Meeting Malinga

It has been an eventful few days. We said goodbye to the wonderful CACHA Medical Caravan folks (we'll be taking part in the next one in one week as the new bunch of Canadians swarms in on little Kilema Hospital!) and travelled with Jenn and Chris to Dar es Salaam. They came along so they could witness Jack and Hannah meeting their new brother for the first time. We were excited and slightly nervous with what was to come. Malinga was also excited and anxiously waiting for us at the gate. I immediately noticed that his English had improved since our last visit last October. Jack and Malinga shook hands (quite formal) but were both beaming from ear to ear. I had forgotten how small he really was, or perhaps Jack has just grown so much since the fall...he really did tower over him. Hannah was her usual quiet and shy self (for the first 5 minutes!). All the other orphans gathered around and I hae to say, there was some nervous tension in the air. The kids ran inside and immediately brought out the family photos we had sent. They also produced a soccer ball, and, well, the ice was officially broken. The children and Roman and eventually our driver 'Tony' all started in on a pretty heavy duty and sweaty (plus 30 temperature) game of 'football'. Malinga held his own and Jack was in his element. The kids were great players and deftly passed the ball to each other and Jack. It was a small area so the game was pretty intense. Everyone was filthy but having a great time. Jenn soon pointed out that Hannah was holding court over on the climbing aparatus. I looked over and Hannah was sitting at the top with 4 or 5 other girls sitting below her, just listening to her ramble on. She was saying things like " my brother wears a diaper at night so he doesn't pee the bed' and other family secrets. I let her carry on as everyone seemed to be smiling and I am not sure how much the girls were understanding. She sang 'Oh Canada' (we caught it on video) which consisted of a lot of giggling and then she sang a song about a Bonhomme (en Francais of course!).

We eventually had to part ways as it was getting dark and the orphans had their evening routine and our driver needed to get home. We got some nice shots with Malinga and then he gave us a picture he had coloured. It was hard to say goodbye, but all in all, it was a great visit. I had imagined it in my head many times and it went as well as I had hoped. How fitting that soccer would be the ice-breaker between Jack and his new 'Kaka', which is brother in Swahili.

We are praying that things will go smoothly and that he will be living in Kilema with us soon. Things do not progress quickly here. There are no fax machines in the department of social welfare, or email, and the post in Tanzania is slow. I will help facilitate things by hand delivering all documents to the necessary people and trying to help the social workers communicate more easily. Still, some things in Africa cannot and will not be rushed.. we'll keep you posted.