Tuesday, 05 August 2008

Well I am obviously having slight troubles posting photos as you can see by my last post - which is now deleted. I will work on the photos another day. I've been keeping busy and loving every minute of it. There is so much to update you on and as always not much time.

First, an update on the school. As many of you know from previous posts Tumani Nursery is in need of a new school. We, myself and the other volunteer and my school, spent a couple of weeks looking at different pieces of land that the school could possibly relocate to. The problem is that they have no money and it's just too expensive to help them as much as we were hoping. The land that we were looking at was between 7,000 and 13,000 usd. And that's just the land - there is still work to be done on the land and a school to be built. After discussing with the teachers we felt that what would be the best is if we purchase something that they are really in need of now and will also be of use to them when there is money for a new school - so, we have purchased 24 desks and benches that are currently being built (you can fit 5-7 kids to a desk). Then we will each be sponsoring the tuition for ten of the orphans at the school - which is only 24 usd per student for the year. A few of you showed interest in contributing towards something for the school. If this is something you are still interested in let me know and we can work out the details. Many thanks in advance!

This past weekend we went to the orphanage. I can't even begin to explain it. It was pretty hard emotionally to be there. The children were all precious and so happy to have visitors for the afternoon. We brought them bags of clothes and toys that were left from previous volunteers and played with them for a couple of hours. The conditions there are very poor - yet everyone seems in good spirit and they are so thankful. I plan to make it back there again, at least once, before I leave.

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks already! the time has gone by so quickly. It's been such an amazing experience that words can't even express it. This weekend I will be in Zanzibar with some friends. When I am back I will make it my mission to get photos up!