Swahili School

Today we completed our last Family Needs Assessment form, and this afternoon, Gina and I began our first Swahili lesson. After lunch, self-appointed "mwalimu" (teacher) Justas took us outside the office, where he had set up a blackboard and a bench for our outdoors lesson. Since the day I arrived in Moshi, he has been talking about being our Swahili teacher. Now that Gina is here, and things are settling down, Justas felt we were ready to begin learning. He was prepared with a notebook, where he had listed out his lesson plan. As he stood at the board, helpfully explaining greetings and feelings, one of the neighborhood kids, Bahati, came running up to our outdoor classroom demanding candy. We invited her to school, and she obediently sat down on the bench, promptly demanding soda and paper. I gave her a sip of soda, a piece of paper, and she took my pen out of my hands. After trading the pen for a box of colored pencils, she took a few moments to draw on my notes, and then left, pencils in hand. Our lesson concluded shortly after, and Gina and I headed downtown.

Aside from that, we're getting ready for our gathering this Saturday. Last night, Gina and I sat and hand-decorated our invitations for the 27 orphans and their caregivers, and today, during the Swahili lesson, Luka delivered them. We placed the order for 100 tea cakes (vitumbua) and 100 "mandazi". We're all hoping the weather will be nice... since this will be an outdoors event!

Speaking of climate, Mount Kilimanjaro made its first appearance, yesterday. It has been rainy or at least cloudy since I got here, but suddenly, in the late afternoon yesterday, the entire mountain became clear. You could see all of the base-hills leading up to the highest peak in Africa, which was topped with snow and absolutely breathtaking in the orange light of a sunset. Here, they say that if Kili comes out for you, it's a blessing. I hope that's true and it means good things to come for these orphans and their families.