Day Two

Today started out great. I woke up on the right side of the bed with over 8 hours of sleep. Thank goodness for Tylenol pm. 

The first thing we did on Saturday was visit the Ushirika wa Neema Deaconess Center in Moshi. The Deaconess Center is absolutely amazing. The sisters run EVERYTHING. They grow tons of fruits and vegetables and also have cows, pigs, and goats. They are completely self-sustaining. At the Deaconess center there is a Montessori school for children. This is where special needs kids can go to learn and play with their hands. Here, they actually learn stuff they can do, while still learning skills. 

Next, we went to the Neema Orphanage Center. This is the place I will be staying at later this month into July. I have never had a more life-changing experience. The way I connected with some kids is unexplainable. All of the children there are very young, the youngest being 4-5 months old. I got to hold almost all of the babies!! The really small babies stay in the baby house. The older children and toddlers were outside playing the whole time. I got to play soccer, volleyball, and cars with the kids. My favorite part of the whole day was seeing my dad blow up one of the soccer balls he brought and gave it to this one solemn girl, Esther. Although, the face she put on when she was handed the ball blew me away. She was instantly beaming and just in total shock that an American would come to visit HER and bring HER a new soccer ball. I took one look at my dad and immediately started crying. He was so moved by Esther too. It was crazy to me how such a little thing (that maybe costs $10) can change someone's life. 

This one little dude, Kelvin, wouldn't let me do anything without him. I was sitting on the ground with him on my lap and playing with him for a good 30 minutes. When I had to get up for lunch with the sisters, my pants were soaking wet. I guess Kelvin had gotten too excited and peed on my lap. That was fun. 

It was really hard leaving the orphanage and all of the smiling, adorable children. The good news is I'll be back soon. 

We then went to Machame Hospital where our friend Bob Kasworm works. Bob is an inspiring guy who is originally from Nebreska, but has lived in Tanzania ever since 2004. He left his wife and kids to come here and stay. They do get to visit him, and he goes back home, but I could never imagine. 

The hospital is very impressive, but very different from our own. It is not sterile. It does not have nice, one-room hospital beds. It does not charge a ridiculous amount. It does not have many computers. It does not have many medical personnel. It was weird for me to see this hospital in comparison to Paoli hospital (the local hospital at home) since I worked in Paoli this year. 

I was shocked to learn that a childbirth costs around $7 US dollars. And a hip replacement would be "expensive" and be $90. We got to visit with some patients, mostly new mothers, and look at the workings of the hospital. Although I really like Bob and the nurses and doctors, I would NEVER want to be hurt here in anyway. At all. Ever. 

After that, we went with Bob to see "Houses for Health". These Houses are small places that they build and give to families who are in desperate need of shelter. Bob explained that they can only do so much for people at the hospital, and living conditions of some families make it difficult to stay healthy. We visited with one of the families and they were so thankful. The houses only cost $4000. 

That night we had dinner at a little pizza place. Rae and I had to brave going to the bathroom in a choo (a hole in the ground). Of course this was the one day I didn't wear a skirt...it was bad. Besides, I think we all had too much Tusker.