Day 6

A few days have gone by and they have been filled with some really awesome things. On Saturday I went with one other girl to the Marungu (?) waterfalls and hiked through the hills to find them. It was crazy hiking in the hills for 40 minutes just to find a lone house perched in the middle of nowhere. Some of the kids are really freaked out by white people (Mzungu) and others come running behind you on the trail yelling "pictcha pictcha!." On Sunday we drove for four hours on the worst road I have even seen through the middle of nowhere to see a Masaai camp. The Masaai are typically in Kenya, but some here and they live in the bush with literally nothing and hours from any civilization. They slaughtered a goat (which we then had to eat to be respectful) and I have two brands on my arms. I have so many pictures and videos now (including a video of the goat slaughter and a photo of the branding, but of course I left my USB/camera thingy at home so I'll hopefully post all those tomorrow with details.

I started really working at the orphanage today and it's quite a struggle to teach kids who don't speak English. Simple things like "sit down," "be quiet," and "stop hitting," are on my list of things to learn tonight.

Dad, in answer to your questions, yes, many people stay here for extended periods of time. One girl actually got here at the beginning of June for two weeks and ended up canceling her tickets. She is now planning on leaving in November, probably.
I don't even know what it is they need at the orphanage the most. Today, all the kids were distracted because the rug they sit on is unraveling and they keep tying each other up with it. There are so many simple things like that which they need. They all sit on the ground in a little area for lessons - the teacher teaches the same lesson for all kids even though some are just three and some are almost six. So she writes on the board 2+2=? and some kids are doing the math and others are just doodling in their little books, because there's only one of her and 40 of them. Anyhow, none of the kids have anything to lean on to write, because we have just a rug on the dirt ground so it's pretty much impossible to do anything. Even just cardboard for each kid would make a huge difference. I guess sometimes volunteers have donated money to build things like walls for the school and things like that, but I can't help but think that they don't even notice things like that, it's just how it is here. But so many really simple things would make learning easier for them, including not being starving. Those are just my thoughts.

Thanks guys for your comments! Look forward to pictures tomorrow - I'll leave tho goat slaughter off, though.