Mbalageti Serengeti Mwanza

<br>I woke on my last morning to the children singing their morning worship. I tried not to think this would be the last time I would wake to this sound, but could not help myself from the obvious thought. Lina crawled out of bed, and I followed quickly changing back into my skirt and T-shirt. I had spent the night earlier in the week and slept with Stellah, who drug me to their morning church service in my pajamas. I felt quite embarrassed even though I reasoned that my fish ...

&#8220;It&#8217;s the last week,&#8221; began running through my head as soon as we returned from Ema&#8217;s village. On one hand, the stress of this trip had made some days extremely long, but on the other hand I felt like I just arrived. Wanting to spend as much time with the children, but also needing to tie up loose ends made for an extremely busy week. <br><br>I was able to raise about four thousand dollars for the orphanage and wanted to spend as much as ...

Last year when I arrived, the well at our house was empty. We paid two young men to bring cartfuls of water from another well and then paid the Maasai to fill the tank on our roof. This year, I arrived to a house with leaking pipes. As it was too wasteful to fill the tank, my new housemates were bringing in buckets of water from the well and filling bins and basins inside the house. During my first week, a plumber came and reportedly fixed the problem; however once we began to fill ...

"Good morning my family," Ema came into the house after he awoke and greeted us with big hugs this morning. A few months ago, I had emailed Leah to see if Ema (one of our Maasai Askari)/ guard) from last year would still be around. I was disappointed when she informed me that he would be back in Ngorongoro Crater. Much to my delight, Ema was still working at the house when I returned. Although twenty-seven and trained as a warrior, he has the most gentle ...

... sense of sanity and an overall feeling of satisfaction. Unfortunately over the last couple of weeks, the children have become more and more disgruntled. Carly was one of the first volunteers at Hands of Mercy and she remembers how Joel and Gloria used to insist the orphans experience their childhood. As older girls have now been assigned to "mother" specific younger children including bathing and washing their clothes, somewhere this philosophy has been pushed to the ...

... of the future is &#8220;that only God knows.&#8221; Although difficult to argue with, I can not accept this as an excuse for inaction. <br><br>During one of multiple stressful and tense meetings between Joel and the volunteers, Monica ( a new volunteer) said we need to work together so there &#8220;is no darkness here&#8221; referring to the orphanage. I realized that for the last few days I feel as if a cloud of ...

... rd. Just *s we were se*rching for * form of entert*inment, Angelo *sked for help to get out of the box. We *ll looked *t e*ch other sign*ling, "Not me." I joked th*t I h*d rubber gloves in my b*g if *nyone w*nted to use them. J*mes volunteered, given protection, to t*ke one for the te*m. Even through the gloves, he swore Angelo felt moist *nd held the toddler *s f*r *w*y from himself *s possible. This st*rted me off in * fit of giggles *nd on the hunt for other *musement. We h*d joked ...

... When she did talk it was not much beyond, "Mimi, Wewe" or after awhile "Me You" and then she would reach her arms up asking to be lifted for a hug. I just assumed she was a quiet child and now feel very foolish for realizing that she probably did not know how to talk. Her mother had basically abandoned the children and perhaps no one encouraged her to speak. In the last year Ceci has gone from Motorboat to Chatterbox. Ceci now talks incessantly and although most of it is in ...

... these tasks. The children had always participated in chores, but six-year-olds now washed their own clothes and stirred boiling pots of food. Gloria spends all day at school completing her secondary education, but this is unlikely to yield any returns in the near future. In addition, she is not around to supervise. Leah summarized the situation as &#8220;the kids are hungry, dirty, and neglected. I am afraid social services is going to ...