Day 12 - Good Hope

Comments…

We have a small April Fool’s confession…all the comments posted by Mario and Zach were in fact done by Ashton and Christian. Uncle Doug still doesn’t know, but will when we read this post to him.

Shae, Thank you so much for your diligence and encouragement. It is much appreciated.

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Today was a great day! We headed out first thing in the morning to go to the Good Hope orphanage in Sombetini.

(Turns out Easter is a Celebration for Many Religions. This is a Sikh Parade in Arusha.)

We weren’t exactly sure where it was, so we met Juma and Ali (the director of Good Hope) at the Shoprite grocer! We were all excited to go in and get some treats and check out all of the goodies they have there. The food has been good here...but Chicken can only be cooked so many ways; when you are eating it two times a day. They do not eat a lot of variety here, and they do not waste…anything! So things get a little repetitive; we were excited for our grocery stop!

Back in the car with our treats in hand we headed to Good Hope. The orphanage is in the slums, and the area reminded us of the D.R.C. But, in truth it was more like the nicer areas in the Congo.

When we arrived we were immediately greeted with big smiles and hugs.

We quickly jumped right in and started reading and playing with them; it was fun showering the children with the treats we brought for them.

One little girl in particular (Rachael) was so excited about her “Bag of Blessings” that she would not put it down! She carried it everywhere with great pride.

Two of the volunteers at Good Hope were there from Australia. We decided they are saints! As mentioned earlier, the conditions there are very rough and dirty! They had been there for two weeks and had another two to go - Callie and Dio are college students on their holiday. After their time at the orphanage they will head to Greece for a cruise…they expressed how hard it will be for them to leave here, and wish they were staying longer after seeing what they’ve seen and knowing what they know!

The cooks were in the kitchen preparing a special Easter dinner for the children. They were very proud of the feast they were preparing and requested that we join them. We were getting ready to leave to meet James and Debby (Volunteers at Havileh Orphanage) for our Easter lunch, but did not want to offend them, so we all grabbed a plate and dished ourselves up a small amount to taste.

Juma let Ali know that we were meeting others for lunch, but that we would love to taste their feast! They had prepared Goat, rice, and cooked banana. Now, remember, this is in the slums; they do not have clean water there and they shop for their food at the street vendors. We feared that this meal would be introducing our bodies to all new types of bacteria!

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and then headed off to the Coffee Lodge to meet our friends for our Easter lunch. We really enjoyed our time at the Good Hope orphanage. We feel tremendously blessed by all of the little faces that have touched our hearts.

After a very enjoyable day, we headed back to the UAACC. When we arrived, we hopped right out of the car and headed to the area where the children stay and began playing with them. They were so happy to see us! We think it was one of our best nights here. We spent our last few hours with the kids reading, playing basketball and jumping rope. The cameras were left behind; we just laughed and played. We all cherished every second of our time left with these precious children that we have grown to know and love!

We’re feeling a little blue that our time is running out here…