Josephat

As I was making hug and kiss rounds last night at bedtime, I got my first “I love you” whispered in my ear. And I realized, I am falling in love with these kids. They test you, drive you crazy, and make you want to sit them on their bed and leave them forever, but then you spend one on one time with them, and they snuggle into you and you see the little child in them that just needs a little TLC.

Josephat, 7 years old, is one of my favorites (don’t tell anyone). But you cannot help but love this kid. They all look alike the first few days, especially with shaved heads, and he is the first one whose name I learned as he looks distinctly different. The native staff believes he matriculated from somewhere other than Tanzania, it’s anyone’s guess where, as he has darker skin and sharper features. When he speaks, his voice comes out with this force, like he just got punched in the stomach, and he has one volume: LOUD. Tell him “SHH”, and he downgrades to a raspy whisper. He runs like a little hyena and when he sees you coming from across the property, he will yell out the morning events in one sentence, rattling off everything that everyone has done, and what are you going to do, what are you going to do, huh, huh, huh?

The other night, as we were piling into the common room for bedtime story, he nudged the volunteer that was sitting next to him, and pointed out the window.
“Yes, the moon is bright tonight!” she said.
‘WHERE THE COW?” he asked.
“He must be taking the night off.”
“WHY?!”
“Well, wouldn’t you get tired if you had to jump that high every night?”
Silence. He looked very pensive as he gave this some serious thought. Let me tell you, he redefines pensive when he scrunches up his little face.
“YES!”

Marietha, 8 years old, is quiet, smart, and sweet. Most of the time. At tutor time, she picked out some stories to read, one of them being “Are you my Mother?” As some of you know, it’s about a baby bird that goes looking for his mom, and asks a pig and a duck and a bulldozer among other things. As we were reading it, she turns to me and says, “I don’t have a mother”. Hmmm. I was at a loss for a moment, and to make up for it, I just gave her a big hug, and talked about how many Mamas she had here. But we both knew it wasn’t the same. They know they are loved, but it doesn’t take away the knowledge that something is different.

This coming week will be away from the orphanage, as I will be heading out tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 28) with Dr. Frank to do wellness checks and sick clinic all week in a Maasai boma (village). It will be somewhere outside Arusha on the way to Tarangire National Park. An adventure! Removed from civilization with no running water or electricity for 5 days. Wish us well! Hope everyone is well back home. I love getting emails!