27th Oct 6:10pm

Tonight is maize for tea, I tried maize earlier on this week and my description is that it’s like eating vomit that takes like cardboard. Upon our discovery that maize was for tea we decided to go to Arusha for tea.

Via Via’s was having a Halloween party and karaoke today, so we decided to go in since the food is so nice and cheap.

27th Oct 3:30pm

We got ready for the party at 2, and once we had our outfits on we headed down to the orphanage to get the kids. They were all getting ready in Amani house; all of standard 3 and 4.

 They came down to the house and loved all the decoration and their outfits were so pretty (they wore their church dresses or donated things.) We put their masks and hats on them, and got everyone ready. Some of the children wanted their faces painted, but we later had to wash it off some of the children because it irritated their face. Stephen was a zebra, and he started to cry, we didn’t know what was wrong so I got a makeup wipe and wiped all the paint off, but he was still so upset. I took him to the sink and washed his face. I grabbed a towel and dried him off, and he had a huge grin then, so he was back to his hyper self.

We did butterfly and fairy face paint and flowers too. And then gave out juice and popcorn then some jelly and watermelon. Once they were all full up and hyper we put on some music and played pass the parcel with prizes inside from things I got donated. We started to play some games outside but all of a sudden it started to pour with rain. The heavens opened and we all ran inside and played a few games and took some pictures.

Afterwards we had to tidy everything up and there was a lot to be done.

27th Oct 11:40am

At 10am I came up to the house and started to peel 5 big bunches of bananas and chop each one into 10 or 12 slices. We carried the slices down to the school on a big tray and put 5 or 6 pieces in each of the cups of porridge, they were all grinning at the banana slices and they just looked so happy. I was so pleased that I could help in that respect.

After the children ate I got out 2 skipping ropes, that I got given to bring over, and gave them to some of the older girls to share, they were better than me at skipping if I’m honest! Haha!

When I got the tennis balls out the children went crazy, playing catch and kicking it about. They enjoyed that a lot so I’m going to take them down again tomorrow.

Back at the volunteer house I watched In Bruges, which is such a quotable film, I won’t repeat the words to anyone else in case young children hear it, but the best quote of the whole films is ‘fuckin’ Bruges’ which is said like ‘faaackaiin Bruuuuuuges’.

At the end of the school day, for the lower classes, I went to the gates to hand out some clothes and stationary to standards 1 and 2. The older girls used their break to help me know who should have what clothes and what gifts. Caroline and Chrystal came along for moral support because the children can be slightly overwhelming all at once.

After break I went to do sports with standard 2, it was like a mini sports day with rocks on spoons in mouth races and potato sack races. Everyone was cheering and the kids loved having me there to cheer for them.

27th Oct 9:45am

After assembly I got some stuff to take down to the classes to give out the gifts I brought. Each child got a new pen and then I went to baby class to give out some toy instruments. They loved them so much the teacher started to sing with them, and the whole class were singing to me.

27th Oct 8:10am

This morning I got up and went to assembly successfully (I’ve been trying all week but every time I get up early enough, something goes wrong, like no water for a shower, breakfast is delayed, or I need drinking water to take my malerome.) Anyway I went with Amanda, Kayaa’s little girl and all the children were singing songs reciting the school song in Swahili and dancing.

The older girls sometimes conduct the assemblies where the children follow her lead as she stands smart, legs closed, and shouts ‘attention’ then step her legs a shoulder width apart and shouts ‘at ease’. This is repeated a few times while the children chant ‘attention, at ease, attention, at ease’

After the singing, the children who are in good uniform stand on the steps and the children who had odd jumpers on, take them off and join the rest. Those children who are completely incorrectly dressed are told doff by one of the teachers and taken to the office.