The three weeks with the girls was incredible and they made a big impact on everyone they met, often I can really recognise it is more about how you make a person feel, than just what you can give to them in a practical sense. Having more people to love the children especially at the orphanage is a true blessing as those children soak up all the love we have to give. The street boys also proudly reel off the names of the girls and ask me what they are doing.
Starting with a 5a

m town walk early on in the trip the girls got to see how the street children really survive- it can only be described as surviving as not having shelter, safety or constant access to food or clean water is inhumane. The girls used donated funds to purchase shoes from the local market for the street children and we successfully crowd controlled /basically became bouncers in a clothing handout of donated clothes from home.

Then meeting our young adults in the ‘project re-enablement’ included (but was definitely not limited to) teaching Emanuel to play ‘I went to the shop and bought’, choosing and designing a cake to take to James and Robert in rehab to celebrate a year sober and making room for Deo in the car as he chose to travel around with us most days! The young boys who have adopted the nickname ‘Kijenge boys’ (because of where they live) were treated to a swimming and pizza day. The evening before the swimming trip we were disappointed when the big supermarket sold everything but armbands, but thank goodness we were able to save our pennies because those boys are like fishes and backflipped, dived and raced underwater all day!

The children at the orphanage equally loved their pool day although Jacksoni had the first official tantrum I have ever seen when told he needed to share his armbands which involved him sitting on the pool side arms crossed giving Amy and Emily a very serious look. We have been playing a lot of games of Chinese whispers with them which they absolutely love and is comical on all sides both for ‘teachers’ and children.

It was also Bright-Sun’s first birthday, Bright is the baby of seventeen year old Magdalena who fell pregnant at school and due to government law is not allowed to return to education but is being employed as a ‘mama’ at the orphanage. Bright apparently wanted a tracksuit for his first birthday so that is what we sourced at the market along with a big blue birthday hat, a huge lion birthday cake and lots of mangoes to share with everyone. The children absolutely adore Bright and they were joyful to share the special day with him.

The list of what the girls got up to is endless but they also enjoyed visits to other projects that we work alongside to support our Hope and Soul families, a cultural tour and safari and distributed their generous donations from home on supporting multiple areas of our projects.

They have been a true blessing to everyone they have met and Hope and Soul is so thankful to have amazing supporters like these girls.. Asante sana girls and karibu tena Tanzania..