East African Volunteer Position:
I have been teaching at an orphanage in east Africa all this month. Every day, I wake up at 6am in my rat infested volunteer house, take a cold bucket shower, and catch 2 Dalla-Dalla's (minibus's packed to the absolute limits with people and animals for about 50 cents a ride)to an area of Arusha called Sakina.
There, under the trees in a quiet area is a place called Glorious Orphanage, a beautiful half finished set of classrooms on about an acre of land, where children who have HIV, or whose parents have died of AIDS can learn the education basics from volunteers from around the world.
When I first arrived, I was placed in a class of about 40 kids shouting "good morning teacher!!!!" and I was handed a piece of chalk and told to teach. ...uh...ok? Teach what? I was basically thrown in the water to learn to swim so I walked to the front of the class and started an English lesson of spelling accompanied with drawings - THe kids loved it. They were so enthusiastic and it was a blast.
I ended up doing this every day as I got into the swing of things - teaching math, art, English. I would make exercises for kids to do on the chalk board, and calling them up. Working with the ones that had trouble writing, and reading and just getting to know the kids. Its Impossible not to be moved emotionally by this experience. Aside from having a traumatic live, their smiles and attitudes were amazing.
...Its really hard to put into words the experience here. The children, they're lives, the people who put in everything in to help these kids. You end up questioning everything back home. Your priorities. What you think matters. I could write for ever about what Ive seen here and its so difficult to explain whats happened to me personally and emotionally. An example is that theres two twin brothers here. One have HIV and is sick all the time barely able to see and smile - and the other twin is playing and enjoying everything..that alone is heartbreaking..and then to see how the one twin helps the other on the swingset at playtime...
Everything...every second is moving and speaks volumes about the human condition here. Already I realize that I cant just leave like this - I need to come back with plans to do more.
