The New Crew

The past week has gone by pretty fast. It was nice to have a week of quiet with just me, Katelyn and Josh, but on Friday new volunteers started showing up. There are 9 of them. They are pretty cool. They are a lot different than our group because there is such a range of ages among them. The youngest is 19 and the oldest is 59. They seem like a lot of fun and like we were when we arrived they are pretty overwhelmed. Today they are doing more orientation stuff, and they should start their placements tomorrow. This past weekend Katelyn, Josh, Ellen and I went to Glacier on Friday night for some shaky shaky. We had a great time. We've made a lot of friends from the hostel Hoff and friends that live here in Moshi, so it's fun going out and meeting up with them. It has started raining and cooled off a bit, which is a nice change from the ridiculously hot weather we have had the past couple of weeks. Saturday we took the two new guys around the town and to the coffee shop. It was a pretty lazy day. Yesterday Katelyn, Ellen and I went over to Ibra's house to watch some movies. We of course watched Rush Hour 2, Ibra's favorite. It rained pretty hard for awhile which cuts down on the amount of dust but also makes everything pretty muddy. It was great to see my kids again this morning, but we haven't had as many kids in class because a lot of them are sick with colds and some don't come to school if they think it's going to rain. It's nice working with a smaller amount of kids but I miss the ones who don't come. Ellen has come with me the past two mornings to school to help out and hang out with the kids. She leaves Thursday night, and Josh and Katelyn leave on Saturday. I'll be super sad to see them go, I will be the only one left from our group after they leave. I'm trying to work something out with Moses so I can go straight from Watoto Rau to Rupanga Secondary School and stay there until about 3:30 pm every day. That will help fill up my afternoons since the new group will be super busy the first 3 weeks and I will get to see some of the kids I worked with at Tuleeni orphanage, since that's where they go to school. Tomorrow we go back to the legal aid office, and I really hope we get to see some clients come in. I'm officially over half done with my trip, which gets me excited to go home but also makes me sad. Today after lunch I'm meeting Ellen for coffee then we're walking to Msamaria, the street center to hang out with the kids. Hopefully it won't rain. On Wednesday Katelyn, Josh and I are going back to Arusha to the Rwanda War Tribunal to watch another court session. I'm really excited, it's so interesting! Tonight after dinner we are taking the new group over to Abbas' house (he owns Bushmen, the safari company who took us on our safari-they are amazing) so he can give them his presentation about the services he offers. It's always so fun going over there, he is such a happy upbeat guy, so fun to hang out with. Another update soon!