Mungeza Orphanage
Today we went to the Mungeza Orphanage/school. At this orphanage there are disabled children, children without parents, and albino child (many of which are disabled as well). The orphanage also has children who attend to go to school. Mr. Raza has a 15 year plan for these children’s schooling. He plans for them to attend primary school, secondary school, and eventually a university. He does this in hope that these kids will not be poor and/or homeless for their entire lives. The orphanage is occupied by over 120 children and only two adults to supervise them.
Our purpose of going to the orphanage was to clean several of the dormitories where the children sleep. There was one for the girls, one for the boys, and a third for the older boys. We cleaned these dorms with rain water collected in water tanks. We mixed in a disinfectant and a bug killer/repellant into the water. We washed the floors with rags and scrubbed the walls, bed frames, windows, and doors with bristled brushes.
Most of the mattresses were worn down and didn’t have much padding left in them. Brian (a Canadian volunteer; a helper of Mr. Raza) evaluated the mattresses and decided they could use 19 more/ new ones. We had a nice time at the orphanage and spent some time with the children after we had finished cleaning. We took lots of pictures and have decided that we would like to return there next year to do the same thing. We had plans to go back on Saturday, however these plans fell through due to a religious holiday the children would need to attend. (We had planned on going back to play with the kids and answer any questions they might have.)
We don’t have much time left here in Bukoba. It went by so fast! I don’t think any of us are ready to come home yet (with a few exceptions such eating a burger and….. seeing friends and family of course. Haha!)