The Lion King

For those of you who have not seen The Lion King, you should be shamed...and this post is not for you.

Yesterday, I went on safari to the Ngorogoro Crater. 2.5 million years ago the crater was a volcano, that exploded, and then sunk into the ground forming a crater. Since then, animals have been stuck in the crater, kinda like an awesome-ly giant natural zoo. They are over 30,000 wildebeest, thousands of zebras and animals of every kind. We saw elephants, lions, cheetahs, warthogs, birds, jackals, cape buffalos, gazelles and HYENAS... this is where the Lion King comes in...

I wrote an email to a friend about how I wasn't sure what to think about hyenas because of the movie, The Lion King...she replied...

"i don't like hyenas either because of that. that movie was pretty devestating to watch as a little person... let me know what hyenas actually seem like. poor little stigmatized mammals."

This was my response,

OK bad news on the hyenas...yesterday on safari I saw one steal a baby
gazelle from its mother and then rip it apart in front of its family
and friends. So the movie is totally accurate. I have it all on video....

OK, also really random things about The Lion King that you might want to know:

1) Rafiki the wise old monkey also means 'friend' in Swahili. 2) Pumba,
the warthog was really dumb in the movie, and I learned that they are
actually very stupid...for example, they forget they are being chased and then
just stop. Pumba is short for 'pumbavu' which is a curse word in
Swahili for stupid person. 3) Simba means lion in Swahili. 4) Hakuna
Matata actually means 'no problem' but has been super commercialized
here so we say 'hamna shida' instead.

It is so soon that I forget…

It is so easy to slip into the routine here at the orphanage. Wake up, make 14 breakfast sandwiches, make sure the kids uniforms are tucked and their shoes tied. The children here always, no matter what time of day, are so full of energy and excited about life. So it is so easy to forget why they are here, and what this place really is.

Yesterday I found the binder that holds the histories of all the children here at RVCV. The first page alone would make you cry. One of India's first children was brought here when his mother died from trying to self-abort her second child and the father was thought to be dead. After his mother died, this child went to live with his great aunt who rarely fed him, treated him as her slave, and abused him violently everyday.
When he was found and brought here they were not sure he would live. He had maggots coming out of his feet and was near starvation. His first few weeks here, he acted out violently and barked like a dog with no idea of how to communicate.

I am so happy to say that this boy and now a young man. He is now in secondary school and thriving. He takes apart everything in India's house; lights, remotes, any electronics and then puts them back together.

This is just one story, of the hundreds here at RVCV. These children have all come so far. I am so grateful to get to know all of them.

Elephants and Money

Two random things...

-You know a country's economy is in the dumps when their highest bill is 10 000 shillings. This is currently equal to $6.29.

-Found out yesterday that a rouge elephant (with one tusk and ants in the brain) was in the area for YEARS and was just shot this weekend. All the villagers came and took the meat. Yup, they ate a crazy elephant. So yesterday in school a lot of the kids had bad tummy aches or GAS. What a day! Only in Africa!

English!

I am so excited! I just had a gym class in the morning and then one of the teachers asked me to teach his Standard 7 class because he's sick. So I taught English. Too....to, enough to, etc... It felt great to be back in the classroom!

Watoto!

Horrible

-Oh boy, I am turned to the Tanzanian dark side. Today, I saw a dog and he looked at me, I looked at him, we had a stare off and then I did it.....I bent down to pretend to pick up a rock. When dogs here see you do that they run...and it worked, but I feel really bad. No I did not throw a rock, but just the idea makes me think of dogs back home and how mean that is. I just keep thinking that the closest rabies shot is South Africa. Sorry dogs.

-Last night it rained HARD...yup I sang 'The Rains in Africa" over and over.

RIP Colby- I can't believe we were together since I was in 3rd grade!!! Even though at times I was jealous of you (yes mom and dad you did spoil you greatly) I will miss you.

Quote

From another volunteer here at RVCV....

Jambo! From the country where the Tango and Mamba are not Spanish dances, but a cucumber and crocodile!