Placement

When I first got here to Arusha I was placed at an orphanage called Hope Orphanage Centre with 2 other volunteers from my house, Ashley and Xing (pronounced Shing). This orphanage has 12 kids who live there prementally but kids from the surrounding area come for basic schooling and English. Orphanages here in Tanzania work differently than what most people expect. Tanzanians are a very family oriented culture, for example, they will refer to you as sister or friend. If a child’s parents have left, passed away, etc. the extended family member will take in the child, or if there isn’t an extended family member then a neighbor usually will take in the child. But most of these families do not have enough money to provide or give basic needs to the child, so the children who are affected by this will come to get basic schooling and food. We were only at Hope for 3 days because the staff was making it very uncomfortable for us, the teacher kept trying to get us to do business with her and it became very frustrating. So we were able to switch to a placement called Hillcrest, which is a school.

            Hillcrest has about 20 kids, ranging from 4-7 years old and they are the cutest! We get up everyday at 6:45 am and start walking up to our placement around 7:30. When we get to placement we usually welcome the class and then start with either the alphabet or counting. The teacher Elizabeth has been sick with malaria, so she hasn’t been able to come to the school, but her husband has been watching over the school while we teach. I must say all those child development classes that I took are definitely paying off! The only draw back is of course the language barrier, but with their basic English and Issac to help we have been able to communicate, as well as learn some new Swahili words.  

On our first day, Stephanie, the volunteer who has been there for 3 weeks, organized a doctor’s to come out and test all the kids for HIV and Malaria. How the doctor’s test this is they prick their finger and then apply the blood to two different testing sticks. Everyone tested NEGATIVE for HIV!!! WHOOO HOO! But a little girl named Winnie, tested positive for Malaria. Stephanie paid for the doctor’s time and the medicine for Winnie to knock the Malaria out of her system and then Ashley and I pitched in some money to help. Here in Arusha only 3-4% have HIV, which is very low compared to other parts of Tanzania. For example, Dar Es Salam is 45% of the population has HIV.  Some of the other volunteers at the volunteer house (Sophie and Lauren), did the same thing, were they set up a doctor to come to the orphanage they volunteer at to test the kids and one tested positive for HIV and he is only 4… Sophie said that it was pretty hard to sit there and see that this 4-year-old boy has a disease that will change his life and there is a high chance that he might not get the medicine that he needs.  Tanzania has free health care for children under 5 years old but since he is 4 he might only get free medicine for 6 months and then his parents might not be able to afford the medicine. Tanzania gets aid from western countries, but the rumor is that number will be decreasing.

My trip has opened my eyes in so many ways, and I am so happy to be able to have this experience!