We were having a conversation last night around the fire pit about the length of "10 Weeks" and the different perspectives we have in LA and Arusha...and instead of "Yes, we're 20% done!" now it's "Crap, there's only 80% of our program left."

A lot of the conversations here have been about how much we can realistically accomplish in ten weeks, as well as "This is better than nothing."
But how much of that is acceptable? 'THIS IS BETTER THAN NOTHING' seems to be the motto here; yes I understand that it is an impossibility to help every single person that you see, but really, is "better than nothing" something we can really settle for ?

As time progresses and the shock of being in a new country dies down, I think my frustration will begin to mount as we tackle the seemingly endless problems in the streets of Arusha - every street kid we see is a good kid...and all of them deserve a second chance, yet there's only a limited amount of resources and funding OHS alone can provide. NGO's are springing up everywhere in Africa, but still there seems to be no end to the numbers of orphans or abandoned children. So the question is, what can we do that will help create a long-term solution ?

I was assigned my street kid yesterday, an 11-year-old boy (he claims to be 11) named Hamza (I think he's only 9). His mother died and his father left him to go mining, and he's been living on the streets for almost a year now. OHS is looking to take him into the orphanage, along with two other boys we're also working with. Those will be the first three kids we take in The new orphanage is almost complete - we finished our roof this past week, as well as the cow pen !

We also are spending more time with the babies at Samaritan - I made friends with two toddlers named Josephat and Paolo, twin boys who are just barely on the brink of walking.
Josephat was in my lap the entire afternoon I was there because he was running a high fever. The mama fed him his medicine and his wooziness kept him from being crazy and bubbly with the other kids. Then we made the sad discovery that he was deaf...it was heartbreaking to realize it and having to tell the mama. I understand why she wouldn't have noticed in the first place because her attention is being split 40 different ways every day, and sometimes it's easy to miss the details.
Josephat is deaf, and we're looking in to see if there's anything we can do to help him with that. His brother Paolo is a healthy bouncy toddler as far as we know, and I hope he stays that way for a long time. Two men came in last Tuesday looking to adopt the younger babies of the orphanage. Princess Baby Bridget was abandoned only a few hours after birth, and for some reason her muscles are not developed enough to grip fingers tightly as infants usually do or move her limbs freely.

This is such a fragmented update, but it's the best I can do for now...and clearly my writing has deteriorated. I must get on that.

Following your dreams take so much courage, and I must say, being the baby of this volunteer program, it is really amazing to hear the life stories of my older teammates and all the risks they've taken to fulfill their dreams.

I am inspired.


Until next time. Kwa Heri !

UPDATE:

the Cho. 

Something about Jim Sturgess just gets my guts.

It's a humbling and sad moment when I realize that I will never possess the kind of genius Harvard Med School or M.I.T. students were born with (or the type of hard-working/hard-studying habit shaped from years and years of discipline).

I think I just might go visit some east coast Ivy school and stand in the presence of brilliance.

Perhaps I'll come up with some progressive ideas on how to make the world a better damn place.