Last night I feed Katy for the first time. Katy has cerebral palsy. She cannot sit up on her own even though she is somewhere between 3 and 4 years old (I think but I’m not sure). She keeps her limps very stiff and straight and basically just flails around on the floor all day. We are not sure how much she can actually she because she does not focus on anything. I have been terrified of feeding her because she slides down in her chair and needs to be repositioned quite often. She also flails around when she eats and gets the food everywhere. You have to be careful that she keeps her head tilted properly, or else she can choke on her food. Needless to say I was a bit worried that I would do something wrong. But yesterday I finally did it, and it actually went quite well. A lot of the mamas and volunteers don’t like feeding Katy because it take between 45-60 minutes to feed them one bowl, but I don’t really mind it. Just like Katy, I enjoy eating slow (I believe food should be enjoyed not swallowed whole), so I don’t mind that she takes her time. Plus, feeding Katy means that I get out of playing with the Big Babies after dinner but before they are bathed (so they are covered in food as well as the grime of the day).
Lynn and I went to the Saba Saba Market for the first time today. It is a Sunday market that basically sells thrift cloths and little pieces of junk. I will admit that after about an hour in the market both of us had had enough. We were the only Muzungu (white people) there, so we were getting an insane amount of attention. A teenage boy came up to me, and said his friend really needed to talk to me. So another teenager came up to me and kept saying “I luf you, I luf you so much.” At first I didn’t understand what was going on, but once he repeated himself a few time I realize I had a suitor. All I could say was “You don’t know me” and “Hapana” (no) and “Kwa nini” (why). It’s the type of situation that I have found I just have to walk away from because the boys here are very persistent. I would have guessed that being such a hot commodity would be nice and fun, but it actually isn’t. I can’t even walk between my house and the Baby Home (about two blocks) without getting asked for my number or proposed to. The funny part of it is that give me your number is one of the few English sentences that these men know. The only other things they can say is hi how are you and I’m fine.
Now I am off to take a cold shower because I am sunburned to a crisp from the market.
I have put some pictures up on facebook because it takes so long to put pictures on Blogger. The address is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=192183&id=505738097&l=cc26eb1efc I hope you enjoy.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
3 January 2010
I have arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania at Forever Angels Baby Home. I have settled into the volunteer house, which is only a 3-minute walk from the Home. I have 7 housemates and they are all amazing.
Today was my first official shift at the Baby Home. I worked from 11am until a bit after 6, and I will admit I don’t think I have ever smelled worse. We all know that babies make stinky smells, but generally babies are seen as soft, and smelling of baby powder. I am sad to tell you that this assumption is very far from the truth… babies only smell good for maybe the first 15-minutes after a bath, then once again they are covered in sand, drooling everywhere, and smelling like poop. I now understand why all the people in my house shower every evening, and not in the mornings like I usually do. The disgusting state that I came home in also put an end to another assumption of mine: that I didn’t need much clothes since I’m in Africa and no one is going to care if I wear things multiple times before they are washed. My skirt and shirt from today are now sitting in the laundry in desperate need of washing covered in sand, drool, snot, sweat, ugali (Tanzania staple carb dish), and sadly poop. I would not touch those clothes again with a ten-foot pole until they are clean again. But don’t get me wrong, I am loving it (well most of it; changing diapers not so much).
I am now a proud Mama for 50 African babies. Mama Emily is what all of the babies call me, which I actually like a lot. The babies say my name quite well, but the other Mamas at the Home have a very hard time pronouncing it. These Mamas seem to be really great women, but the language barrier with most makes it difficult to get to know them. So far our best form of communication is humor, meaning them laughing at me while I am making a terrible fool of myself with one of the babies. For example, today I had a quite difficult experience at afternoon naptime with Rebecca. Just so you know, Rebecca is sick at the moment with a terrible chest cold so that didn’t make things easier. I was putting her to bed with a bottle, but unfortunately the top of the bottle was not on properly so she quickly sucked all the air out of it (but not getting any milk). Thus I attempted to take the bottle to fix it. After fighting over the bottle for a few minutes I finally got it out of her little hands, which was a bad idea. If there isn’t a saying about never taking a bottle from a crying baby, there should be because I have never heard screaming like that before. I fixed the bottle and messed with Rebecca for a while to try to get her to stop crying and take the bottle, meanwhile the Mamas are sitting around laughing at me struggling with Rebecca. In their defense I’m happy they didn’t help because how else am I am going to learn and become confident with the babies. But it was not a fun situation. After that I had to take a short 5-minute break, even though these moments are funny later they are very stressful and unnerving at the time.
