Service Day at the Homeless Orphanage Morogoro

March 16: Most awaited Visit to Morogoro Homeless Orphanage or should I call it “Home of Hope”

We were all ready wearing our IBM Kabila La Mtandao T-shirts for our service day. We were welcomed by Mr. Robert L Simba who runs this Orphanage. He briefed us about how this organization came to be and that there were 52 children in that facility from various ages some even going to the university. He left his career as a lead guitarist and vocalist to start a shelter for the homeless…

We went around the facilities and were impressed with the clean and neat surroundings with toilets. The facility itself is a large campus with a impressive garden and a view of the mountains. We met the children and they all looked very happy.

The children greeted us with some awesome songs and they were a good group…the sense of rhythm and timing and their vocals impressed us. They sang 3 songs one on Tanzania, one a jingly song about their culture to which they swayed and another one on how they do not wish to be street children and want to lead a normal life like us. We were touched…One of the things that really struck me was their smiling happy faces the harmonious and friendly atmosphere and how well behaved they are as most of them were picked from the streets. The looked like one big happy extended family…

We distributed some gifts we brought for them…like candy, color pencils, crayons, coloring books, lots of balloons and pin up thingies…they loved the wooshie pins Jonathan bought and the IBM ones…I had forgotten my smiley pins in the hotel and we also did not bring in our laptops so Ilona, Jon and I went back to the hotel to pick our laptops…

Augusto brought 2 footballs for the team and there were some real mean soccer players here..budding talent…the team played football, Frisbees (yes, Ian brought a lot of Frisbees) and most of them were drowning by the time we got back with out laptops…luckily Ilona and Jon thoughtfully packed some bottles of cold water and then it was time for lunch…

One of the girls prayed (grace) thanking for the food and fellowship. The food was cooked over wood fire and was very delicious. There was 2 types of rice Tanzanian rice and pilaf rice, fried chicken, lamb curry, fried potatoes, peas curry and a spicy curry for the pilaf rice. We were also served some bottled drinks and water.

After the lunch we rested for 10-15 mins and then brought out our laptops..Petra was teaching the kids how to type, insert pictures, Augusto lent his phone with the music, Jonathan uploaded the pictures and showed them to the kids. The kids were overjoyed seeing their pictures…

Loved playing with the children and as I am typing I am teaching the boys how to use computers to record what happened today in their center.

Amos, Erick, Ezekiel. Fredrick, Jackson, Ally, Boniface and Aly2 and Patrick, are around me now and I am showing them my laptop. They are very friendly boys and I showed them pictures of my family and our trip to Mikumi national park. I learnt the names of all the safari animals in Swahili…

Lion- simba, giraffe is twiga, elephant is tembo, wild buffalo is nyati, zebra is pundamilia, imphala is swala, harte (wild) beest is nyunbu, Wild boar is ngili, Hippopatamus is kiboko, fox is mbweha, bird is ndege, baboon is nyani, centipede is tandu, ant is mchwa, fish is samaki and dog is mbwa…Phew ! enough Swahili for the day…

We continued to play some balloon tennis (that’s how Ilona described playing with balloons), football and then it was time to go…we regrouped in the hall… Phil thanked Mr. Simba and his staff for the opportunity and each of us shared how we felt for the 7-8 hours we spent with the children…everyone was ecstatic and we were sad by the end of the day to leave them…they joyfully bid us goodbye

I take back with me the sweet memories of an extremely fruitful and fulfilling day of these wonderful super talented kids who are eager to learn and absorb whatever you put in front of them…