the other day, I was able to go with Matt to the orphanage he works at, St Lucia. First we had to help buy food for the kids weekly meals. It was not very easy. First we went to a store to buy bread and peanut butter. That's as simple as it got. The cheaper food is in the huge open air markets. They are chaotic. The smells can get very rancid with old meat and rotting vegetables. The further you make your way inside the market the more chaotic it gets. There are so many people you can barely turn around. Everyone is begging for you to buy their stuff. Thank goodness we had locals with us to help barter and carry the stuff. There is no shopping cart- you can buy a big feedsack and just lug it. Our first purchase was 6 pineapples for 2$ Each... Not horrible price. We had to go to a different location for each item. Carrots, potatoes, onions, beans, tomatoes, meat , and even these little dried stinky fish everyone is selling ( apparently a good source of minerals). It made me realize a whole orphanage was eating for a week on probably mine and Matt's weekly food budget and also almost nothing was processed - it would all be made from scratch- which is a pro and con. Wish they could have more varied veggies and stuff but then you also have to be wary of cholera and things ( reports have come from this Market about this occurring ) . Matt was standing next to a butcher chopping away at a goat ( while I silently gagged in the background) and he got splattered w some blood and even a chunk of meat 😳. Also some man called him Chuck Norris 😝
It is a long drive to the orphanage, lucky we had a car at the moment. Poor Matt has to take two cramped daladalas plus walking so his commute is over an hour each way... Can't imagine how tiring that is as interacting in daily life here is just an energy drain. The orphanage location is a little remote, but actually the scenery is quite beautiful with tropical plants etc. the house itself is nice for standards here , plain but open air. A lady was cooking in their outdoor kitchen when I got there. I got my first glimpse of the kids as they bombarded us fighting to help carry the groceries ( so cute and helpful) I was first struck by how bare it was - a huge open living room but hardly any toys out or things on the wall. The kids ( smaller ones) were home now from school and running around wildly. I guess someone got them a puzzle but they were just throwing the pieces around. It made me sad as one carried around a battered stuffed English guard doll. My heart broke the first time when Matt told me one would pass him this tiny gutted out fisher price barn to pass back to him as a way of playing since they have so few toys. ( my heart broke again as on our way home yesterday a kid was running around w a stick on a toy car-one wheel broke off and I went to pick it up and it was like a bent old bottle cap- and then one kid later that walk was playing w a stick tied to an old rusty wheel😰- probably the best they had to play with). Side note: the toys they sell on the street and market are so battered- like an old beloved stained gray stuffed elephant w it's eyes missing and stuffing coming out.
Matt says the kids calm down after lunch. They were immediately friendly and wanted to climb on me . I bonded w one of the twin babies ( Jackie) and toted her around she was so cute. We brought out some of the stuff slowly as I didn't realize how hyper kids get and how you can't direct them if you don't speak the language. I brought out Play Doh and they were intrigued! They all started opening a can and I freaked out bc then I couldn't monitor all them. They kept saying chakula ( food) and I said hapana! ( no!) I think only one tasted it and spit it out. They enjoyed making snakes and rolling balls. But then they moved on to the next - slinkies ! ( Matt says they are all twisted now lol). We also have them stuffed animals and it was sweet seeing them carry them around ( even put the monkeys around their chair at lunch and on their bed at nap time). They loved all the books ( one of the workers Allen was even impressed w the Swahili English one we got) which I'm glad bc their bookshelf was abysmal ( tattered old books-few- even one about redecorating your living room/ kitchen so appropriate for 5 yr olds) the girls were holding one of the books Eileen gave us and said "CinderellaCinderella". One of the babies was stroking the "Pat the Bunny" book. We put up the map of the world which they were excited about bc kids are always asking where stuff is ( marked Arusha with "home"). And are looking for tacks to place the other posters. We filled the cabinets w more toys, games, and art supplies ( I'm instructing Matt how to do some projects w them when they are more calm- every kid should get to finger paint!) we filled the shelves w vitamins, oral care stuff, some candy, and menstrual supplies as that's hard to come by. We ( mostly Matt as he travels weekly) have been saving our hotel toiletries for over 6 months now so brought all those that I'm sure everyone even the older kids and workers there will be excited about the kids then ate lunch, which was quite messy and noisy as they eat w their hands and everything falls to the floor ( Matt eats it every day- ugali (maize ball), beans, spinach, and fruit). Then they nap. After they napped a volunteer took them to get their heads shaved ( here girls all shave their heads until they are probably teens ) and they instructed me to cut jackies hair to the skin w a pair of children's scissors! I think I did a good job but was scared of cutting her head.
While the kids napped we figured out what to do w the rest of the money that our families had donated. We sat down w Allen ( who I trust immensely as he lives and breathes helping them so much so that he sometimes eats once every two days and sometimes doesn't have enough phone credits to text). st Lucia also goes to remote villages which Matt is part of ( taking a moment here to say what a hard dedicated selfless worker he is since he won't say that- he walked 8.5 miles in the heat and sometimes skips lunch to get to these villages) . There people are actually starving and have little resources ( the main part of Arusha is not bad compared to this- most people look fed) . We decided some of the money was best spent buying cooking staples for 30 large families and buy antibiotic prophylaxis for 100 HIV positive kids for 2 months. Matt bought the supplies today ( took all day and chartered a daladala ) and will deliver it next week.
One last thought: you may or may not know that the sad common denominator of the kids of st Lucia is not just that they have no parents but that they are HIV positive ( they market it this way so I feel like it is ok to reveal their status. Sad bc of the stigma and unfortunately HIV positive kids are usually given up or their parents did from the disease. Luckily the y have all their meds paid for and I feel like they are in a good environment w people who love them ( and honestly may have more than if they had been w their parents). Matt helps take them to doctors appointments so they stay healthy. And people monitor their meds so they don't miss doses like they might have if they were w their original family. The kids are so precious and we hope to keep helping them after we return home
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