VACATION!

22.-26.04.2011

The 10 hour bus trip to Dar es Salaam passed rather quickly with naps and music. Spent the night in Dar and proceeded to take the ferry to Zanzibar. What a paradise! Two days and nights passed with a flash getting lost in the windy small alleys of stone town, swimming, and hanging out with Rasta’s on a boat trip to a sand bank. The water was turquoise and the warmest I’ve ever swam in. Sold my soul to Zanzibar J Dar Es Salaam… not so much :D Spent our last day there just walking about. It was alright, but possibly the first place I’ve ever visited where I couldn’t see myself living under any circumstance. But Zanzibar on the other hand… Amazing!

 

A FULL DAY OF HEARINGS

20.04.2011

Five kids had court dates today. I accompanied the smallest ones, Elias and Federis. Finally met their mother (the eleven and eight year old I mentioned earlier). They automatically got a new court date to get more time for gathering information. At Mahabusu the mother agreed to take the younger one home, but wants Federis to go to Mbeya, a correctional boarding school. She has HIV and feels that she cannot cope with the disturbed eleven year old. In my opinion Mbeay is not the place for him though and I convinced the director to propose a children’s home with trained psychologists on staff instead at the next hearing.

Monica was released, but it was agreed that she stay in Mahabusu until we can make further arrangements. She lives far away in Dodoma and has no money for her return. The government doesn’t seem to take cases like hers where the family isn’t even aware of her imprisonment into account. They provide no monetary assistance for transfers. Even if they did the kids would have to travel alone. We’ll be in touch with Amani children’s center to see if they can be of help.

Imma, a onetime convictive who ran away from Mbeya and was caught only a year after, had his case in the higher court. The police officers laughed at the sight of the familiar face. James, a houseboy whom after demanding his wages of six months got accused of raping the family’s daughter, also got a new court date on the account of the doctor’s absence who is supposed to provide evidence for the accusation. This doctor hasn’t yet shown up within the four months James has been in Mahabusu. The accusing family’s mother is also a doctor…

PROTEIN FOR BREAKFAST

19.04.2011

Had a bowl and a half of cereal before noticing it was crawling with tiny bugs that had made the packet their home… Yummy…  I’m happy to inform that even though I again paid a visit to the fabric market I left with nothing! How extraordinary :D This strength of character appeared at exactly the right time as I test packed my bag in the evening and came to find out that it weighs a modest 44 kg… 46kg allowed in two bags so luggage shopping it is.

FAIL!

18.04.2011

Perse perse perse L Nothing further.

FESTIVITIES

16.04.2011

We had an early going away party at Mahabusu. We had baked apple pie and chocolate cake, brought in popcorn and marshmallow’s and made Pilau (a local celebratory dish) together with the boys. Played “darts” and a game of catch with water balloons which was hilarious. After the boys got to have a water balloon war and I’ve never seen them laugh so much. Once it got dark the dancing begun, with the classroom light by candles. These 18 boys aged between 8 and 17 totally left us in their shadow’s with their moves on the dance floor :D We had gotten special permission to stay until 19, but the director decided to continue the party until 20 and told me as we were leaving that he had no idea the boys liked to dance so much. From now on he’ll let them dance for a bit every weekend J

Happy birthday to me tomorrow! We ditched the kids and later made our way to town. What a great night!

COURT

15.04.2011

We waited anxiously outside of the courthouse for Mohamedy’s name to be called. It was his sixth court appearance and last time the judge said he would most likely be released next time; as he had said three times already. Mohamedy was sure this time it would happen. As he stood in front of the secretary listening to his case description his face dropped as he was told the case would be postponed for two weeks as the magistrate was somewhere else on other business; as he has been twice before as well. How frustrating! All the cases scheduled for today got postponed because the judge wasn’t there. How is it even possible to schedule something for a day when nothing can happen? This is the perfect example of why everything takes soooooo long here. There’s no organization and people work with the speed on turtles. Argh. Either these kids aren’t picked up for court at all, the judge decides not to show up, the accuser never appears, the reasons are endless, but one fact never changes: the kids are spending pointless time locked up that won’t be deducted from the time of their sentence. One year waiting and three serving your sentence, for example, that’s four years of not going to school, not seeing your family, growing up knowing nothing about the world outside mostly because your parents did not take responsibility but rather dumped you behind bars. One less mouth to feed…

FOOTBALL!

13.04.2011

Based on yesterday I continued a previous lesson on violence with the boys and had a good hour long conversation. After that we carried mattresses into the classroom where they lay as I read them stories that had lessons about different values and morals like honesty, resilience and forgiveness.

We built two football goals and they were ecstatic! Some of the wood is crooked and the nails come out of the wrong places, but they made them with their own hands and the goals turned out great! Good game afterwards. Can’t quite keep up but they always take it easy on the teacher :D