Thursday, June 16

Well I spent almost 45 minutes last night writing a report of Tuesday and Wednesday, but just before I posted it, there was a power outage so I apologize for the lack of details this trip.

Tuesday we went to the Huruma Orphanage all day and helped them clean out a storeroom, burn old trash, begin building an incinerator building, and my personal favorite job, holding babies.  I literally held either baby Joy or baby Johash all day long.  Our TCA students are such amazing young people and got in there and worked so hard like they were used to seeing these things everyday.  When we began cleaning out the first room, we realized they had stored some corn in there, which the mice got into, so then they had thrown poison on top and just shut the door and left it.  So what we learned is that our adult sponsor Cristin Mills can run faster than any of the students when confronted with a fleeing rat.  The Orphanage now looks so much better than when we first arrived.

Wednesday we went back to the orphanage in the morning and performed the You Are Special skit, sang songs and played with all of the children while half our group continued working on the incinerator and cleaning out the closet.  In the afternoon, we had our first day of VBS at the Arusha church that is hosting us and had around 200 kids.  Our kids did a great job leading the songs, games, and skits and teaching the Bible stories for the day.

This morning, Brian Millet and Ty Westfall left to go visit our friends back in Kajiado, Kenya to check on our Masaai friends that we originally intended to work with this year before the trip was moved to Tanzania.  They have arrived safely and delivered food to a disabled school there and will be seeing Mama Ruth and her tribe tomorrow.  

The rest of us got to the orphanage early because today was a special day!  The three moms in our group, including Cristin Mills, Pauline Stein, and I got the privilege of taking ALL of the orphans to the clinic for Doctor visits.  Those sweet kids sat in the hospital clinic waiting room from 9:30 in the morning until 5 p.m. like perfect angels.  They had no phones or iPads to play with, just each other to talk to.  They were quiet, polite, they all helped the younger ones have their bottles and diaper changes.  They were amazing.  We were thrilled to learn that all 6 of the babies and all of the young kids who have received results so far were HIV negative!  Many of the kids seemed very relieved since many do not know the story of their parents and wondered whether or not they were born with it.  That was an unexpected blessing for them to be able to have that reassurance.  By the way, the complete blood panel test cost $5 per child.  We were so happy to be able to be able to take them for medical care even though it was very hard to see the babies cry when they were poked.  Many of the kids had ringworm and respiratory infections, for which they were given medicines.  One baby has a hernia, and will need a surgical consult in a couple of weeks at a different hospital.

There  are 2 boys with Cerbral Palsy in the group...one has a broken, handmade wooden walker, one with nothing that has to be carried everywhere.  He is probably around 11 or 12.   Tomorrow we are going to buy them both proper walkers with wheels.  A few of the older kids will be meeting us at the clinic tomorrow, as they were off to the market today and not able to get there with the rest of us.

While we moms were at the hospital, the rest of the group was back at the orphanage cleaning out closets.  Steve Wolcott and our niece, Ruby took on the task of clearing out what has been described as a hotel for rats.   The closet was full of old, dirty mattresses that were stacked up.  Every layer they uncovered displaced a different family of mice.  Anyway, they got it cleaned out and it's probably best not to describe it much further.

Social Services came by the orphanage for a visit today, since we had told our hotel owner, who is a church member, of the filthy conditions and she requested an inspection on our behalf.  They were happy to see how much progress has been made and will be checking in with them periodically to
make sure they are keeping up the facility properly.  The girls taking care of the babies are very young girls who actually grew up there and just work for housing and food.  They have been encouraged to properly clean the building regularly and we feel they have seen what a difference it makes.

This afternoon, we had our second day of VBS in the afternoon and then came back to meet the church choir for a dinner here at our hotel. We are exhausted.  Please pray for our group as we are all working long days and are a little overwhelmed with what we are seeing.  We are happy to have the privilege of being the representatives of TCA to donate supplies and help on behalf of our community that has given so generously.  God is doing amazing things here.  Thank you for your continued prayers.

Sincerely,

Jenni for the group