Arusha

As part of orientation at Amani, you accompany a street educator to Arusha to see what they do, and to see where the kids come from. We went yesterday, one street educator, three new employees and myself. In the afternoon we went to a place where a group of kids are known to hang out. They sit by a traffic light and wash windshields when the light is red. It’s a large group, lots of older ones. The street educator just went over to talk with them, and after awhile one of the “leaders” started yelling and making all kinds of accusations. He wasn’t in favor of Amani because supposedly he was there when it started and has finished school and ended up back on the streets. It got a little scary, they were threatening us and it attracted a lot of outside attention. Somehow the street educator convinced one of the younger ones to meet us in the morning and come to Amani. There was another younger one there though. He couldn’t speak up in favor of Amani because he would have been beaten when we left. He was sniffing glue while we were there, his eyes were empty and he was not very responsive. The older ones are violent and very dangerous. Amani educators go to Arusha twice a week, and I’m sure they’ll work on convincing the other little one to come to Amani. It was hard getting out because they kept following us, a couple followed us almost all the way to the hotel.

Later that night we went out to look for more kids, the Amani street educators know where they tend to sleep. We found one boy completely by accident; he was sleeping all alone on a step. We woke him up and he said that his father had died and his mother had left. He’d been living with his grandmother and for one reason or another she could no longer support him. He’d been on his own in the street since December. He readily agreed to come to Amani. He was wide-eyed and scared looking and tired. We got him some food and he agreed to meet us in the morning to come to Amani, I didn’t like leaving him out there at night. We met another boy who was living on the street by choice, because if he went home his mother would send him to school. He kind of reminded me of the Artful Dodger (from Oliver Twist), he walked with a swagger and wore a suit jacket.

The next morning we met one of the younger ones from the group, plus the boy we found on the step, and a friend of his! I don’t  know the story of the latter, but he lied and said that the two of them were brothers, because he was afraid that he wouldn’t be allowed to come to Amani. But all three of them came on the bus with us back to Moshi (a couple of hours drive). When they arrived at Amani they spoke to the nurse, then got washed up and got clean clothes. Then they got to eat a big lunch and play with the other kids. When I was done for the day I went out and played with all of the kids and ended up playing a lot with Kelvin (sp?), the boy found on the step. Last night he was so scared and hungry and sad, it was nice playing football (soccer) with him and laughing and tickling him. Today I sat on a step watching some Amani boys do AMAZING gymnastics, with Joseph John on one side of me and Kelvin on the other. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.