Day 2 Imiliwaha continued

Hey folks,

Thanks for continuing to follow our little safari across Tanzania. Day 2 in Imiliwaha started rather promptly with 6:30 mass over at the church, I would have loved to describe the experience, but I unfornately slept in a little more trying to get over a little bug I seemed to have caught yesterday.

After breakfast, Sr. Petromila led us to the orphanage run by the convent where we were met by a line of little ones whose ages consisted primarily from 2-5, who then welcomed us with a song. After a few hours of cradling, playing, blowing up balloons, and hugs, I was certainly not the only one who had a pretty hard time leaving that building, even for the day.

We then headed over to the health center also run by the sisters. We were shown the different services and equipment the facility currently offered, which included a maternity war, lab, and dentist office, all of which were either run or supervised by the sisters. It was truly impressive to see how much could be organized by such a modest number women.

Our last stop of the morning was to the secondary school (all womens) also run by the convent. The facility itself had just undergone some major expansion to meet the demand of the rather large and still increasing enrollment. About half of the students had already left, those that remained were Form 2 and Form 4 (sophomores and seniors) who were waiting to take their national exams. In the mean time, it looked like these girls time consisted of eating, studying, and helping out with gardening and upkeep of the school grounds.

After a short visit to the cemetary where we paid our respect to past members of the convent, we washed up and had a delicious lunch. In the afternoon consisted of catching up on sleep, running, and spending time with some of the sisters which included fishing, hiking, more lunch, and even dancing.

Onwards
Eric