The last and most amazing day

We were quite excited driving the last time to the orphanage this morning. Especially when taking a different turn through a huge slum, it striked us again the conditions “our” kids are living when outside of the orphanage.

the neighborhood

Once arrived, we started to get the bags ready for each class room. One by one the children were called out of the class and directed to the office construction site where they received their bag, guided inside and helped by us into their track suits, socks, shoes etc. The excitement in the class rooms grew by the second, children’s eyes glued from the window to the newly dressed kids outside!

first newly dressed bunch of kids in the school yard

first moments with new clothes

what's going on out there?

In the “changing room”, we took each kid aside, removed their school uniforms, their shoes and socks – or what was left of them – and got them into their track suits and baseball hats. This was the most stunning, rewarding yet sometimes shocking experience of the trip for most of us. When removing the clothes we often noticed that they had no socks or underwear at all and in nearly all the children’s pockets we could find the little toy car we gave them yesterday. Some even still had their balloons suggesting that they carry all their “precious’ items with them at all times. A few children did not know how to put on socks – they never had any.

undressing and dressing 81 kids

who of us is happier?

I removed a girl’s shoes full of holes and discovered that she had no socks, when she spotted the new, clean socks, she laughed out loud in total joy! Another guy was very shy to undress until we found out he had no underwear. Showing him the two new panties in the bag for him, he got tears in his eyes – and us too. Which Western child would get emotional over a pair of socks, shoes or underwear?

the content of one bag

The shoes seemed nevertheless to be the most popular items in the bag. When seeing them they could not wait to get rid of the old ones, kicking them impatiently in a corner. Even if it was the total wrong size, way too big or too small, they said “it’s ok, teacher”, fearing that we might take them away. We’ve changed them later on into the right sizes.

finding the right shoe size

excited about the new outfit

When demonstrating how to wear the tights we’ve brought over, the girls went ecstatic, never having seen tights in their lives and always wearing heavy trousers underneath their school skirts! Some of the guys supposedly only knew baseball hats from magazines – when handing them over, they turned them the other way around and started to make some hip hop moves….

hip hop moves

the sportive "gang"

After all this excitement, the volume level in the class room and court yard was considerably rising. All of them jumped around laughing and showing off saying ‘I look so smart!”, followed by a very well  organized group picture for us.

us with the kids

To shorten the time before lunch a bit, they all gathered in one class room and the music was turned on. There we were – a bunch of happy, satisfied, hyper and laughing children dancing to their favorite songs!

Outside, Alice took care of the guardians who came to collect the bags with the additional new clothes and the worn items. They were gathered in a different class room and lectured for a full hour on how to take care of the children, the new items, that they are strictly for them and that they need to take good care of the new clothes and toys.

Alice lecturing the guardians

Let us put Alice in the spotlight for a minute – this 32 years old woman is running the show at the orphanage, being a mother to all kids, caring for their wellbeing just as much as for her own three children. This is quite remarkable in a country where poverty forces you to think about yourself and your own first. Yesterday we learnt that she took an orphan into her own home. The pupil’s guardian passed away on Tuesday and he had nowhere to go to.  She did organize all the shopping from our donations, packed all the bags, re-filled 20 canisters of oil for a whole day (without a single sign of complaint), wrote the messages for the guardians, organized the lunches and spent lots of time for the school kids although having three children by  herself. When handing over the remaining money to her yesterday, she said: “I would like to cry now; you did so much for us I do not know how to thank you.” She really does not count her own efforts in this, what an exemplary woman!

Alice and her 81 additional children

The guardians started to leave with the bags, each single one stopping at us, thanking us and wishing us farewell. One of them came with tears in her eyes, touching our hands and individually thanking us by blessing us. Another quite emotional moment…

the guardians

excited what their kids might have got

a little baby sister

guardians leaving happily

Finally it was time for the last treat of our trip – the festive lunch! After cooking for hours, the dishes werre served, consisting of one potato, one spoon of salad, one egg, one samosa and a piece of fried chicken! Keep in mind - this is considered the special festive meal in months!

Yves cooking



the chicken is getting ready

Julius frying the chicken

When serving the plates in the classroom, they were all sitting again with a finger on their mouth, meaning they have to behave and be quiet otherwise there is no treat. Everyone had to wait until the last person had the dish served, the meal could not be touched before that. Staring at the plates, we noticed some of them secretly licking the edge of the plate already, not being able to wait!

