Past the half way point!

So as you probably noticed, our last post for pictures didn't work!
The internet has been crazy slow for the last week and so we haven't even been able to read e-mails or anything!
So we hopefully will find the internet to be faster in our next destination so we can up load some of our photos!

Our time in Mwanza is wrapping up quickly, and I am sure I can speak on behalf of Katie and my self, we wish we could just stay here!
We were a little nervous in the beginning, having to try and teach english and all to a group of orphans, but it has been an amazing experience! We have been working with another volunteer from the USA who is great, and we managed to split up all the children, such that we were doing one on one classes with most students and then for the younger students we did two students to one teacher!
Unlike a lot of the kids at home, this kids crave school! they are soooo eager to learn, which just makes teaching that much better!
Its been hard to figure out sometimes how to explain things to them such that they make sense everytime (i.e. like rules to follow). You really truely take whatever your mother-tongue is for granted, because there are so many exceptions in the english language.
But then when you have that rare moment, in which you get one of those light bulb moments and the child finally understands and can do the exercise without any help, it is the best feeling ever!

We normally work from 10-12:30ish and then from 3-6ish. It doesnt seem like a long time, but it definitely can be draining. Also our orphanage is about a 30 minute walk each way from where we are living, and in the crazy TZ heat and dirt roads with daladalas whipping by at top speed, just the walk is enough to kill you some days!
Everyday on our walks to and from the orphanage, we are constantly greeted by the little kids yelling either muzungu or good-morning (even if it is the afternoon/evening). There is even this group of tiny kids probably about 3 -6 years old who have made a song and dance it seems out of the word muzungu!
I think it will be strange when we get back to Canada and we don't get such praise! hahaha

Monday is our last day with our kids, so we are throwing a party and buying cupcakes for them and playing games and all that kind of fun stuff! I think it will be a tear-fest, since when I told my grade 4 student that friday was our last lesson, she ran away to go cry!
I wish I had more money so I could buy each child their own special present, but there are just tooo many!!

In addition to the kids, we have met some great friends! Mwanza has this great social circle of white people from all over the world who are here either working or volunteering etc. So its been really nice to have that in our lives for a while! Its like we are at home, but with cooler gathering places that over look the lake and drinks only cost $.50-$2 .
Most people that have come here were only suppose to be here for a short time and then like the ones that came before them, they ended up staying for extended periods of time.

Last weekend we also had the opportunity to go to the hospital here and play with some children that have been there for months if not a year or more. There was one girl there cilida who was severely burnt and lost her hands and most of her face. But one of the girls we have met organized some doctors to come over and do plastic surgery so she can maybe go home soon. Other than the burns, she is as normal as every other child, loves to colour (which she now does with her feet) and laugh and take pictures! We are hoping to go see her today or tomorrow to see how she is doing after the big surgery! They managed to give her eye lids and lips and everything so I am really excited! there were a bunch of other kids as well whom had things ranging from cleft palate to tumors to being paralyzed! We had a lot of fun with them and they were able to make pictures to brighten up the room!

So like I said at the beginning of this entry, we leave here soon and are heading to Uganda. We are taking a ferry to another place in TZ called Bukoba and then taking a bus from there to Kampala and then Jinga!
We hope all is well at home with everyone!!!!
love you all!

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