By the end of the day all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of my life. This was a very different kind of exhaustion to me, being both mental and physical. I actually didn’t get to bed until 11:30, but for a good reason: MY BIRTHDAY! So my first day of work was my birthday, so all of the ‘muzungu’ (white people) went out after work to dinner at Hotel Tilapila. The dinner and food was amazing, but Tanzanian meals are quite lengthy. There is no such thing as fast food or fast service. I think it probably took us about 30 minutes before we even received our menus. The entire meal lasted about 3 hours, and we were all exhausted and ready for bed by the end of it. But I will admit the food was worth it (especially since I am getting 3 meals out of 1 with all of my leftovers). The Lake Victoria region (where I am) of Tanzania has a very strong Indian influence, so anywhere that we go out to for a ‘nice’ dinner has a primarily Indian menu (which I find quite funny being in Africa).
So I guess that was my view of my first day at the Baby Home. My shift the next day is from 6:30am until 1, lovely.
Today was my first official shift at the Baby Home. I worked from 11am until a bit after 6, and I will admit I don’t think I have ever smelled worse. We all know that babies make stinky smells, but generally babies are seen as soft, and smelling of baby powder. I am sad to tell you that this assumption is very far from the truth… babies only smell good for maybe the first 15-minutes after a bath, then once again they are covered in sand, drooling everywhere, and smelling like poop. I now understand why all the people in my house shower every evening, and not in the mornings like I usually do. The disgusting state that I came home in also put an end to another assumption of mine: that I didn’t need much clothes since I’m in Africa and no one is going to care if I wear things multiple times before they are washed. My skirt and shirt from today are now sitting in the laundry in desperate need of washing covered in sand, drool, snot, sweat, ugali (Tanzania staple carb dish), and sadly poop. I would not touch those clothes again with a ten-foot pole until they are clean again. But don’t get me wrong, I am loving it (well most of it; changing diapers not so much).
I am now a proud Mama for 50 African babies. Mama Emily is what all of the babies call me, which I actually like a lot. The babies say my name quite well, but the other Mamas at the Home have a very hard time pronouncing it. These Mamas seem to be really great women, but the language barrier with most makes it difficult to get to know them. So far our best form of communication is humor, meaning them laughing at me while I am making a terrible fool of myself with one of the babies. For example, today I had a quite difficult experience at afternoon naptime with Rebecca. Just so you know, Rebecca is sick at the moment with a terrible chest cold so that didn’t make things easier. I was putting her to bed with a bottle, but unfortunately the top of the bottle was not on properly so she quickly sucked all the air out of it (but not getting any milk). Thus I attempted to take the bottle to fix it. After fighting over the bottle for a few minutes I finally got it out of her little hands, which was a bad idea. If there isn’t a saying about never taking a bottle from a crying baby, there should be because I have never heard screaming like that before. I fixed the bottle and messed with Rebecca for a while to try to get her to stop crying and take the bottle, meanwhile the Mamas are sitting around laughing at me struggling with Rebecca. In their defense I’m happy they didn’t help because how else am I am going to learn and become confident with the babies. But it was not a fun situation. After that I had to take a short 5-minute break, even though these moments are funny later they are very stressful and unnerving at the time.
By the end of the day all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of my life. This was a very different kind of exhaustion to me, being both mental and physical. I actually didn’t get to bed until 11:30, but for a good reason: MY BIRTHDAY! So my first day of work was my birthday, so all of the ‘muzungu’ (white people) went out after work to dinner at Hotel Tilapila. The dinner and food was amazing, but Tanzanian meals are quite lengthy. There is no such thing as fast food or fast service. I think it probably took us about 30 minutes before we even received our menus. The entire meal lasted about 3 hours, and we were all exhausted and ready for bed by the end of it. But I will admit the food was worth it (especially since I am getting 3 meals out of 1 with all of my leftovers). The Lake Victoria region (where I am) of Tanzania has a very strong Indian influence, so anywhere that we go out to for a ‘nice’ dinner has a primarily Indian menu (which I find quite funny being in Africa).
So I guess that was my view of my first day at the Baby Home. My shift the next day is from 6:30am until 1, lovely.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