PSSSSSST!

waiting until everyone is served

behave and be quiet

The juices, a special treat once in a while, were served along with the meal and after a “thank you” prayer they finally started eating. What a joy being a witness of this!

Finally eating time!

not yet for these guys

the special treat - a juice!

With our project coming to an end, we said our farewells, left some more money for another food supply round to the families and received beautiful African dresses. Alice could not have better spoken our minds and feelings by saying “this was a truly beautiful day”. We left surrounded by the kids, glowing of pride in their new clothes and running after our car until we were gone.

Alice, Yves, Martina, Zoe and Julius in traditional gifts

the last good bye

To sum up, we are amazed and proud that we really made a difference in these children’s life. Not only have we as the team from Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel have made an impact on the way of life over here, but all other volunteers / donors / ambassadors who have dedicated parts of their life to charity work. Juma as an example, the disabled kid we saw on so many pictures, had a brain infection as a baby and could not walk. Volunteers at the orphanage fixed him leg braces and today he is walking by himself and without any help to school (only holding the hand of a same-aged friend).

 Looking at the bigger picture, founding this orphanage has made a huge difference in each of the 81 children’s life and only with volunteers, donations and the personal efforts of individuals, this work can be continued. We know it might be controversial to make publicity of a charity project but we strongly believe that only if the awareness and the stories are spread as much as possible, it will reach the right people which might follow our examples.

Our donations in the long-term like the veranda, the medium-term such as the track suits, running shoes and uniforms as well as in the short-term such as the food bags for the families, the lunch and the goodies, have definitely made a difference over here. But let’s keep in mind that Glorious Orphanage is only ONE of the many orphanages here in Arusha (which are even in much worse condition) and Arusha is only one city in Africa, so rest assured however small your donation of money, time or dedication is, it will make a big difference in someone’s life.

A huge thanks to Alice who integrated us in her family, the kids which opened our eyes and hearts in any possible way, Lujan for pointing us in the direction of the orphanage and of course our HOD team at the hotel which made this project possible in the first place and allowed us to act as ambassadors on site!

THANKS!

Tomorrow is Christmas!

We are all sorted now - when we arrived at the orphanage today, we were very happy to see that not only the running shoes had arrived but also the jump suits for all kids!

jump suits and running shoes

So we started another couple of hours of packing 81 individual bags with the running shoes, the jump suit, paired with socks from Abu Dhabi and two pieces of underwear for each one. We are so excited to see the children's faces tomorrow when receiving the bags!

81 bags to pack

socks, tights, underwear, jump suits and runners

When finished, we went to town to do another shopping trip - white boards for the school rooms, stationary such as pencils, markers, school books and pencil sharpeners. On the way back we stopped at a supermarket and bought some more items - plastic jugs, buckets, toy cars for every child and balloons.

stationaries for the school

 a few toys and household items

the Tanzanian way to transport the white boards in the open trunk

Arriving back at the orphanage, we distributed the crayons, vitamins, coloring books, sweets, stickers and the glowing stars to Alice, deciding that we only do the stickers and the cars today. The room was bursting of new items which made us overly excited for the "big day" tomorrow!

nearly finished

our goodies from Abu Dhabi

stickers, glowing stars and crayons - for some excitement in between

While waiting for the children to finish lunch, we had a look at the veranda, which grew substantially over night. Now they only have to wait for the concrete to dry and on Monday the roof will be fixed above it!

nearly finished!

The teacher explained to the children that the "other volunteers" are waiting outside to give them some gifts - but only if they are quiet and behaved! All eyes went outside the window in eager excitement about what the "teachers" might have for them!

When entering, we distributed the cars, the glowing stars and the stickers and were a bit surprised that they all put their finger in a "psssst" position on their mouth. So cute - we remembered that they only get the gifts if they were quiet!

look at their fingers on the mouth!

It didn't take long and the excitement took over - the lauhgter, "vroomm vroomm" sounds from playing with the cars and these hugely opened eyes staring at us made us quite sentimental, seeing again what little it takes to make a difference in their lifes. 

some of them saw a toy car for the first time in their live

us distributing the goodies

so excited about the new things!

playing with the cars

The absolute highlight in this was the moment when the teacher announced that those stars actually glow in the dark - they cheered with their hands in the air, totally happy and surprised, what a moment!

the second the bubble bursted - announcement that the stars glow at night!

