11/16 Scavenger Hunt & Birthdays

Sunday, November 16

Up early - big day today. Andrew and Ellie are leaving, we are doing a scavenger hunt with all the kids, a group of 12 doctors, nurses and volunteers are arriving for 2 weeks and it was the day to celebrate November birthdays!

We said good bye to Andrew and Ellie sometime after breakfast. They were heading to Arusha to spend the day before they fly out later tonight to go back to the States. Molly, Carolyn and I wrapped all the birthday presents. Saidi got some pretty nice stuff including a Timex watch and a slinky. We all thought that was pretty ironic because we had just discussed at dinner last night that a slinky wouldnít be the same here because they are no stairs here. The only stairs are those 6 or so steps leading into the library/preschool and those are most likely too wide. No one here has seen a full staircase, or so we think.

Molly then helped me make a quick crossword puzzle (times 5) for the Scavenger Hunt which started at 11:00. We divided them all into 5 teams with team leaders (Benja, Lucy, Riziki, Doctor and Abdul), handed them the instructions and off they ran. They had an hour and a half to collect all the items. One of them was to get Jackís signature and clever Jack went and hid on the top of the water tower so it took them all a bit to even find him first!

It was a great success - they all had a great timeÖ.at least until the points were tallied. It was then that the poor sports in the group stuck out like sore thumbs. Sore losers are universal! Two teams tied with 68 out of a possible 70 points. And luckily Carolyn had some smarties and little chocolates to give them as a prize.

After lunch and nap time Jack got a good game of hide and seek going again while a day visitor took polaroids of all the kids. They were each to get one photo - but instead it turned out to be quite difficult as they all wanted more than one and were back in line as soon as their image came through on their photo.

As we are coming to the end of our stay, Jack and I went around and took photos of everything we wanted to show everyone at home. All the houses, the garden, the incinerator etc. I also made sure to get photos of all the Mamaís that I got to know - in particular Mama Gracie, Mama Upendo and Mama Renea. They were all so cute when they saw their faces on my camera. Giggles galore!

At 4:00 we celebrated birthdays. We brought over the birthday cakes that Elias and Seba made to Tarangire There were cakes to all the houses - all made from scratch. In Tarangire we were celebrating JoJoís and Musaís birthdays. They were so cute. They all sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU and then a fast clucking in the mouth sound. Musa was even more wide eyed than usual. Presents were opened and cake was had by all.

As it was a chapatti night, Mama Gracie was busy rolling. She had me roll out a couple and made sure that Jack documented it on film! Mama Gracie also wanted to make sure that she and I had a photo together - wait until you see that one. The bottom line is that in all the photos all their faces, their skin is just so beautifulÖand mine looks so white and old and wrinkly!

The new group all arrived - 12 in total - so we are quite a crew for meals. Half are eating here in the Volunteer House (Lengai) and the other half down at Indiaís. They are doing health screenings for Gyetigi and another school around here Gyetigi alone has about 400 kids. Look forward to hearing how their first days goes on Monday night at dinner.