Feels Like Home

I sadly only have 2 days left! I feel so at home here. This is the only time I've gotten to an internet cafe in the week so I will try to catch people up on what I've been doing.

First, my family sponsors an AIDS orphan and pays for her education. She happens to be going to the school in which I am teaching. I've gotten to spend some quality time with her and it will be very hard for me to leave her. When I get back to the states I will post pictures of her. She is such a bright spot in my life. When you ask about my children, I will now say I have 4. Happiness is my 4th child and she truly feels like family. She graduates from Form 4 (Senior) next year, so I am going to have to try to figure out how to get back here to see that. I did tell her that my family would continue to sponsor her for form 5 and 6 which is like training before college. She cried when she found out that she won't have to worry about that for 3 more years.

I spent 2 days at Faraja, which is a school for mentally and physically handicapped children. I was in heaven. The students were so happy and well taken care of. They live there and it has become their home. I have about 4 children in the kindergarten class in which I visited that I would LOVE to take home with me. Wait until you see those pictures. Their faces and smiles will take your breath away.

We are getting ready for the big celebration at our Sister church tomorrow. We heard that we will have to get up at 4:00 a.m. to start cooking. We get to help peel bananas and potatoes later today when we get back there. They are expecting around 5,000 people to attend. The animals that have been donated so far and are being kept on the yard of the church are 5 cows, 15 goats, 8 sheep and 160 chickens. Butchering day is today... hopefully I'm not around when that happens. I about cried yesterday when I saw the villagers bring animals and I knew what was going to happen to that animal.

I'm going to end now. Please know I am safe and very happy with my Tanzania Family! I'm crying right now thinking of leaving them because they really have warmly taken us in.

Oh, last night we sat by the fireplace in the dining room to get warm. I'm wearning a scarf around my neck right now. Just thought I'd mention it because we heard that you are in a heat wave. I'll think of you all tonight as I sit by the fire to keep warm.

Kwa Harinie