Peanut Butter and a Visit to the Orphanage

Trying to keep up with this thing is a lot of work! I am going to try to be more dilligent about it though; this trip should be documented well, so be gone, laziness.

On Friday we had no class because half of our group flew to Zanzibar for the weekend to bask in the sun on the beach, but the rest of us stayed and decided to do some hiking and sight-seeing more locally. Friday we took a van to the outskirts of Arusha and visited three ladies who make peanut butter as a potential volunteer opportunity. They were so sweet and welcoming and gave us lots of roasted peanuts to munch on. They sort all the peanuts by hand, roast them in one small oven (they have electricity 4 times a week), and then grind them and make them into the freshest, most delicious smelling peanut butter I've ever encountered. I hope to go back and help out and buy some to bring home to the states.

Then we went to an orphanage called the Cradle of Love Baby Home. It was so awesome to be there even for the short time that we were. It is run by a Christian lady who has adopted several children and has some of her own who help out as well. She was so loving and expressive to the little kids there, and runs the orphanage very efficiently. We got to take a tour of the facilities and talk to some of the kids; it was great. They have 45-50 orphans (and children whose parents are not fit to care for them) all under the age of 3. We went and saw the infants in their cribs, and were told that one baby girl, Rehema, was found in a pit latrine--in a toilet--and when they found her they had to pick the maggots out of her ears and nose.  It is so devastating to hear things like that. It makes me sick to think about what humanity is capable of. But knowing that there are also people like Davona, the woman who runs the orphanage, and the other ladies who work there should give us some cause for hope. They're able to love on these kids while they are with them and give them vital attention at such a vulnerable time. All of us who visited were really affected by what we saw and hope to volunteer a couple of times a week, taking the Dala Dala (public transport vans) from our house to the site, about 20 minutes away.

cradleoflove.com

Tomorrow, how we went to hike Africa's largest mountain and couldn't find it.

Love,
Jenna