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Well this is officially the end of my African adventure!....for now ;)

After 29 hours of traveling I am finally home! It feels so great to be here and see family, but its also very strange and not to mention cold! The weather was sunny and 101 when I left and now I'm in cloudy mid 30s..yikes! It will definitely take some getting used to, being back in this world and culture.
It was very difficult to say goodbye to my kids, new friends and life in Africa. I have great memories, stories and relationships that I will forever take with me.
Thank you all for reading my blog, sending me emails and being supportive when I needed it most!

Now I'm off to loads of laundry (in an actual machine!), developing pictures and getting reorganized for real life in Boston!
Hopefully I'll have pictures developed and on Facebook soon to share with everyone.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Love
Jacqueline

2 Days

This week is flying, as I expected! And it's getting closer and closer for me to go.
I was really excited last week about coming home for the holidays, and I still am this week, but now that it's here I'm not ready to leave.  I feel like I've almost made a mini life here, I have a routine, a job, local friends and the minimal things I need to live on.
I can't believe it's been over two months, and now I just have two days. I can't wait to see my family, friends, and the comforts of home!
On Tuesday afternoon I said goodbye to my little friend Subira at the orphanage. Stewart, one of the other volunteers, and I went and painted the two classrooms in the orphanage a sky blue color, and today we are going back to paint letters and numbers on the walls.  While we were there I said goodbye to Subira and gave her a little journal to write in. Inside of it I wrote her a letter, gave her a picture of what my home looked like (a postcard of the lilacs in New Hampshire) and self addressed envelope with stamp to the US so she can write me a letter. She was very excited, and it was really hard to say goodbye. 
Today I had my last day of teaching my little ones, as tomorrow I'm throwing a little party for them! I'm bringing cookies, juice and shaving cream to draw letters in on the concrete, we will probably dance and sing as well.  It will be a very sad but fun day! It's been hard to let go of the class and hand it over to the new volunteer. I feel like it was my baby that I made from nothing, since it wasn't there before and I only want the best for them. I know she'll do a great job, she has a lot of experience and is great with the kids!
I'll be sure to post pictures of the shaving cream party!
I'll spend the next two days, saying goodbye, packing and eating my last few bites of African food in the hot hot sun!

Can't wait to see you all :)
Love
Jacqi

Birthday!

Today was a great day to celebrate my birthday in Africa! Some of the other volunteers also have had birthdays here, so knowing what to expect was exciting. The house cook, Chiku, makes a sweet little cake and we all dance around in a conga line singing a song that goes "cuta cuta, cuta keki cuta!" (Translation; cut cut, cut the cake cut!) Its very fun. I got some really nice handmade cards from the other volunteers and a pair of earings and konga fabric as a group gift!
We played cards for the rest of the night at the outside while listening to the restaurant next door which only plays Michael Jackson and Celine Dion (they love her here!!)
So overall it was a very low key but exciting birthday.
Thank you for all the birthday wishes from home!!

Ill send along some new pictures I took of the kids today, absolutely adorable.

Heading to bed now! Tomorrow I will be showing one of the new volunteers my class, in preparation to hand over the ropes :(

Love and miss
Jacqi
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Single digits..

9 days until I am home, how time flies. I can hardly remember, it seems so long ago that the countdown was 64, even though it went by so fast.
We haven't had electricity or shower water in almost 24 hours. It was so hot last night it was hard to sleep. With no fans and no showering, I've become a smelly puddle in this 101 degree weather today. After my day with the kids in the hot sun, with their runny noses and dirty hands; I caved and filled up the back up bucket in the bathroom with water using the little sink to make my own shower. TIA. That is one thing I won't miss, and will greatly appreciated upon returning home.

This week felt longer than most. On wednesday I went back to the special needs clinic and it was a very quiet day, not many children or mothers showed up. Tuma actually seemed a little bored, I think he really liked the crowd we had the first time. I liked it this time because it provided for a lot of one on one time with the 5 children that came.
Things have been good at school. We've wrapped up our family and friends theme for the week, yesterday they practiced writing mother and father and today we drew pictures of "rafiki" (friends). There remembering a lot of things that we've been doing over the past month, its a great feeling I'm so proud of them!

Tomorrow some more volunteers leave and 13 new ones come. I will again be losing 2 roommates and gaining 3 or 4. Its so nice to meet lots of people, but seeing so much turn over makes me feel like I've been here forever. A lot of people only stay for 3 weeks. I have made some great friendships, and met so many different and interesting people.

