a perfect ending.

Right now I am in the Amsterdam airport all by myself feeling like I left a part of my heart in Africa. This last week in Africa has been more than I could ever ask for, which makes its all the more hard to leave the people, children and culture that I have fallen in love with. I have so much to tell about this week so brace yourselves!

I don’t even know where to start…maybe I will start with one of the days at my school this week. I bought them a soccer ball and they freaked out…seriously, I got a ridiculous amount of kisses. There was one day at placement that I taught them all about kindness, happiness and love. It was awesome! They got so into it..and I put the rachels challenge idea into play by getting them to make a paper link every time they did something kind for someone else…the goal is to get it around the whole classroom! They were pretty pumped about it. So when we went outside to play…and they were hitting eachother and making each other cry it was super discouraging…so that mixed with the fact that I was leaving and that I cant stand to see my kids cry I started tearing up. As soon as they saw me sad about 5 of them started crying and kept saying sorry and kissing me…then they went looking for flowers and put them on my lap…by the time they stopped I had at least 70 flowers on my lap from my kids.. which of course just made me even more emotional…how was I supposed to leave these kids?

I also went to a new orphanage this week which was unreal. It started by a man named rosman who found a little boy in the streets sick…so he took him in..now like 7 years later he has 45 kids. Him and his wife fund the whole orphanage with the occasional small donation from a local church. The rooms are in extremely rough shape, they don’t even have enough mosquito nets, and they have to squeeze way to many kids into one room…but yet again I was dumbfounded by how happy and carefree the kids were. Not once did they ask me for money or anything…they were just content with my mere presence there. I was so touched by some of the kids..in particularly one boy..I was playing soccer with them and I fell and scrapped up my leg pretty bad since we were playing on gravel. As soon as he saw my cut he took his bandana and gently wrapped my leg with it. now I know that doesn’t sound like much but when you have hardly any possessions and clothing it is a big deal. When I tried to give it back to him at the end…he refused and said that I needed it more.

Good news! Living the little boy who had the burns is out of the hospital! I went to his house acouple times to visit him…and hes doing a lot better

The last day of my placement was particularly amazing. We took all the kids on a Safari day trip! They had never seen a giraffe, elephant, zebra..nothing. So they amount of excitement was so high! The whole day was so incredible! The first time they saw a giraffe they were screaming! And when we were leaving they waved at the animals saying “BYE GIRAFFE” it was great! They kids were so thankful and excited. After Safari was when I had to say goodbye.. it was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a long time.

The day I left I was crazy busy. I did Random acts of kindness all over the community! I bought a bunch of rice and handed it out to people and families, it was a good way to say goodbye and they were all very happy and excited.

Next I went to the orphanage that I painted at to drop my clothes off and say goodbye.. It was so sad! They made a bunch of pictures and cards for me…and sang me goodbye songs…I think I had a 3 minute long hug with all the children…as I drove away in the taxi they all stood outside waving furiously. Gotta love them.

As I was leaving a bunch of the kids from the community walked over the my house to say goodbye to me. Brenda…the little girl that’s my neighbour was crying so hard she was sobbing…she refused to let go of me..I don’t think she will ever know how much I care about her.

Ok I am running out of internet at the airport so I need to wrap this up…I will blog one last time about my trip to close everything up! Now I have to focus on getting home in one piece! A lot of plane rides are being cancelled right now due to weather conditions…so figures crossed that I am not one of them!!

to wrap this post up I will just say how sometimes i feel like my last three months have been a dream because of how amazing it has been...but thats life...life often times if you let it or step out of your comfort zone can take your breath away and change you in ways you didn't think possible

Love you all lots!!

Monica!

Movie moment

From 3 months to 5 days. I am in one of those weird situations in which I feel like I have been here for so long but at the same time I have no idea where my three months in Africa went. Sometimes it all still feels like a dream. So much has happened it feels like it just couldn't have been real. From getting sick, to all those breathtaking moments that I thought only happened in movies..every part of this trip has been so crazy, awesome and mind blowing.

Yesterday I had one of those moments that just make you stop and think about how amazing life can be at times. I went to the orphanage I am doing the bag project at and The kids brought be me to this huge community party. The music was loud enough to hear from 3 blocks away...everyone was dancing and having a good time. There were people everywhere...like this party was huge! The locals taught me different dances...and I taught them salsa! So random. They brought me inside and gave me a drink and talked to me...It was awesome. And the whole reason for this was because in Tanzania it is tradition that when a loved one dies the first death anniversary you have a huge party! and let me tell you...this party was huge! ...They wanted to celebrate his life...and that, that is how the culture here is. So positive, so layed back, so strong.

I have been super busy trying to get everything done before I go…so I actually need to end this blog here. I know so short…sorry.

I will end off on a cute note…the kids at the orphanage I painted wanted me to have a sleepover with them! “Monica, sleep here??” I honestly don’t know what I am going to do when I have to leave them.
Peace!
Monica

12 days and counting

So I finally finished the orphanage!! What a good feeling. 2 months later and I am finally finished, I was starting to think that I wouldn’t finish in time because I leave in 12 days…insane, it feels like I should have another 2 months left…I guess time fly’s when you are doing what you love to do.

