Our Visit to Amani

For those of you who don't know, Nate lived in Moshi from Jan-July 2007 and worked at Amani Children's Center. This is a home for rescued street children, mostly boys but a few girls as well. There are eighty-something kids there now. These kids have ended up on the streets for various reasons: orphaned because their parents died (often from AIDS), abandoned by their parents because they didn’t have enough money to support kids, or sent to the streets to try to get money and food. Amani rescues these children (well, the ones who are willing to be rescued), provides food, shelter, clothing, and education. One of their main goals is reunification – to take care of the kids while working out a way for them to be reunified to their parents or other relatives. We went Saturday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday morning. Many of the kids were new and many were gone since Nate’s time here in 2007, but there were a few that Nate remembered. I got attached to some of the kids pretty early on. Here are some pictures:

 Nate playing soccer with the kids

Sinks where the kids are responsible for washing their own clothes...Amani is quite organized, and the kids learn a lot of responsibility...from taking turns preparing meals and cleaning up.

 Acrobatics Team

Daodi blocking my picture of the acrobatic act - Daodi was at Amani when Nate was there before. His mom left him at a bus stop when he was a toddler. Daodi has autism and is usually on his own, but I was so impressed by how the other kids interacted with him. Their lives will be hopefully be full of compassion for other people with special needs because of Daodi. 

Easter Monday Lunch - a local church came by Easter Monday morning and did a special Easter service for the kids...full of singing, clapping, and the children even had a chance to share their testimonies (I think...it was all in Swahili). Then, the ladies of the church prepared a huge lunch for the kids and even had sodas (a very special treat).

Juliana and Me - Juliana was at Amani in 2007 too. I remembered her name because she sent me back a picture or a bracelet with Nate. I can't remember which unfortunately. Irene (another girl who is still at Amani) sent me which ever one Juliana did not.

Fanu - he is pretty much adorable. He stuck close by when we were there. He was intent on teaching me Swahili! He managed to get my sunglasses for a bit.

 Fanu again...I told you he was cute! Look at that smile :)

 Switi (pronounced like "sweety") - her name is absolutely perfect for her. She's 10. I met her Monday afternoon. Tuesday, she was the first one to greet us. She took my hand and never left my side that morning, often holding on to my arm. She doesn't put up with a lot from the boys and holds her ground. At one point, she got very protective of me when one of the boys playfully acted like he was going to hit me. He wasn't actually going to, but she got right in his face :) It was so hard to say good-bye to her.

 They loved getting pictures taken!

These three boys hung around us most of the time. The one behind Nate was pretty strong and enjoyed trying to beat up on Nate. The one sitting on the ground loved for me to time him with my watch as he ran around the soccer field. And, of course, there is Fanu again. All three spent lots of time trying to teach us Swahili and wanting to learn English from us.