I really want to finish my book this weekend, and maybe spend some time at the beach. Ill also be going back to the disabled clinic on saturday for their morning group. Other than that no big plans!

Hope all is well!
Love and miss
J
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Week 8

Hello!
I can't believe its already week 8 of my adventure, I both feel like I've been here forever and that time has literally flown by. I have very mixed feelings about having less than 2 weeks left of living here. Its been incredible and I will miss all the children and people I have met so much, but I'm also looking forward to going home for the holidays and being with family.
This past weekend some of the other volunteers and I went to Dar, the capital city, to celebrate our "birthday weekend" we were celebrating Hannahs birthday, which was on saturday, and mine a week early. We wanted one night of "luxury" so we booked a room at the Holiday Inn, one of the nicest hotels in Dar, (funny right!?) And enjoyed the comforts of a big bed, air-conditioning, cable (11 channels) (we got to see 2 episodes of Oprah!), and a hot shower. It was a great night of doing absolutely nothing, followed by an amazing breakfast with cereal, fruit, toast, eggs, granola, pastries and other buffet things which was so exciting since everyday our breakfast is porridge, papaya, beans and hard boiled eggs. A perfect way to celebrate birthdays in africa with a little weekend treat!
Once back in Bagamoyo I began my weekly routine. For this weeks theme I chose family, so today I asked the children to draw pictures of their families and then we identified who each person was in english and sawhili. It was soo much fun, they drew the cutest pictures and they were all very engaged!
This afternoon I went to the orphanage to spend time with my little friend Subira. We read two books and did crafts with the younger children. I brought her some string, since she makes beaded bracelets and can then sell them to take money home. I've been trying to buy jewelry and bracelets from her so she gets the money, rather than stores around town. So today she taught me how she makes her favorite kind of bracelets, and its really hard! Its very complicated and hard to follow but she does it as if its no big deal. When I was leaving she handed me a little wrapped package, but when I went to open it in front of her she shied away and said I had to open it later. Inside was two bracelets she had beaded with my name, a picture of her, a little plastic flower, and an anniversary card(its the thought that counts right ;). The card just said to Jacqi love Subira. The gift was soo sweet, and I was so touched! It will be hard to say goodbye to her next week.

Tomorrow I return to the clinic for the disabled with Tuma! I'm sure I will have stories to share.

Love and miss
J
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Clinic for the Disabled

This morning I woke up, went for my morning run, amidst the burning trash and groups of goats. Then I ate breakfast; rice porridge, papaya, a hard boilded egg and a crepe like pancake with peanut butter. After breakfast I got ready to go to the clinic for disabled children little did I know what my day would entail.
Last night in thinking about todays events I asked one of the guards Tuma, he is 24 and in secondary school, hoping to go to university soon and study business, to come with me to help translate. The first time when I went to visit on saturday the women and mothers that were there didn't speak any english and my swahili was not enough to communicate well. Tuma said yes, which was so nice since he would be up all night on watch and then go with me at 10 am. Anyways he was ready at 945 and off we went. He kept saying he was excited to see my placement, I tried many times to reassure him that this was not my normal class, and we were going to a different place with disabled children, he told me he understood but I wasn't convinced. First he tried to walk up to a tree with a mother and her child, when I asked him where he was going he said your placement, when I told him that my placement was not under the tree, he said "o thank god, I thought no one had shown up for you!"
Awesome.
Once we got there it was about 8 mothers, sisters and grandmothers and the various disabled children they had brought all sitting around laying on the floor of the cement hut. We sat with them and they just starred at us, we starred at them, all in silence. I asked Tuma to tell them we were just here to watch whatever they normally do and we would help with whatever they wanted. They responded that "this is what they do and asked what I was going to teach today?" Two months ago I would have panicked and thought about how unprepared and put on the spot I was, but being that "TIA" and I've run into this situation many times I was able to think on my feet...or so I thought.
The night before I grabbed a few things to bring, just in case this happened and created a few resources. I brought crayons and pictures for fine motor, a woven mat to do stretches with some of the children who have gross motor issues, and I made a bag with tactile toys and then filled in with sand from outside for some sensory stuff. Basically it was an unimpressive combination of whatever I could find!
But before I brought any of this out Tuma suggested I should sing a song to them. I would never be opposed to that but I can't sing in swahili and many of the children could not hear or speak. So I decided to give it a shot, the song I chose was (jumpstart!) "Open Shut Them!" accompanied by the clapping hand motions. There was no response or involvement to my singing...just crickets and a lot of blank stares, even from the mamas, I could see it in their eyes, "why is this crazy wazoongoo waving her hands and singing by herself?"
I asked Tuma to ask the mamas specifically which kids could "not hear, speak, see or walk" (there are no diagnostic terms for any disabilities here, but rather identified by their traits) that way I could better choose an activity knowing what the childrens abilities were. After a few minutes of back and forth Tuma pointed to all of the children who could not speak or hear, which was about 80 percent of them. He said "don't you have that sign language, it will be fine!" Yes I know some sign language Tuma...but in ENGLISH! He said "don't worry, once I went to primary school with a boy who could not hear and so I know how to translate." Great I thought, thinking he knew motions or sign langauge or something, but then he dissapeared and returned with a bucket and lid and a triumphant look as if he had solved world peace. So there was Tuma and I sitting in front of all these mamas and children, I sang "open shut them" while Tuma lifted the lid off the bucket and then put it back on...get it open, shut. I had no idea what he was doing with the bucket until I made the connection and he was sooo proud! It was a great attempt and probably hilarious to watch the two of us but pretty much a failure, in terms of gaining an interest from the kids.
So I decided to split the children up, I put a few younger children in one corner with tactile manipulatives and the sand bag, gave the babies some blocks to stack, the older children coloring and Tuma read one book to a little boy with downs syndrome, and I worked on stretching and sitting with a few children who had disfigured legs and low gross motor control. It was really working for a little while all the kids seemed entertained and happy, most were participating and the mamas seemed happy. Tuma stood up, mind you we had already been there for almost and hour, and said to me, looking around, "O my god! This is special class. Children different." Apparently he wasn't understanding what I had said earlier afterall, and I said "yes it is, this is what I do in america and now me and you are doing it together here!" He responded, "congratulations and god bless you," an odd combination but very sweet none the less.
While the children did they various activities Tuma said the mamas asked if we could teach them english. So together we taught the mamas a little bit of conversational english, "hi my name is, what is your name?" They were really excited and did well! Then Tuma and I left, he said he had so much fun and wanted to teach again together tomorrow, I told him I had to go back to my other class tomorrow but we can go again next wednesday. I have a feeling by then he will have created a syllabus!

