Mama Afrika and Mama Ezra

The last few days have been pretty wonderful, albeit a tad stressful. On Saturday, a group of seven volunteers, one Mama, and a hospital driver piled into a car with fifteen of the older orphanage kids - from Pray and Simoni upwards - to go see the Mama Afrika circus, which I can state pretty confidently was a comprehensive success. The kids were incredibly excited, loved just getting out into the city - I think they had as much fun waving to the drivers and talking about everything we passed on the road as they did at the circus itself, not that I minded - and have spent the last few days compulsively and constantly trying to replicate everything they saw. Several have announced very seriously their intentions to join the "Cirakasse" when they're older. Frankly, I don't blame them, it was a lot of fun!

Farajah is rapt, Andrea is... something. Falling asleep?

The whole crew - dressed in their best school clothes for the trip

We had one slight hitch in the whole process, and I have to say, it was completely hysterical, as bad as I felt at the time. In one act, a woman went up in what was essentially a large hula hoop and did various acrobatic things in and around it - nothing particularly death defying. However, Simoni absolutely LOST it, and started crying hysterically, terrified that the girl was going to get hurt. He couldn't watch the whole act and only recovered when dancers came on for the next act - and, ok, when I went to get him popcorn to distract him.

Simoni's greatest fear

However, for some reason, he had recovered his confidence enough by the second half that he was fine with the - much more terrifying, in my opinion - flying circus men, as featured in the video below. You should note, though, that he still flew back about a foot (on my lap, directly into my face, as fate had it), when they whirled in our direction.

Then, as though that wasn't enough excitement for one day, when we arrived home the family of one of the hospital doctors were setting up the birthday party of their daughter to share with the orphanage kids, which is apparently a tradition they partake in every year, and the kids were thrilled. So to recap, circus all day, special junk food for dinner, and cake to finish it all off - not a bad Saturday!

In their pretty little party hats

The birthday girl (center) sharing her spotlight

On Sunday, Bethan and I went to the house of one of the kids who goes to the orphanage school but is not an orphan himself, named Ezra. His family also owns a store on the corner that we frequently frequent, so to speak, and they invited us to the house for a home cooked meal and a taste of rural Tanzanian life. Ezra and his brother Felix led us through three kilometers of jungle, sometimes on dirt roads and sometimes on single person paths, through villages hidden in the jungle that I never knew existed so close to us, before we arrived at their gorgeous house. The location was just incredibly, the food was delicious, and the kids incredibly sweet - their oldest, Magdalena, was adopted from Nkoaranga orphanage as a baby, so they have close ties to the organization going way back.

Ezra (on my lap) ate more than I've ever witnessed a child that size consume, and then proudly showed off his bulging belly - I'm convinced the kid has a hollow leg because there's no WAY that much food is in the stomach alone. To be fair, he's a total live wire, spent the whole trip running ahead then dashing back, so probably ended up covering twice to three times as much ground as we did, in addition to skipping, jumping, running, and swinging his way along. A sweet, wonderful, active, healthy, five year old with a loving family - always a pleasure.

Final preparations are obviously commencing for operation parents, including (sadly) banishing my wonderful cat Paka from the house so that it can be scoured of her hair so as not to kill my lovely father. Sad, but she will be fine - she lived outside before I came and frequently stays out all night anyway, she will just miss the cuddles. Other than that, all appears to be going to plan (knock on wood) - so we shall see how the next few days go! I had my first good cry last night - at 3 am on the phone with my long-suffering father - about how much it's going to hurt to leave, as that tsunami is just beginning to wash over me. I'm trying not to let it overwhelm the pleasure of the time I have left, and that is my goal for the next to weeks. To live them, to get as much out of them and the kids and my friends as I can, so that I can leave with no (ok, with as few as possible) regrets.

A big part of that is going to be thanks to all of you who have contributed medical supplies, either directly or through the wish list, to help make sure that we leave these kids with the best possible care. That includes

Meghan Sellars

Rachel and Andy Hechtman
Maura Casey
Michele Abrams and Dalton King
Priscilla Jencks
Rick and Anne Calvert
Ruth and David Sack
Patty Harris & David Bolinsky
Rita Goldberg and Oliver Hart
Susie and Ed Brubaker
Ben Kahn
Eve Robinson
Sally and Michael Laden
Cynthia and David Damer
Amy and Steve Eppler-Epstein
Joanna and Brad Waley-Cohen

I am honored to have you all in my life! Thank you, thank you, thank you again.