Living the boy in the hospital has been doing so much better. He is in a lot less pain and we were able to get him pain medication and special cream that has been helping! It’s so cute, every time I go visit him his face lights up and he gets so excited! I visit him almost every day and I still cannot get over how overwhelmingly sad and poor that hospital is. There is a little baby boy named Richard who was badly burnt on his face and back so we bought him some cream to help with the pain…we checked on him today and his mother told us that he is doing much better and that the cream has been helping a lot. The thing that really broke my heart was this little 9 year old girl fell into the fire and got 3^rd degree burns all over her body…my 2 friends who is a nurse and a doctor helped clean her wounds and redo her dressings..and they told me how she was on no serious pain medication and she felt every bit of pain. They had to clean her burns with normal soap because the mom had no money to pay for the kind that was needed and how in North America someone would be put in an induced coma because it is too painful to handle. But somehow through all her pain she managed to say thank you over and over again to my friends for helping her…through her pain and torture she managed to be grateful and smile.

Quick story about class today. So today in class we had an “all about me” lesson. I got them to draw pictures of them and their family, their favorite animal, things they are good at, things they love…and one of the little boys drew under the things they love section me. “Teacher, look…its you!”  I just about died it was so cute.

So the other day I went to a juvenile detention center to volunteer…which was a very interesting experience. They boys were actually so nice and well behaved and respectful..it almost seemed like I wasn’t in juvi at all. We watched movies, and helped out with their chores and hung out for a while. They have to make their own food…and the government often times forgets to fund them on food…so sometimes they skip meals or don’t get enough but once again I was blown away by these peoples generosity. A boy spoon fed me rice which was their lunch and wouldn’t let us say no to the food. Honestly though hearing these boys stories was really hard. A lot of them were in there for really unfair reasons like running away from school, talking back to an aunt, or even homosexual actions. One of the boys was framed by an uncle and was able to leave but his mom told to warden she did not want him to come home and to let him stay in there.

Ok last thing…I went to church on Sunday and it was a crazy loud music, crazy dancing, passionate preaching, service. Legit, its exactly how you see it in the movies. And I saw some possessed people, or at least that’s what it looked like. They were flailing around and going crazy! One of them was tied up…really wasn’t to sure what to think of it.

Ok, that’s all for now folks...it is absolutely crazy that I am coming home so soon! Its going to go by so fast!

Love you all!

Monica!!

If you can't feed one thousand people just feed one.

It is extremely hard for me to believe that I  have almost been in Tanzania for 2 and a half months. After all that I have seen and done you would think that things wouldn't have gone by so fast...but sadly it almost feels like I got to Tanzania just yesterday...and now I am leaving in a 3 weeks time. As things slowly start to come to a close..I can already feel the sadness of leaving Africa, but I have decided to just end off on the most positive note possible...so I am now busy at work with everything I have started..praying that I get everything done.

The past couple of days have been really hard. On Monday The little boy who had the really had burns got surgery. Now let me try and enlighten you all about how seriously awful the health care is here. Firstly He was scheduled to have his surgery last Thursday but when we took him to the hospital the doctor told us to come back on Sunday...(this was after waiting 6 hours) So we bring him back on Sunday and after waiting almost 7 hours he finally gets admitted into the ward. Now this ward to put it lightly smells like death and pee..its hallways are lined with cots that have people who are so sick they are slowly dying...seriously, the amount of helplessness i felt in that moment crippled me. Poor Living (the boy) might have to stay in that awful place for over a month. I visited him yesterday and he was in so much pain..he is the toughest kid in my class...and as much as he tried to hide it...i saw countless silent tears welling up in his eyes and rolling down his cheek. He attempted a smile and greeting through his pain when I got there but I could tell instantly that he was suffering. My class made a bunch of get well soon cards for him which he really loved...and we brought him a bunch of books and other things...but to see him suffer like that broke something inside of me..We tried to talk to the nurse about getting proper pain medication and she refused...even though he wasn't getting what he needed in the least bit...even when we offered money she refused. Today I am going to visit him again...we are bringing him food, pain medication, and other things to try and help him, Hopefully he is doing better than yesterday..please keep him in your prayers! To lighten the mood...something that really touched me was that before his surgery I gave him a rosary and when i came to visit him all he had one was the rosary.

Ok...I need a story to lighten the mood. Here is something really cool. So A little boy at my placement had no shoes and was trying to walk home...but the ground was so hot...so he was crying as he tried to walk home..So i picked him up and carried him all the way home (which is really out of the was from my house..so I got alittle lost) ...So I got to meet his whole family which was cool...but then this little girl named Recho wanted me to walk her home...so I walked her all the way home...and got to meet most of her family! She has 7 siblings! ...Now this family is extremely poor...so poor that Recho is unable to pay the school fees to come to school. But without even hesitating Rechos father gave me a soda and crackers..So small to some people...but to a lot of the people in Africa its a big deal...They sat me down and even though we didn't speak the same language I felt a connection between us...how they are able to love someone that was a complete stranger blows my mind. They invited me back on Friday so I will be able to spend more time with the family!

The bag project is taking off...the girls are so excited about it...and I am too! I have seen some of the bags that they have completely made by hand and they look great!

The last couple of weeks I have been really overwhelmed with all the suffering that is going on around me...I am finding it really hard not to let it affect my day to day activities...whats even harder was accepting that I cannot help everyone...but I am learning the hard way that its not about how much you do but how you do it. Maybe i cannot change the world...but at least i can try and change someones world.

Ok thats all the time I have left...I will try and blog again soon to keep you updated on Living

Stay classy~

Monica !