Reedemed by Grace: Lost! and found...

It has been a very busy week! Tuesday we had the pleasure of visiting a school organized by Lohada (an organization that helps at risk and disadvantaged children in TZ, check out their website: http://www.lohada.org/ ). Getting to the school was a bit of an adventure. Our directions: "go out of town on the road that Stiggys(a restaurant) is on, pass a Massai village on the right, go up and down a big hill and we are on the left a bit of the way." Needless to say, we got lost. We took a dala dala too far and decided to retrace our steps on foot. The scenery was breathtaking and the local flair awesome. This was a rural area (a nice change from the city) and children were just getting out of school in their uniforms (so cute). We stopped at a local vendor for some sugar cane to munch along the way. Eventually we found the school! Students were singing a melody of the seven days of the week in English. We sang along as they got louder and louder...The teacher broke for bath time so we hung out with the kids for a short while outside. The rest of the day we headed back to town for lunch and some shopping at a Massai market. On our way home we saw the beginning of a political rally. We thought is was a talent show at first...with dancers, and a band, and one guy was dressed like a woman dancing (?)...but then the speeches began. The night ended with yummy tacos for dinner (fresh guacamole made from the avocados on campus) and singing worship songs! So excited that Nina(roommate) sings and plays guitar so well and we borrowed a guitar from the Church family. Nina is learning children songs too so we can put on a show for the toddlers.

Thursday we took a field trip to go swimming with the toddlers. It was a little cold, Maria flat out refused to get in...but Martine and Rachel splashed around for awhile. We stayed and ate lunch at the lodge. The toddlers had spaghetti and were too cute eating their food. Rachel picked out all the vegetables. I guess kids are the same in every country when it comes to veggies. Another fun day!

Friday we went and visited the "Widows project" for lunch. Another great organization and cause. You pay for an amazing African lunch, cultural dancing (they had Massai dancing today), acrobats and lessons (one week we learned how to make traditional coffee, today African porridge). A majority of the money made goes to support a school for orphans and local widows. The people are all so nice. There are many muzungu volunteers that go so it is nice to mingle with new friends. On the walk back to our dala, the sky had cleared so much we could see the top of Mt. Meru AND Kilimanjaro. What a beautiful sight! All of us white volunteers got on the same dala, which was kinda funny. We overtook the dala dala. I think there were 15 of us...for once the Africans were out numbered! HA! That will never happen again, I'm sure =P

Yesterday (Saturday) we went up Mt. Meru. We had a picnic and then hiked some up the mountain. GORGEOUS! Although I did discover a plant called "stinging neddles," not cool. Hit them a few times and it hurts! Pictures to follow another blog!

Today we went to church and took the toddlers. Very fun...Martine is so funny because he strikes up converations in Swahilli with everyone he meets. Had a long one on the dala dala. The only thing I caught was he was calling me Mama...awww. Going to miss these kids so much when I leave.

Lost...Marsha and Nina deciding which way should we go to Lohada? And the school...