I'm so sorry for the long post but my day was both challenging and humorous, and although you've never met Tuma or seen these kids but I wanted to share the very rewarding and comical experience.
I really liked the clinic, but from what I've gathered from the mamas and seen, its more like a support group for mamas with disabled children. Since the children don't go to school, instead of sitting at home with them, they all sit together at this hut. The types of disabilities I've seen there are downs syndrome, autism, multiple disability, cerebral palsy, albino children(which they consider a disability here) and one girl who seemed to have some type of regressive disorder, she was about 7 years old but was the size of a 2 year old and completely mentally handicapped with no motor function, she was just carried around on her sisters back. Its so interesting that they have no names or medical diagnosis, they mamas just recognize that they all different. Although it was very challenging to find an effective activity and communicate it was a fun day, filled with some smiles from the kids and laughs from me and Tuma, I look forward to going back next week.

After lunch I walked to the beach and laid out there for the day and that's about it.
Again sorry for the long post!
Love and miss
Jacqi
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

A quick hello!

Hi!

Nothing new to report just wanted to say hello!
My class was crazy today! I think they had way to much sugar yesterday from a birthday party for one of the little girls, which was a very interesting experience.  I wasn't sure what was going on the whole time, I just kind of followed what I Wwas motioned to do. I was told to sit on a chair in the from of the larger room with Joan, the birthday girl, and pick 5 of my other children to stand up also. A cake was made by her grandmother and then she sat in a chair with me in the front of the room and fed me a piece of cake first, "since I'm her mwalimu (teacher), then I had to feed her a piece, and then each of the 5 "birthday elves?" as I labeled them. Then everyone sang swahili songs and she shouted that she was "4 years old 4 years old!"  Needless to say it was very fun and interesting, unlike any birthday that I've ever attended!
So today the children were very energetic, but we managed to write "water" or "maji" in their exercise books and color pictures I made of fruit. The theme for the week in English and Swahili is food.
This afternoon I'm going to Immuma, the orphanage to work with a young girl Subira, age 13, on her English and hang out with her for the afternoon. I've met her a couple of times when I've visited Immuma and we've really taken to one another. She's very shy and quiet, she lives with one sister, no parents, and often has a lot of responsibility cooking and caring for the other orphans, so she doesn't often get one or one attention or time to just have fun.


Tomorrow I'm going to the clinic for disabled children, so excited! I will write more then!
Still very hot here and the temperature is rising!
Love and miss!
Jacqi