I had April 6th and 9th off of work, so I went to the coast for the weekend. All of Friday was spent traveling, luckily I got a ride so I didn’t have to pay for a bus. We stopped in Tanga for a couple hours and continued on to Pangani. I got to swim in the Indian Ocean for the first time! Coming from New England, naturally warm water felt really strange! Pangani is a very isolated little town, there’s not much there at all. I forgot sun block and there isn’t any in Pangani. I am still peeling. We went for a walk on the beach in the morning, then went “swimming” but it was low tide so not really. Then we wandered around town, had some fish for lunch, sat on the wall by the river and watched ships go by while eating fresh oranges. Back at the hotel we ran into some friends from the hostel, I had no idea they were coming to Pangani and they had no idea I was at that hotel! It was pretty funny, we went swimming with them, this time high tide so it was much more fun! And we all had dinner together.
The next morning we were going to visit some other hostel friends, who were staying at a resort across the river and about 15kms away, but found out that they were snorkeling and wouldn’t even be there, so we decided last minute to go to Tanga. In Tanga we stayed on the fourth floor of a hotel, and I realized that I hadn’t been in any building that even had a fourth floor for three months! It was strange being up that high in a building. We had a balcony with a view of the harbor. Tanga town is really strange, it looks like it’s completely abandoned. There are people of course, but there aren’t many jobs. Nothing is maintained there, which is ironic when you see people out in the harbor on their jet ski. We rode a bajaji (google it) to the Amboni caves, which were really cool. Then we went swimming in the harbor. It was Easter and when I got a call from my family I got really homesick, so that kind of put a damper on things. I blame my niece’s adorableness! It’s funny how you can be in a tropical paradise and still be homesick, just goes to show how much family means. Monday again was spent entirely in traveling.
The next week was hard at Amani. Since we had Monday off we had meetings on Tuesday. Thursday was International Street Children’s Day so there was no class, and Friday we had a goodbye ceremony for some volunteers who were leaving, so I had to try to squeeze music club into one day. It did not work. Having all of the starters at one time is insanity, and I ended up not seeing class A or B at all.
International Street Children’s Day (April 12th) was interesting. We had a ceremony in Moshi with another centre for street children called Mkombozi. Our kids did an acrobatics show and a jump rope show, and the other centre put on some dramas. We also had DJs and the kids had a dance off. It attracted a lot of public attention. Unfortunately it attracted the parents of one of our kids. I was sitting right next to him and this guy that seemed mentally instable came over and started talking, I didn’t realize until later that it was his father. He was crying for a long time, and I kind of forced him to hold my hand, but after awhile he was squeezing my hand and we kind of silently communicated that it was OK. It was really hard seeing a little boy so terrified of his own father, I was nearly in tears as well. I think me being there with him really created a bond. But today at Amani I noticed he wasn’t around, I asked the kids and they told me he’s been reunified. This really worries me. I know the social workers are amazing at what they do, and I don’t know any of this child’s details, but I can’t help but be worried. I saw how afraid he was, and I saw that his father was not entirely there mentally. Maybe he’s been reunified with other family members, or maybe he was just afraid to go home because he’d get in trouble for running away. I don’t know, but I need to find out, for my own sanity.
We also had three of the new kids run away this past weekend, they’d only been with us for two weeks but I was really attached to them already. I nearly cried at Amani on Monday when I found out. They’re such little guys, and they’re so smart and could go so far. I hope they come back. I did notice them talking to some of the Mkombozi kids on Thursday, so I mentioned that to the head of the social work department and he said he would start looking for them there. They usually start by contacting the family, then searching Arusha (a nearby city), then any other street child centres (and now they’ve started searching in Moshi as well). As much as I want to see their adorable faces every day, I’d rather they were at Mkombozi with their friends than out begging on the streets.
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| These are two of the boys that ran away (the third is in the background). |
Music club was great yesterday! I decided to end class about ten minutes early, and to keep one child who seemed to be excelling. So I got to give Mwinyi private instruction, and he learned hot cross buns on the recorder! He’s the first one at Amani to get the whole song! It may not seem like a huge deal, and you can’t really understand how huge it is unless you’ve tried to teach these kids. One Amani kid in your class is like four “regular” kids. They’re a handful! Some are very far behind where they should be, and some are very smart but have lots of behavioral problems. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it, but hot cross buns really is a big deal! I called one of the teachers into the classroom so that Mwinyi could show off his new talent, and then I had Mwinyi teaching the teacher! It was really funny, and really made him feel proud.
Music club today was awful. It was starters day, and of course if you’ve read any previous blogs you’ll know how hard starters are. Two kids that are normally wonderfully behaved got in a fight today. Not just a little fist fight, these are street kids, they’re tough, a proper brawl. Luckily one of the other kids ran outside and got another teacher and some older kids helped me to break up the fight. I lost a lot of my class during that craziness. I didn’t keep the remainder that long, they just don’t listen, and with recorder that equals a major headache. I kept two of the kids who seemed more able and enthusiastic than the others, and we had a fun time playing B-A-G over and over again. I was not in the greatest mood after that failure of a class, and to add to that I haven’t been feeling well again. But seeing little Amani’s face when he successfully played all of the notes made everything worth it, he was SO proud! And one of the new girls was very good at it, she has a lot of behavioral issues so it’s nice to give her some individual attention and to see her excel.
I only have ten weeks left! It’s crazy, I know it’s quite a long time, but it seems like nothing. Of course I’m looking forward to going home and seeing my family, not having to worry about having power or water, having consistent hot showers, going down the Cape, and hiking in the White Mountains. But at the same time I am absolutely dreading leaving. It’s going to be awful. I love this place, I love the friends I’ve made, and I love the kids. It’s going to be really, really, really hard. But knowing that, I’m trying to enjoy every day. At first I wasn’t sure if it was OK to go around hugging the kids, but now I hug every one that will let me, every chance I get.
