The First Few Days at Neema Orphanage

I warn you, this turned into a really long post! Sorry...

Some Background on the Orphanage/Where I’m Staying

There are three houses in use at the orphanage, with the fourth house being used for office space, guest rooms, and a reception area.

The house pictured on the left is used for office space, and the one on the right is the baby house. The rest of the houses are to the right of and behind where I am standing to take this picture.

Between the entrance gate to the orphanage compound and the orphanage itself, there is a newly established college, which is mostly training students who will one day work at places like Neema Orphanage. There are 27 students at the college, 23 girls and 4 boys. Some of the sisters teach at the college, along with Pastor Daniel and others. Sometimes I eat meals with the sisters there, and sometimes in the designated dining room for the sisters at the orphanage. When looking at the above picture of the houses, the college is to the left and down a slight hill. The entrance gate to the campus is farther down that hill.

Construction is currently underway on a brand new dining hall that, when completed, will serve all the sisters, the students at the college, and the kids at the orphanage. It is attached to the building I am staying in, so I often wake up to loud construction noise in the morning.

I am staying on the second floor of the completed part of this building, while the first floor is the brand new kitchen that will cook for the new dining hall, which is the octagonal part of the building under construction (toward the right of the picture).

Some Background on the Sisters

I realize I have not explained the role of the sisters at the orphanage very adequately. The sisters are women who have devoted themselves to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania and work at various places operated by the ELCT. To become a sister, a woman must be at least 20 years old and feel called to become a sister. She will then live at the convent in the town of Moshi (the nearest major town to the orphanage, about a 25 - 30 minute drive away) for 1 year. After a year, she must decide if she wants to continue becoming a sister, and if so, she will promise to do so and remain at the convent for another 4 years. She must then evaluate her decision a second time and stay at the convent for another 5 years after that if she chooses to stay. Only after that 10-year period will a women become a sister and begin work with the church around the area.

What I’ve Been Doing

When I arrived at the orphanage on Thursday (May 23rd), the oldest kids (up to 5 years old) were outside playing. As soon as I got out of the van, I was immediately ambushed with hugs and greetings from the kids. Some of them proceeded to grab my fingers and pull me around to where they wanted to play. After a little while, all the kids sat on the porch of their house for tea. I drank tea with them.

I then went to the baby house where children up to about 1 1/2 years old live. There are currently 5 who are old enough to walk and 3 more who are not able to walk yet. I played with them until they ate and went to bed. Then I went to dinner. I was finally able to unpack my room after dinner, and I went straight to bed after that.

The next day (Friday, May 24th) I was back in the baby house in the morning. I tried to help feed the babies porridge, but Sister Regina had almost all the other babies fed in the time it took me to feed one. The babies went to take a nap after that, so I went to my room for about half an hour until lunch. After lunch I was dismissed to rest, and I ended up staying in my room until dinner, as I was not feeling very well.

After dinner I attempted my first shower since arriving at the orphanage. It was quite an experience to say the least. There was luke warm water for the first 30 seconds and then it turned ice cold and would not warm up. After a minute or two, the water stopped flowing completely, so I rinsed out my shampoo in the sink. I was able to coax a small dribble of water out of the shower head to finish out the shower, but it never did warm up again.

The next day (Saturday, May 25th), I was feeling sick to my stomach, so I stayed in my room all day. I did not feel like eating anything, but the sisters insisted I eat something so they brought some food to the table outside my room and made me eat a little bit. I was also feeling very homesick because I did not feel well and I was alone in my room all day. I read, napped, and called my friend, Rebekah, and my parents. I ended up going to dinner, but did not eat very much. The sisters insisted I drink some passionfruit juice and lemongrass tea, though, and I agreed only because I think they wouldn’t have let me leave until I finished a cup of each.

On Sunday (May 26th), we had worship at 10 AM in a room in the college. The service was simple, but the students from the college sang beautifully in Kiswahili. Most of the service was in Kiswahili, but Pastor Daniel gave his sermon in both Kiswahili and English so I could follow along. After the service, I had tea and lunch with Pastor Daniel and Sister Elly. I talked with Pastor Daniel for a long time about the US and learned some words and phrases in Kiswahili. By the time we finished lunch it was 2 PM and I went back to my room.

