I'm home from Tanzania and woke after sleeping for 12 hours of much needed sleep. Being in East Africa was such an amazing and challenging experience. It was the first time I had ever been to that continent and traveled there alone. The first few days I was there tested my coping skills and my faith in God. I've always battled with anxiety and this would be the prime situation to induce a panic attack. To make sure this didn't happen, I tried to remain positive and read my Bible a lot and prayed a ton. It all turned out well and I really enjoyed my time in Africa.
I worked with ten children at a small school on the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania where I taught them Math, English, Phonics and Art. The kids loved having me there, even though I couldn't speak Swahili and they didn't speak much English (aside from the kids in my class).
The other days I volunteered I spent at Cradle of Love Baby Home. There were 41 babies ranging from 3 weeks to 3 years. I spent time playing with them, and bottle feeding the little ones in the nursery, feeding lunch to the older babies and taking the babies outside for play time. I miss them already! The memories and the bonding time I had with them. Even though I was spit up on multiple times, I'd love to see them again. I got to rock baby Justin to sleep and just the feeling of absolute trust from him was amazing. It was such an incredible experience being in Tanzania. I traveled every day to the volunteer locations by myself and navigated Arusha by speaking broken Swahili to people who knew little to no English. I rode on a motorbike taxi across town and randomly took a taxi into town to buy ice cream one evening with a fellow volunteer, passed armed guards next to all the banks and crossed streets in town where multiple volunteers got mugged. Thanks to the Lord I was safe the entire time I was there and lived with incredibly nice volunteers.
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