All in all, this day was actually our preparation for the huge day tomorrow (and our last) - we'll spoil them with a sumptuous lunch, the clothes/shoes bags, the caps, a brand new and finished veranda and a little farewell bonbon!

We can't wait!

FOOD BAGS DAY!

Well, this was one of the most exciting days so far! We went early, at 7.30am to the orphanage and got a nice surprise - the children were all lined up in the school yard for their 'morning ritual' of singing, dancing and stretching - what an amazing thing to watch! We guess one of the reasons for this is to try keeping them busy until the last ones arrive. Lined up by the four grades (the smallest grade in the first row, the oldest in the last), they are chanting all kinds of children songs in unity, but also counting numbers, repeating the orphanage rules by heart and in a playful way, start stretching their muscles. There is no praying involved, all religions are next to each other - the most widespread are Christianity and Islam, but they are chanting songs about how grateful they are, that they are all coming from heaven and one song (that impressed us the most) was chanted from the bottom of their hearts: 'I am happy to share'. So these are the values that apparently are tought over here, and we have to admit that this is quite impressive and explains the peaceful togetherness of the people.

It was touching to see these small kids being so self-reliant and independent, walking all the way to school by themselves. The smallest kids or children with special needs are guarded by same-aged friends or siblings, so everybody takes care of each other. There seem to be no schools for special needs, they just get integrated in normal schools and seem to be so happy with this!



Juma with his friend


Once we entered the house, we saw that Alice and the widows had pre-packed most of the food bags, meaning that they measured out 2 kilos of each rice / beans / flour / sugar and salt and distributed each of those into 450 small bags. So here the real work started - we prepared 80 large bags, distributed the small ones into them, followed by 2 litres of oil (which we poured from large canisters), 2 long bars of soap, and not to forget - our IKEA blanket that we brought from Abu Dhabi!



preparing 450 small food bags



a full room of work

  

 

Zoe and Martina in packing action

Once again we unpacked and repacked and folded and unfolded and rolled and unrolled those blankets into their final destination - this made us laugh, since we got a sudden feeling that those blankets obviously were the most work in the whole trip!

Martina and Yves rolling and packing the blankets -again!

We had another visitor - Hanna, the founder of Glorious Orphanage Cooperation came to Arusha to spend two weeks on site, looking for potential land where another orphanage could be built, as an extention of Glorious Orphanage! Good luck with that!

refilling 160 litres of oil

exhausted Zoe

 
So we all worked together on the food bags, refilling oil, fixing torn sugar bags, scratching beans from the floor to not loose a single one and this all in a very busy environment with curious kids, guardians looking eagerly through the windows and Amos, Alice's son stealing the sugar and proudly showing it to the pupils outside. Being soaked in oil all over our bodies, having sugar on top of it and some flour on the skin and in the hair we finally understood how a breaded chicken feels before going into the frying pan!

curious guardians and kids

full action in sugar, oil and dirt

Towards the end of the packing - which took us around 5 hours - we were running out of plastic bottles for the oil re-fill. Note on the side - all empty water bottles are kept preciously for filling and re-filling over here, we felt a bit bad remembering all the Masafi bottles that we are just throwing down the garbage chute back home. However, this left us with only one choice: we had to drink 2 litres of water each and on the spot to get some more empty bottles. We never had such round bellies!



drinking water for a good cause



bags and us finished!

At noon, most of the guardians came - mostly women in their beautifully colored dresses - and lined up in front of the door staring at the food bags. The expression in their faces was so happy, excited and grateful! Some of them talked to us in Swahili but the only word we understood is 'asante' - meaning 'thank you'.

guardians arriving

queueing in front of the entrance

Outside, they wraped a scarf into the form of a small ring, placed them on their heads, tied up the bags (13-14 kilos heavy!) and placed them on their heads! This is the way they walked out of the orphanage, with a big smile on their faces! We felt a moment of sadness thinking of the rest of our management team. We would have loved to share this very rewarding moment with all of them since it gives you so much more back than you invested!

wrapping them up for the walk

all placed on the heads

look at her facial expression!

dancing for the picture!

happy ladies on the way home

Soaked with this beautiful experience, we left for the day - dirty, exhausted, painful backs but completely happy. On the way back, rain started and poured down heavily for half an hour (like every day so far), which managed to get us our last surprise of the day which we only could laugh about though - no water, electricity and light in the hotel! Cheers to that. 

salt packets