Another good week

This was a very busy week.  Monday night, Zoe, Amy's sister arranged a boat ride on Lake Victoria for some children, staff and volunteers.  We left the Baby Home at 5:00 pm and got on the boat in Mwanza at Hotel Talapia.  It was a beautiful evening and the sunset was gorgeous.  The kids behaved so well.  One of the girls left today to go to Zanzibar and then back home to the States.  She was very sweet and positive and didn't complain.  We do have a complainer left and it gets very tiresome indeed.  This one is also very young and I try to be understanding but I did not come here to be a mother to a teenager. 

We went to Amy and Megan to Bugando Hospital to the HIV Clinic with several children for a check up and to do some blood work.  It is always interesting to see what happens there - it is a health system that is very frustrating for those who live here.  The kids were great and we got through quite quickly.  They will remain on medication and overall are doing very well, despite some developmental and speech delays.  Later on Catherine and I went into town again as I had to pay for my airline tickets to and from Zanzibar.  I leave here on the 23 rd of March and go to Dar Es Salaam.  My friend Mary has to go to India for surgery so she arranged for me to stay in her hotel for the night of the 23rd and then I will take the ferry to Zanzibar on the 24th and stay at Sunset Beach Bungalows in Kendwa - it is supposed to be beautiful and my little bungalow faces the sea.  I come back to Dar on the 27th by air and then leave that evening for Canada.  I am looking forward to the last few days just for me - to kind of process things and prepare for a busy and hectic April at home. 

There is a very small school next to the Baby Home and a wonderful man named Ernest is the teacher.  I met him last week on a walk with some kids and told him I would love to give him school supplies that I brought from home - pencils, crayons, markers etc.  He was so thrilled as they have nothing - the school is in an aluminum building that doubles as a church.  I went by to visit this week to give him the items and he was thrilled as were the kids.  I was very happy to be able to do such a small thing.  I will try to visit again before I leave.  I attached a picture of Ernest and the kids - one is his son who is deaf. 

Today, I worked a cover shift with the Tiny Babies from 7 am to 1 pm.  We have a new 2 week old baby girl who arrived this week.  Another very sad story - her mother - obviously suffering from mental health problems or post partum depression, threw the baby into the sewer.  She is now in jail and the baby is with Forever Angels as the father can't look after the baby for now.  She is very tiny but feeding well.  After my shift, we took three children into town to visit Kuliana's Street Kids Project - they have 40 something boys - the youngest is age 6 who live there and go to school.  There are many kids on the street and life is violent and horrible as you can imagine.  At the project, they are safe and able to go to school.  Currently there are some wonderful volunteers from the UK who are teaching them.  They came last Sunday to visit the Baby Home and are so sweet with the kids.  Today, they painted with the three kids we brought.

I thought about what I will miss and it is definitely the constant visuals and colour that you see all the time - just normal everyday life - so very different from Canada - just walking in the village to and from the Baby Home is always an experience.  I think my drive from Aurora to Oak Ridges is going to be very boring in comparison.  I love it here but think I am ready to come home.  I would love to come back in two years - we will see...................I will miss the kids for sure - I just love them and all their little individual personalities - just when you get to know them and they you - you have to leave...............