Do Good, Feel Good - 25/07

Today I wasn't feeling 100%. You'd think after last year's experience with germy volunteers I'd have learned my lesson and carried some cold medicine. Alas, I didn't.  So after spending the weekend in a safari truck with someone who covered their cough only 70% of the time, and 80% of THAT coverage was done with the inside of her hand, I was bound to be affected by the cold that is going around the group.  Gross. I've been taking cod liver oil capsules and airborne in attempts to prevent illness and I like to think they've been pretty effective.
Last night I had a slight headache and sore throat.  I took some Tylenol and a Strepsil before bed.  This morning I felt like my health was fading a bit but I knew if I could make it through the morning I could pick up medicine during our afternoon town trip.
Today was my first day with the 4 year olds.  Our morning started with assembly outside next to the play yard. The children were too cute singing the national anthem!  They practised 'attention' and 'at ease' and sang more songs. The teachers checked their uniforms and general cleanliness before dismissing them to class. 
Today the 4 year olds reviewed their numbers to 100, alphabet song, long O sound and basic addition facts.  Their snack break is a little later because of the staggered times as the dining room is shared. It works out that my tea time is closer to their snack time. With our tea today we had samosas and a deep fried hard boiled egg... I tried my best to eat it but I am no fan of boiled egg!  At least I tried.
The children copied down a few addition sums and some consonant-longO combinations in their copybooks. By the time they had all finished that it was almost their lunch time and time for me to head back to Home Base. 
After lunch I took a quick nap during siesta time.  I still wasn't feeling great but I didn't want to miss our scheduled visit to a local orphanage. After a few reminders not to come back home {Bermuda} with a baby, I headed out ready to pick up some supplies for the orphanage as well as something to fight this sore throat before it gets any worse.
I filled up a shopping cart with things I thought would be helpful, practical and fun.  Joseph accompanied me and Teddy helped to provide some suggestions.
I also grabbed some fruit juices, Strepsils and all natural medicine for me.
Once my groceries were all boxed we headed out to the van and Papa John helped put the box in his van. 
It was a bit of a drive out to the orphanage so I got some rest on the way.  When we arrived I instantly felt welcome.  The children came out to meet us and took the donations inside to a table.  Then they sang a few songs for us.  It was beautiful.  Nixon, one of our local volunteers, (not to be confused with the safari driver) translated the story of the orphanage as given by the Mama.
The orphanage began when they found a little boy sleeping in the sewer drains. They had a small wooden house but they took him home.  It wasn't long before they had more children.  The husband is a guide at Mount Kilimanjaro and one day he must have told a tourist about their children.  In 2006 they received a donation from that tourist to start building a bigger home and by 2007 the house was finished. 
The first boy they had is now grown up and working at the Tanzanian Revenue Authority and another is a teacher.  Many of their other children are in university. They have quite an age range in the house now and two little ones with special needs. The other children interact nicely with the children with special needs.  You can see the love, patience and understanding they have.
After a tour of the property we went out to see their church where they sang a few more songs. We then played some games outside until it was time to go. 
It was great to see them all living happily as a family. They were so appreciative of our time and gifts but really I was grateful for the experience of being with them and getting to see how they live first hand. It sounds cliché, but I really did feel warm inside 😊❤.

Home of the Elephants - 24/07

Today we headed out to Tarangire National Park (the real park, not my bedroom at Home Base). From my pretrip reading I knew that this was the place to go if you wanted to see elephants - so obviously it was on my to do list!  In case I had missed that tidbit of information, there was a sign announcing we were entering the home of elephants as we approached the park. I later found out that Tarangire means River of the Warthogs and NOT elephants  (elephant is Tembo, FYI).
As a group we had a goal- spot the leopard, the final animal on our Big Five list. A few of the volunteers were also looking forward to seeing giraffes. I have to admit they weren't really on my list but they were beautiful to see. I snapped some good giraffe shots if I say so myself. 
Nixon and Hillary  (the driver for the West Point volunteers) spotted a leopard in the high grass and we could tell the giraffes were on alert but try as we may we could not find the leopard. Some of the West Pointers said they saw the tail though!  That's pretty cool. 
We had lunch in the picnic area before heading home. We were warned to watch out for the cheeky vervet monkeys.  As we were eating someone, I think it was Becky, wondered if monkeys actually like bananas or if that was just something people said. Not a minute sooner did a monkey scoot down a tree and grab Andrew's banana that was sitting on the table next to mine!  There was a brief moment of madness as we screamed, laughed and jumped out of the monkey's way! The monkey made his way to a branch near the top of the tree  and enjoyed his free snack while we continued to laugh and settle back at the table.  We were able to take a few monkey selfies before leaving the lunch area. Another cheeky monkey stole a chocolate bar from someone else's lunch as we were on our way out.  These monkeys must really enjoy the safari visitors!
After lunch we drove around by the river before heading out of the park and back home.  We didn't have any luck with the big cats, but all in all it was another beautiful day on safari.

