Cradle of Love, MWEDO School for Girls, and the Future Stars Academy

I feel like I haven’t posted anything in forever, but really it’s only been a week.  A week here feels like a month, so although I feel like I have been here for four months, it has only actually been four weeks.  That also means I’m almost halfway through with my time here, and I am incredibly sad about that because it has taken four weeks, but I am absolutely in love with Tanzania and two months here will not be nearly enough time to spend here.  I will just have to choose to live in denial and pretend I am never leaving, thus making my time here much more enjoyable.

I had to do a lot of mind-shifting this past week about what it is I’m doing here.  Before I came here, I had a really strong, clear sense of what I thought I would do here, but once I got here, my mentality shifted.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but instead of remembering the initial reasons I came, I got a little too caught up in how much I could do here for myself, and basically planned a weekend trip to as many other countries as I could get to (Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, maybe even Zambia…) which would have all been amazing places to go.  In fact, next weekend I was supposed to be going to Rwanda, but then found out I can’t go because my passport is in Dar es Salaam (where the embassy is trying to get resident VISAS or something like that), and I won’t get it back in time to go.  At first I was totally bummed about all the trips I was going to miss out on, but then something really great actually happened.  I basically got over it, remembered why I had come here in the first place, and realized that instead of leaving every weekend to go somewhere cool, I can stay in Tanzania and soak up as much as I can in my (overly) short time here.  It has been a huge relief, and now, instead of stressing out about going as many places as I can in short periods of time (including booking plane tickets, bus tickets, getting more VISAS to go abroad), I have a better, renewed sense of vigor about why I initially came here.  (This comes from the certainty I feel that I will make it back here one day, and whenever that is, I can make sure I get to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and all the other places I am “missing out on” on this trip.) 

That said, I can get my head out of my ass and catch you up on the awesome stuff I have been up to this past week.  There were three main things going on, which will be continuing throughout my time here (aside from fort building and impromptu hip hop parties we have been having around the house, which do happen).  These things would be volunteering at an orphanage, Cradle of Love; volunteering at a Maasai School for Girls; and working for the Future Stars Academy.  

Cradle of Love:  This is the orphanage we have been volunteering at for a day or two every week.  It is an orphanage for young children and babies, so the oldest kids there are four years old.  The kids are really sweet, and really just want to be held and get a lot of attention from you.  As is the case with kids, you usually get one or two particularly funny stories, and my first time visiting CoL was no exception.  We took the kids outside to the garden area where the older kids played in a blow up pool.  Most of the smaller children didn’t like the water, so they just hung out in the grass with us.  I had two little guys on my lap, and they were clingy little guys and I was sitting cross-legged but really needed to stretch my legs, so I pulled them off for a second and just laid down on my back and had them each sitting on either of my legs.  [Side note that is relevant to the story: a lot of the kids who didn’t end up going in the pool took their bathing suits off and ran around naked.] One little guy, Marky, was standing near me naked watching the other kids in the pool at this time.  Well, as soon as I lay down on my back, I guess Marky took a few steps closer, but I couldn’t really see.  Next thing I know, everyone is laughing (there were about 5 other people from my house who went to CoL as well) and I feel the unmistakable feeling of a child peeing on me.  I happened to be wearing khaki pants, and he got both the left and right legs.  He must have just had some juice, because Marky really unloaded on me.  Obviously, thanks to Dieter and Declan, I can’t say this was the first time I’ve been peed on, but it was the first time I had to sit and endure it because I couldn’t jump up and fling the two little guys who were sitting on my legs off of me, because that would probably scare them.  So, I got really peed on.  Luckily I got one of the boys in the pool to hose off my pants, and I went on my way.  The rest of the day was a lot of fun; I played with a few kids that I ended up really liking, read a few books (including The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, a classic).  We stayed long enough to help out with dinner, which was somewhat organized (which was impressive because there were kids running around everywhere).  The little, little kids just get held and fed, so I fed a little girl.  She was a real trooper, because they get some pretty big portions (which is a good thing) of their dinner (which was a porridge, corn-meal kind of thing) and she got pretty tired and full about ¾ of the way through.  Each bite after that was a struggle, and she might have even fallen asleep halfway through, but she eventually ate all of her dinner and we left after.  It feels good going there; I think you have to go into it and immediately overlook the fact that they are all orphans and just think of it as a bunch of kids at daycare, otherwise it might make me a little too sad or depressed, but it was a pretty fulfilling day and I’m certain I will be doing it again this week.  We didn’t take any pictures, because we weren’t sure what the protocol was regarding taking pictures of the children, but it looks like it’s okay (there were other volunteers there taking pictures), and the kids love playing with the cameras, so next time I go I will be sure to snap a few photos (and will be hoping to have dry pants for the pictures).  