At 4, I met Sister Elly for tea, and then she took me on a walk. We went out through the orphanage fields and made our way to the road. The orphanage sits at the top of a very steep hill, and we walked all the way down to the bottom on the road that snakes back and forth down the hillside. At the bottom there is a river and a grassy area that is a popular destination for picnics in the summer (which is about September to December in Tanzania, which is just south of the equator). I wish I had taken my camera with, because the scenery was breathtaking all the way down the hill. Sister Elly said she would take me back at another time to take pictures.

By the time we got back up the hill, it was almost dinner. I was able to eat more than earlier, but not as much as I would have hoped. I went back to my room after dinner, and the power went out for the first time since I arrived in Tanzania. It was only out for less than 30 minutes, but I have to say, the night sky looks amazing out here, especially when all the lights at the orphanage and college are off and there are no clouds.

On Monday (May 27th), I started out the day after breakfast with the oldest house. The kids have school in the morning, so I sat with them as they learned from students from the college and from Sister Loema. I learned some numbers in Kiswahili by listening to their lesson. I was called away for tea around 10:30, and after that I spent some time in the baby house until they ate lunch and went to take a nap. I ate lunch shortly afterward. I returned to the oldest house after they woke up from a nap at 3. We played outside until almost 5, and then they went into take baths. I helped Sister Jacqui dress the children as they came out of the bathroom, and then I sat with them as they ate dinner. After taking the laundry to the laundry building, I went back to my room for a few minutes before dinner. I went to evening prayer with the sisters after dinner and then returned to my room for the night after that.

The schedules for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all very similar to Monday, so I will just tell you the highlights of each day. On Tuesday, the theme of the day for Sister Anna was getting me to eat more. Apparently I don’t eat enough by Tanzanian standards, and all the sisters have been making me eat a lot. Tuesday morning, Sister Anna looked at my stomach and said, “I am going to make you eat a lot while you are here, so when you go home you will be very fat.” (Thanks, Sister Anna.) Tuesday afternoon, I took my trash can to the trash pit at the back of the building (at least, tried to, anyway) and as I took the first step down the stairs, I dropped the trash can and all my trash was strewn all over the stairs as the can rolled down. Fortunately, there was no one around to witness this, and I was able to clean it up and continue on my way.

I tried to access the internet on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with a USB modem Sister Elly gave me, but the signal was so weak that it took me a half hour just to load my Gmail inbox, even in the basic view. I was hoping to be able to post this then, but I wasn’t that lucky.

I’ve now found three bugs crawling on me in the last two days. I found an ant on Wednesday on my left thigh that had crawled up the inside of my pants. I found another ant on Thursday on my neck, and Thursday evening I found a spider about the size of a quarter on my chest as I was finishing my shower. I don’t know how I missed the spider, but I don’t know how long he was sitting there.

On Thursday during school for the oldest kids, Sister Loema asked me to teach the kids a song. The kids have been taught many songs, and they sing everyday during their class. Sister Loema is always looking for more songs to teach to the kids, so I taught them Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It’s still a work in progress, but they are catching on quickly.

I had an interesting conversation with a professor from the college earlier this week. I discovered how events from the US can affect people in faraway places. This professor, after finding out that I was from the US, asked me about all the natural disasters that have happened in the past decade or so, like Hurricane Katrina, forest fires in the southwest, Hurricane Sandy, and most recently the tornadoes in Oklahoma. We also started talking about the Boston marathon bombings, and I mentioned that I lived about a mile and a half from the site of the bombings. He then said that his daughter used to live on Boylston St. and probably would have been running in the marathon, but she had recently moved to New York, so she was not in the area.

Today, I am back in Moshi town to do some errands with Sister Elly and to use the internet. It was an interesting ride into town on the “dala dala.” There really is no translation for this, but basically they are vans that run down the road by the orphanage to the main road and sometimes all the way into Moshi. They cram so many people into them that sometimes it can be very uncomfortable, and people are sometimes hanging off the outside of them if there is no room inside (don’t worry, I was safely inside). I will try to get a picture, because it will be easier to visualize.

It already feels like I have been here for months, but it hasn’t even been two weeks. I am enjoying my time with the children, and I can’t wait for the rest of the group to arrive in a couple weeks!

To conclude, here are some wise words from Sister Anna: “Here, we are not rich. But God gave us one very important thing: love.”

Until next time,
Natalie