Linde Orphanage
En route to Kilimanjaro’s trailhead, I visited Linde Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania.Below are excerpts from some of my stories.
Hope (from Life & Death on Kilimanjaro)
Then I remember some pictures I’ve brought to share with the guides and porters: family photos, some postcards of places and animals. I head toward the jeep, and the children’s excitement peaks. I wonder what they’re expecting.
I find the booklet of pictures and jump back out of the jeep. Grabbing hands appear from everywhere. I raise the booklet high in the air, and it falls open to the first page. It’s a picture of my parents. I try to skip to the next photo, but the children hold my arm and stare.
“My family,” I begin, feeling terrible. What seemed like a great idea is now a horrible mistake.
“She is your mother?” an older student asks. His English surprises me.
“Yes.” I don’t know what more to say.
“My mother is dead.” A young boy standing beside me speaks up. “My father, too.” His words are brief and unaffected—a simple explanation of fact.
He wants to see the next picture.
Neema
No food. I wondered how it felt to be indefinitely hungry. No parents. She’d been deprived of their love and support.
“She stays with a villager and we provide her uniform,” Angel said.
Neema, it seemed, had nothing.
“She wants to be a doctor and help her people.”
Neema set down the razor blade she’d been using to sharpen her pencil. Our eyes reconnected and she smiled. Her destitute world was void of resources. But, her resilient spirit was full of hope.