Luck of the Maasai - 23/07

Today we departed camp just after 7:00am heading for our destination of Ngoragora Crater.  The crater was once an active volcano and is now home to many members of Tanzanian wildlife, including all of the Big 5. For those of you unfamiliar with African safaris, the Big 5 are lions, leopards, water buffalo, rhinos and last but never least, elephants. The other inhabitants of the crater are members of the Maasai as they will live peacefully with the animals without hunting them... which sadly can't be said for all humans. There are rangers patrolling the crater rim on guard for would be poachers.
When we reached the top of the crater we saw a few baboons. Nixon  (Nick) informed us that we should keep our windows closed because the baboons can be quite dangerous. While we were waiting for our park pass we also saw some ants working away at something.  They were huge!
It was quite a drive getting to the crater's rim and then driving down to enter the park but it was about to be worth it.  I felt the anticipation a child does when they're about to visit Disney for the first time - was it going to be everything I hoped?!
I'm pleased to tell you it was an AMAZING experience!!! The roaming zebras and wildebeest were abundant as well as the warthogs and gazelles. There was an enormous flock of flamingoes in a salty lake, stretching further than the reach of my fancy camera lens.  We saw an elephant on its own (guess who spotted that first?),  which seemed a bit strange to me. Nick said it's herd was probably nearby. One big highlight was seeing lions mate!  There could be 2-4 little simbas running around the park in approximately 110 days! We spotted some water buffalo and those things are huge! They were mainly relaxing, hanging out, not up and about much.
Like I said, it was an amazing day. I'm sure you can tell by my overuse of exclamation marks ;). On my first ever safari experience I saw FOUR out of the Big Five!  How cool is that? Wonderful. Seriously wonderful. The group of volunteers that safari-ed before us had told us they saw a rhino in the crater and since that I was hoping I'd get the opportunity to see it.  I know- you're surprised I didn't say elephants.  Don't get me wrong. The ellies will always be my favourites, but at the rate life/humanity/human-animal interaction is going, who knows how much longer rhinos will be found in the wild. When we entered the park I asked Nick about the chances of seeing the rhino and he said he couldn't promise any sightings but we'd need to be pretty lucky to see a rhino. I joked and said the Maasai told me my bracelet was good luck.  When we were finishing up Nicole mentioned that maybe my bracelet is in fact lucky. Either way, tonight I am thankful for this amazing opportunity to see these wonderful creatures of God's creation. Asante.

Safari means Journey 22/7

We have booked our safari with Pristine Trails.  Edward, the owner, has a relationship with CCS. His mother used to work with CCS and from his interactions with volunteers asking what to do he decided to open Pristine.
Here's the plan for the weekend:
Friday afternoon- depart from Home Base at 1:30pm and drive through Arusha to the Maasai camp for an evening visit.
Friday night: Dinner and local entertainment at Haven Nature Safari Camp (think glamping... glamorous camping).
Saturday: breakfast at camp followed by early morning departure for Ngoragora Crater. Back to camp in the evening for dinner.
Sunday: breakfast and early morning departure for Tarangire National Park. Drive back to Home Base in time for dinner.

