Imiliwaha (Part 2): Orphans, Tea, and "the tree"

Well, here you go, finally. After one week back in Hanga I already miss the cool weather from the highlands of Imiliwaha. Okay, i miss the Bennies, and the sisters, and the other things we did there too :) Last Sunday, almost 10 days ago now, we spent the morning at the Orphanage in Imiliwaha that the sisters run. It is a beautiful complex that has had a lot of outside help with donations. The kids were priceless. Although the morning got a little long near the end, especially when I was sitting on the floor spilling soup and ugali all over myself trying to feed a small child, it was great to be able to play with the kids and see them smile.

Even though Charlie looks like a giant here, the kids still schooled him. How do they get so good so young? Natural talent I guess.

I guess you could call this room the "refectory." They had a pretty good system set up laying the mats out on the floor (no high chairs) and putting bibs on the little ones. And the older kids led each other in prayer to begin and end the meal. pretty impressive.

The afternoon on Sunday was spent hiking to "the tree." Remeber the one I said would be important that you could see in some of the pictures from the Imiliwaha lake? It took us a while to get there hiking through dusty harvested corn fields and hectares and hectars of tea plantation, but we finally made it and put our hands on the tree in the middle of no where. It was a good goal for a hike. Not to mention it made pretty beautiful scenery. And I have never seen so much tea. wow. who knew it grew like this? i didn't.

Doesn't it look like this tree should be in a Dr. Seuss book or something?

I found a harvesting basket, so i decided to try my hand at picking some leaves...after about two handfulls i got bored and stopped. I like the coffee preparation better :)

Oh, and in case you are wondering what transportation looks like around TZ, here is a picture from my seat on the 4 hour bus ride back to Hanga. It was nice on this bus that the seat in front of me was far enough away that my knees actually fit without having to crunch them to the side. I have learned the trick of sitting by the window when possible so I can control the thermostat :)

all for now. I handed out letters from penpals today in my english class. look for pictures from that sometime soon. thanks for reading! as always, comments are very welcome.