Tuesday

Today was our last day in Morogoro. A lady that runs the hotel we are staying in has a program to help the special needs children in Tanzania. The families here are either misinformed on special needs children so they think they are cursed or are unable to care for them properly. Her program provides them with schooling and proper care. The children are still in touch with their families and still go home for visits. We had the opportunity to go and visit one of them and do some music with them.

When we got there they welcomed us in and we saw a couple kids. They seemed so excited to see us. One of them had no use of his legs so they had devised a wheelchair for him. It was sort of like a wagon with a seat. In the front there were some bike pedals that he moved with his hands to get around. He also walked around on his hands. He wore shoes on them. We found out that most of the kids were away on holiday. School had just ended for them and they were visiting their families. Usually there were around 100 kids.

Our musical "program" was short and sweet. There were about 15 people there: 3 kids and the rest adults. Kirsten played her accordion. Aunt Carol shared an African song and then we all sang I am a Child of God. The people loved it! They all tried to sing along to I am a Child of God even though they didn't know the words. We were invited to come back when all of the children are there. I can't wait!

After that we went to the bus station to catch a bus. We saw a couple of interesting things there. A few people got off of different buses with a live chicken in a plastic bag! Its head was sticking out still. I guess that was their dinner... There was a guy selling hats. He had all of them stacked up and he held them on his head. We got on the bus and three and a half hours later we were in Dodoma. We got there right as it was getting dark. White people should not be out at night because it is really not safe. Kirsten and I were pretty scared. A drunk guy came up and talked to Kirsten, Aunt Carol and I. It was fine at first, but then he didn't leave. We had Uncle Boyd come over and eventually he wandered away. We got safely into our purple house.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Aunt Carol has some that I will put on later, but I felt weird taking pictures at the special needs school. People already don't like pictures and I didn't want the people there to think badly of me taking pictures of the special needs kids.