MWEDO Maasai Girls School: On Thursday, we had what was probably my favorite day of the week.  We went to go visit this school because we want to volunteer there throughout the semester (even though I will only be here for another month) and wanted a proper introduction to the school, the staff, and the students.  It was a really fantastic experience.  First, we met Esther, the head teacher of the school and the faculty.  They had a little tea and breakfast for us, and we spread out and sat around the room talking to the various teachers that work at the school and got to hear about their classes, their teaching experience, and what they thought of the education system overall in Tanzania (which I will probably comment on later when I get a better understanding of it).  After that, we got a tour of the facility, which was pretty nice.  It is actually in the process of getting more developed, and in the next year they will have a two-story building (their first) that will be the teacher offices, resource rooms, and a computer lab (something they currently don’t’ have).  There are dorms at the school, as many of the girls live at the facility (others take busses in from other villages nearby).  We visited three classrooms, Form 1, Form 2, and Form 3.  (Form 1 is the first years, but this is a secondary school, so the first year at secondary school is mostly girls around 13 or 14 years old).  There were five people from my house who went; Molly, Sarah, Esther, Carolyn, and myself.  We introduced ourselves in each classroom, and each time after we introduced ourselves the teacher asked the girls which names they remembered.  They seemed to always remember Esther (which is a really popular name over here) and Jessica, although they laughed at the way I say Jessica, because here they spell it Jesca.  Each of us actually found at least one namesake in the school (although they spell differently; I believe Molly is Mali here), except for Carolyn.  We just don’t come across any Carolyns here.  We let the girls ask us questions, and most of them were generic and asked which states we were from (which led to me drawing what I think was an outstanding map of the US…) and asked about the whether, what kind of food we eat, and general stuff like that.  Except for one girl, who decided to ask me if people in America believe in God or evolution?  I wasn’t prepared for that question, and due to my answer, she may spend the rest of her life questioning some of the things I told her.  Who knows?  Not to pick favorites, but our favorite class that we visited was the Form 1 class, because they asked us the most questions and we had a really good time in there.  So good, in fact, that we got to take all the girls in that class outside for an impromptu multi-cultural experience, where they sang and danced for us, and then wanted us to sing and dance for them (which we did, and there is a video of us trying to sing Sweet Caroline to the girls, which they thoroughly enjoyed).  We ran around outside with the girls, played games, and ended up staying for lunch and eating lunch with the girls in the cafeteria.  The girls at the school are fantastic – they are funny, smart, and really ager to talk to us, sit near us, take pictures with us, and be around us.  We took tons of pictures, which we are planning on printing out and bringing back up to the school when we go next time.  Our subsequent visits are going to be slightly more productive, and we are going to help teach some classes, but Molly and I want to make sure we get some recess time and are thinking about planning a mini-track and field, or games, day, so hopefully that happens.  (Also, I didn’t take most of the good pictures, so once I get them from the other girls who went, I will post them.)  

 Esther and me on the way to the school

Molly and Sarah...back of the bus! 

Jessica and Jesca :-) 

Molly and Mali (finding our namesakes) 

Future Stars Academy: This is the non-profit soccer league I have been coaching for and also interning for.  This weekend was a big weekend for us, as it was the kickoff weekend and the start of games.  Something extra cool happened, and the head coach of the Tanzanian national team, Jan Poulsen (who is from Denmark), came for the weekend to show his support of Future Stars.  On Friday, Maka and I went to the TGT field, where the adult team had a friendly match for Jan to come watch.  The TGT field is a fantastic facility (including an amazing view of the sunset), and after the game we had a screen and did a little presentation, talking about FSA, the kids, and how the organization plans to move forward (and what it needs to move forward, which obviously is funding).  I made a slideshow that was shown (I will include some of the pictures from the slideshow on here), and we passed out fliers trying to generate support.  The facility was more like a country club, and it was filled with a whole bunch of European ex-pats, with an extra large Dutch community (isn’t that veird?!).  It was pretty cool to meet some new people, mingle with some adults, and meet the national coach.  However, Saturday was a much better day, because Jan came to the season opener, and that day our girls got to play their first game.  Not that winning is the most important thing, but they happened to win 8-0, which gave them a great morale boost and their spirits were pretty high.  However, the fact that they won was obviously not the most important thing; to me, the best thing about the game was the support they got from the entire league.  They got to play their game on the big field, and the boys’ teams filled the bleachers and cheered wildly for the girls team the entire game.  It was really supportive, and given many attitudes that people have about girls’ sports, I was very impressed with the support the girls got that day.  Maka and I really love our team; the girls are great, and now that I know all of their names and they know me a little better, we have a great rapport and a good sense of camaraderie on the team.  After the game, we sat with our girls’ team and some of the younger boys’ teams and watched the older boys team play.  Everyone was in a great mood, we were cheering and dancing and taking pictures and videos, and Maka and I got to talk to the national coach for a while, which was pretty nice.  I am really excited for the rest of the season, and the opener set a great precedent for things to come. 

Men's friendly on the TGT field 

Jan and Alfred, who is my boss and the founder of FSA 

 There were awesome sunset pictures, and I probably could have put up 10

FSA girls getting amped up for the game! 

The team's cheer before the game

Love this video: the team and the boys celebrating a goal! 

Maka and I after the game!

 Hanging out after the game! 



I feel like this has been a lot of information.  Hopefully I won’t have to write this long again in the next post; just figure that everything I did this past week, I will be doing again next week, with maybe a few new things thrown in. There is actually a mini-safari planned for next Saturday, a quick overnight to Lake Manyara and Ngorororo Crater (which is supposed to be pretty spectacular), so that will be replacing my Rwanda remorse.

Have a good week everyone, I will leave you with a video of my first rainstorm in Tanzania :-)