I want to share a little about Kao La Amani, the orphanage where I am living and working. Kao La Amani essentially means "a place of peace" and was named after a bible verse. As many orphanages in Tanzania are, this is a Christian orphanage. Pastor Tukai and Mama Monica Tukai run the orphanage and handle the daily struggle of paying to raise the children and managing operations. Twenty-six children live here including three of Pastor and Mama's children. They also have a fourth child who is older and lives at a school near Arusha. The children who live here range in age from one year and eight months to ten years old. They are all incredible children.
The children ended up at Kao La Amani for various reasons, but they have one thing in common. All of the orphans were in dire need of help as Kao La Amani only accepts the poorest and most needy children. Some of the children were left on the street by their parents as infants, some were homeless and wandered the street, some lost their parents to disease, and many would likely not survive alone. Two of the children are HIV victims. When they arrived at the orphanage they were in terrible shape, but now by taking medication they are able to live seemingly normal lives.
The orphanage is a rented property, but is in relatively good condition because of the love that goes into maintaining it. Every morning the staff and the older children mop the cement floors with rags to keep the orphanage clean. The majority of the children share beds in two dorm rooms, which are separated by sex. The two HIV infected children live in a third room with two matriarchs because they require extra attention. Four of the older children sleep together in a fourth bedroom so that they can have some privacy. The orphanage also runs a nursery school, both to educate the younger children who live here and to create a small source of income. Every weekday smiling children fill the two small classrooms and I can hear their voices repeating English phrases across the building.
The older children attend three different primary schools about ten minutes from the orphanage. Every morning the children pile into a beat up Mitsubishi POS (piece of junk) truck and ride with me as I drive them to school. "Good morning Josh!" they say as we cram into the car. When I leave them off they all thank me and I wish them a good day at school. Assuming the car does not break down, I will return around 4:30PM to pick them up from school and bring them home.
Six girls in their twenties and thirties staff the orphanage, five of whom live at Kao La Amani. Three are teachers, two are matriarchs and they all work very hard to cook, clean, and maintain the orphanage and the children. They know different levels of English ranging from nearly fluent to none and have different cultural backgrounds. One girl is from Burundi and two are from the Masai tribe. One of the older girls, a teacher, seems to appreciate my interest in learning Swahili and has been teaching me words over the past few days. I now know how to say some of the things that I am doing. It's great!
Feeding the children is very expensive, but fortunately the orphanage owns a farm where they can grow many things that they require. The 10-acre plot, which pastor Tukai purchased about a year ago with generous donations, grows corn, tomatoes, beans, bananas, melon, bananas, and green leafy vegetable that is a staple of their diet. A small barn consisting of cement brick and wood covered by corrugated mettle houses one pregnant milk cow, one goat, three geese, a handful of chickens, three turkeys, about ten pigs, and nine piglets which a very unhappy mother delivered two days ago. Pastor Tukai has built a small farmhouse, which has storerooms for crops and a small room where two boys who are 17 and 23 years old live. They are orphans of a different generation, and they work on the farm in exchange for food, shelter and love. The older boy knows some English so between our poor attempts at each other's language, we can sometimes communicate. I hope that I can get to know these two boys over the next few months, as they seem like very good kids.
I have been helping out in any way that I can. As I mentioned I drive the children to and from school every day and have been doing a fair share of the other driving. I spend the majority of most days working on the farm with the other staff. Farming is hard work in this dry environment, but it is extremely important so I am glad to help. In the mornings and evenings I try to spend as much time with the children as I can. They are loving, kind and are so much fun to be around. When I sit down in their midst the children flock to me, still fascinated by my white skin. One of the younger boys named Michael is particularly attached to me and has made it a priority to hold my hand wherever we go. My other hand is not often left idle, as there is always another child who comes and grabs hold.
I have been very impressed with how well behaved these kids are. The older children help raise the younger children, and there are no wild children running around the orphanage messing things up. Perhaps this is because of the values that the staff, Mama Tukai and Pastor Tukai have instilled in them, and perhaps it is because the staff is very strict on the children's behavior. All the children are clean an every day the children and the staff work hard to clean and maintain the orphanage. It is a simple case of respecting each other and respecting the orphanage.
Both the staff girls and the two farmhands have shown unbelievable hospitality towards me. Yesterday, I spent the day at the farm, carrying bags of corn to the storeroom in the farmhouse and picking beans in the hot African sun. When it came time for lunch, one of the girls picked vegetables from the farm and cooked a traditional meal of ugali with cooked green vegetables. Ugali is cornstarch and water that one boils and stirs until it reaches the consistency of a thick mashed potato. As we began eating, Godi (the older boy) brought me a farm fresh egg that he had cooked. Though I tried to share the egg with the others, they would not accept even a bite. Later in the meal, one of the girls brought out a portion of beef that she had been cooking for me. The orphanage eats meat maybe once a week because it is very expensive so this was an extremely generous gesture. It was too much for me to accept and I had to physically put some of the meat on each of their plates so that they would share it with me. For people with so little, this family shows so much kindness and love.
