Eating home-made cookies!!!

Jambo!



We're all settled back in to life at the orphanage...when we walked thru the door, the kids (and Maggie) came running to jump on us! It was a crazy trip, but we had a lot of fun, and there were many moments when you just had to say, "It's all part of the experience!"



The beach was gorgeous, white sand and clear water...there were no waves and we were on a sand bar, so it was perfect for Zam to learn how to swim! He had NO fear about getting into the water, and Michael showed him right away how to put his head under. After that, he would run in, look at you, say, "Bye!" and bellyflop face-first in to the water. He was so proud of himself! I videoed a few seconds of Michael and Zam swimming, which Michael posted on the blog so you guys can see. It was awesome to watch him come out of his shell as the week went on. He had us all laughing everytime we looked at him. He buried Michael in the sand one day and then climbed on top, he collected a jar full of shells, and he made up a pizza dance. I think he really learned a lot of English during the week.



After a couple days on the beach, we headed back to StoneTown for our "Dolphin Experience"...and boy, was it a experience! We were picked up at 8am from our Inn, and taken by van about an hour South . When we got out, they handed us some flippers and snorkeling gear, and a size XL life-vest for Zam...then they walked us about 10 feet to our little wooden boat. The water was pretty choppy, but we probably went about 300 meters off shore...then they spotted some dolphins and said, "jump in!" So we did! I freaked Michael out the first jump because I quickly realized that my snorkeling mask didn't work, so I took it off and was swimming without it. The dolphins left really quickly though, so we climbed back in to the boat to try to follow them. We repeated this process three more times. I only went in the water twice, and tried to take pictures of Michael, Amanda, and Becky on the third jump. Michael actually got to swim right behind one of the dolphins for a few seconds, but our boat hit a wave as I was trying to take the picture and I fell down...oops! After that, another lady on our boat couldn't stop getting sea-sick, so we headed back to the shore. We all determined that, although swimming with the wild dolphins in Africa was quite the experience, we still want to try the real "swimming with the dolphins" some day. Zam has been telling all the kids back at the orphanage about the "big fish" he saw though, so I think he enjoyed it!



Our travelling back to Mt. Meru was far less stressful than the trip to Zanzibar. Our night in Dar was actually pretty good. We even found a restaurant that served American-style food! Zam had 2 cokes, his first cheeseburger, fries, and ice cream. The sugar-rush that followed was hilarious to say the least! He was running around the hotel like a maniac, which you know Michael joined right in for! We got up the next morning and had no trouble getting to our bus on time (this is pretty shocking for the way that scheduling works in Africa!). The biggest "pain" was when I slipped on the tile floor and fell down about 5 stairs...I have a pretty large bruise on my tailbone, but I was relieved that Michael didn't even laugh at me! 12 hours later, we were back at Peace Matunda!



It's hard to believe that we're already half way through our time in Africa. We fly out of Kilimanjaro exactly 4 weeks from today. We will be teaching like normal for the next two weeks, then we go on our safari, before returning for one more week of teaching. I think that we will be ready to return home to all of you, consistent electricity, diet pepsi, and not being hastled on the streets every two steps! But I also know that leaving these kids behind will be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Mery asks me every day, "Is today the day you leave?" and every time I leave the room (even for just a few minutes), Corfield gives me a hug...I will definitely miss those hugs...but that brings me to some of what you guys have been asking about. There are definitely a lot of needs here at the orphanage. Most importantly, they're trying to finish building the school, which currently doesn't have floors, electricity, plumbing, covering for the concrete walls, etc. This building will also have living space for the kids so that they can begin to house more than the 9 we already have. Kaaya has estimated that it will take about another $9,000 to finish the building. Besides all that, they always need supplies. The school only has the resources that the volunteers bring with them. That means when the volunteers run out of paper, pencils, etc, so does the school. The most recent volunteers to come brought tons of toothbrushes and toothpastes with them, so they taught all the kids at the school how to use them and sent each child home with his/her own. A friend of Amanda's back home sent money to buy each child a mosquito net for their beds, so we're picking those up this week. We're then going to visit each child at their home to help them get the nets set up. Malaria is the third largest killer of children here, so we're hoping that that will help protect them at night. Amanda also had all of the students tested for HIV back in March, and will be running follow-up tests again in the beginning of July. It's good to see all of this happening, and I know that it will do so much to help these kids in the future, but there's still so much that they need...so really, anything would help! The kids even get excited when we give them bubbles! So, you guys just let us know if/how you want to help, and we can figure it out from there!



Anyways, we hope you all are doing well! We miss you guys a lot, and we think about you all the time!

Happy belated Father's Day!



Love,

Kasey

P.S. We calculated the gas price here, and it is almost $6.00 a gallon....