7/8: Learning

Today I felt a little better and I went to work, though it is in the same house so it sounds kind of weird that I went to work, I just kind of walked a few steps. I actually met some new kids today! There was a little girl, Nazra, who took to me instantly the complete opposite of Vanessa and every time I walked somewhere she would follow me which was really endearing and she was so sweet. Some of the others that wasn’t there last time is Tamali (or at least I think that’s it) and Betty I think they might be related or live close by each other because if one of them doesn’t come the other doesn’t either. They don’t look so much alike, but they are both really sweet which I know I say about a lot of them, but I always mean it. There is also Noreen, our beauty queen, every time I see her she has a new hairstyle and that is saying much for kids who are nearly all nearly bald. I think the one that I didn’t catch the name of last time, the one with the eyes that doesn’t fool me; his name is Biggie or something like that. Though I am not usually one to judge it is kind of an apt description. I mean you can see that he eats more than the rest and his dad owns a big white car and they probably live in a big house as well. There is also another little girl who came the other days, but not today, I think her name is Gooseberry though it can’t be spelled like that. There were still some of them that I didn’t catch the name of; it will take me forever to know them all. One thing I have learned about this is that in Kiswahili they put an ‘I’ after the name and calls them Jacksoni or Janeti and that really doesn’t help me much to remember. One of the boys, Johnson, is always wearing the same clothes. Many of them do that, but have changed a little in the days I have seen them. Many wear a school uniform or half of it, with blue trousers for boys or a skirt for girls and a shirt and a blue pullover. Johnson’s trousers are green but otherwise it is all the same and during the last three days he has also been wearing the same sock. You can hardly call it socks. We have a saying or a word in Denmark grownups would use with children with a hole in their socks: they’d say that there was a carrot sticking out or something with that. All his toes are sticking out, it’s like one of those gloves you have to have you can write on your cellphone on the same time. But he is one of the nice boys, he hardly ever gets in fights and he’s really cute. Today an old volunteer came visiting: Stephanie, she stayed here for six months last year, so she knows this place very well and she said it is one of the best host families that I’m in. she went with me to Shoprite a shopping center where there are also banks, internet cafes and the like nearby. I wanted both a bank and some internet, both for preparation for tomorrow as I didn’t bring so many dollars with me and we have to pay in dollars and I had to send some last emails. The only problem with getting the money was paying the 4% commission fee which could have seen me through a tour to Arusha National Park. Then Stephanie and I went to the clock tower and from there she went home, last she was here she got a boyfriend and she’s staying with him, though he doesn’t seem as serious as she is about the relationship. Then I paid everything for tomorrow and I have great faith in Julian and that he knows what he is doing as I would have liked to pay in an office, but I just gave him the money. First we are going to Lake Manyara then to Serengeti and then Ngorongoro crater, it’s going to be once in a lifetime! We’re leaving tomorrow at 8 am. Tonight I learned more about this family and the people who live here. Apparently they have been thinking that I am not very talkative and that I talk slow, though I am not sure what that is supposed to mean, but so I haven’t talked to you about the ‘orphans’ yet. When Aminiel was born his mother died because they didn’t have everything they needed to go to the hospital and then his mother fell sick and subsequently died. A Danish girl saw this one day old baby in what could be described as bushes with a father who had depended on his wife for means and was therefore now very poor. She then went to the place where Grace worked, MS, and people said that maybe Grace could give him shelter, because the Danish girl wanted to pay his way through school and for food and the like. Grace went home and talked to Patrick about it and they agreed that the very little boy could come and stay with them. A year later, somehow I didn’t understand, they found out that Aminiel has two sister who were still with their father, Grace and Patrick also took them in and the Danish girl found other supporters for them. They are Aika and Miriam (the smaller one). They have been living here since, Aminiel was born in 2000. Salim was found two and a half or three years old on the side of a street close to the Sakina supermarket, at 10:30 pm. He was brought by their son here and the next day Patrick went everywhere to ask if someone was missing a boy and the police promised to broadcast it every day. That was three or four years ago.