Halfway there!

This weekend marks the halfway point for my volunteer work in Mwanza. I really can't believe how fast the time has gone by. We have now said goodbye to the two volunteers on the previous team, and have welcomed four new volunteers (all women) to the compound.

This week also marks a change in teaching for us. As of Monday,we will be teaching at two orphanages, Hisani & Watoto. The Watoto children do not know much English, so the teaching will be more basic, and focused on language and vocabulary. They are quite lovely children, and I'm really looking forward to the change.

Of course, it is hard to step away from the Hisani children. I've tried to explain to them that each week they will have different teachers, but they don't quite understand why some of us will leave for a week,then come back. As we are the first team to teach at both, the burden falls to us to try and "make it work". Having only rudimentary guidance from our organization, this has been challenging (to say the least). I'm trying to just take a breath, and hope that we can figure out this process.

As in Romania, when the administrative side of things proves problematic, I need to head to the children. They always make you feel better. There are a few older kids at Hisani who I've really started to bond with. Eric is about 12 or so, and is always happy to engage in a game or book with me. He's very bright, and I told him the other day that I know he will be a big success.He replied that he would like that, and will try really hard.

I always try to compliment the children (not superficially) but to remind them that they are special, talented, and beautiful. Unfortunately, the local staff at Hisani are not overly kind or demonstrative with affection. I've seen that the children really need to hear positive comments, and are very happy to receive hugs. I do think it confuses them because only the volunteers seem to show this. I have visited other orphanages, and I know that the leadership does not need to be this way. It's something I will address at the end of my trip.

Joyless is a girl in Standard 3, about 10 years old. She is somewhat solemn and serious. Whenever I see her, I put my arm around her and say "how is lovely Joyless today?" Initially, she somewhat bristled, but the other day when I hugged her, she leaned into me and gave me a big smile. More than teaching Math or English, it is these moments that give me strength and keep me going, especially when other systems are seemingly not working.