The Maasai - 22/07

This evening we stopped in a Maasai village just past Arusha. We met Lucas, son of the chief who welcomed us to the village.  We were covered in Maasai cloth for a more authentic experience! There was an initial welcome dance by some members and then we went inside the village for more dancing, a tour of the homes and chance to buy handmade his goods to support the village. A few of the girls were donned in beaded neck pieces when we joined in on the dancing and the guys had a chance to jump with the warriors.
We learned that Maasai diet consists mainly of cow, goat and sheep milk, blood and meat.  Some Maasai eat fruits and vegetables but this particular group do not. 
The variety of beaded jewellery and other items were amazing. I wanted so many things but I ended up choosing two bracelets for myself and coasters for my mom. I had picked up a necklace made from a giraffe hoof that I loved but it was a bit out of my budget. Lucas said because they liked me they wanted me to have it and so he gave it to me!  I was touched by their generosity. All in all it was another great experience!

Day 5 - Bye Bye Baby

Today was my last scheduled day with the babies *cue tears here*... actually not yet!  The school is so small and intimate that I know I'll still see my littlest lovebugs over the next two weeks.  (Only two weeks left?! Anybody else feeling like time is flying by?)
Yesterday evening I went to town in a mission.  My goal was to find toy cars, crayons or markers and tape. I had seen a cute activity on Pinterest where you tape a colouring device to the back of a toy car and let the child "drive" it over paper to make a picture. How cute right? I was thrilled to find everything I needed at Nakumatt (local Walmart-ish type store but on a smaller scale).
I was a bit bummed when I got home and realised the tape was that cheap not-really-sticky tape. My teacher friends will know what I mean, the one school supplies you with as if it's God's gift to your yearly supply stock but it's so worthless you'll give up a week's lunch to buy real Scotch tape to replace it. I tried but I couldn't get the crayons to stick to the cars. Anyway, this morning I came to school with two boxes of crayons and a few sheets of chart paper. Instant success!
There were less than a dozen students in class when I arrived so I gave them each a crayon and sat them on the floor around the chart paper.  They were so cute!  Even Angel got in on the action! I put a few extra crayons in the middle for them to share and change their colours, but we're still working on the sharing aspect. ;)
The teacher wrote a few numbers on the page and pointed them out to some of the students. Inspired by that I quickly did up a chart that said "numbers" in my worse handwriting EVER and the numbers from 1-10. Knowing that I couldn't afford to waste the paper, I tried to ignore the fact that title was below my own standards. The teacher seemed to like it.  She taped it on the wall and one by one I had some of the students come up and review numbers with me. As the class started to fill up I also went over body parts with them on a one by one basis. The crayons were packed away and the balls were brought out for indoor play.
I took a few photos of the students - well, I tried to.  They were all so eager to see themselves I couldn't get any good photos.  They much preferred the front facing camera and they ALL wanted to be in EVERY picture.  I have a few cute (but blurry) ones to share with you.
Soon it was time for porridge. At least I thought it was.  On Fridays the children have tea and scones.  A few of the students still had porridge sent from home.
After snack it was time for me to have tea with Evarist and the volunteers. It was Karen and Maddy's last day so it was a little sad for them.  I remember my last day in Thailand so I completely understand. Today we had samosas with our tea. They had ground beef inside and were served with lemon and lime wedges.  It was a nice mixture.
I had fun playing with the children after tea.  I was finally able to get a group of them  to sit in an almost-circle and throw/roll the ball to each other.  Sweet success!
I tried to take a few more photos but the results were the same.  I'll see if I can go back with my camera during the last week of placement.
I was helping prepare the lunches when Papa John arrived to pick us up.  We were heading back a little early to prepare for safari. The volunteers who were finishing up today were not happy about leaving early and I don't blame them.  I felt we should have left as close to our scheduled time as usual. I had packed my things the night before in anticipation of a short turnover time between arriving home from placement and going out on safari.
It's a shame that some of the volunteers are finishing up this weekend.  They seemed like really cool people and I would have liked to hang out with them a bit more. Since we are on the safari all weekend they'll be gone when we get back. Well... that was the first part of my day. Up next- an evening with the Maasai!

Day 4 -The Shuffle

Today was a little bit sad for me. There was a classroom shuffle today. Any student who was ready for the next level moved up a class.  Just like that.  If they were ready, the teacher confirmed for the director and that was it. 
I lost some of my darling love bugs - one almost broke my heart when he cried because he was leaving the class.  The positive side is that now there's a smaller group size and they're all at a similar ability level as far as their English. Our snack time is the same as the next class (they come in a few minutes after we've settled) so the children still get to see their friends. It was like a reunion for 1.5/2 year olds! So cute!