hello from TZ

hello to all friends and especially family! We are so saddened that is this the first we have been able to get to the internet!! We are downtown at a large hotel that is quite far from where we are staying. I don't even know where to begin what we have seen and experienced thus far -- we have been here only 5 days and it seems as though 2 weeks because we have had such diverse experiences. We have been to 2 different orphanages and just spent 2 days at the one called New Paridise where there are 13 children who are under school age. There was NO way we could have been ready for what we encountered. They literaly have nothing!!! We tore down a shed that they used for their kitchen ( that is hardly the term ) we then built them a new DELUXE kitchen where all the cooking is done at an open fire with the crudest of pots. We toured 2 hospitals today, one a new one that has been built largely from donations from Lutheran churches, and the other the old Silian hopital where Dr. Meyer does his surgeries. I was even able to scrub and go into the surgery room and watch him correct a badly bow-leg little girl. I sure didn't think I would ever be in an operating room( without being the patient).
I will sign off for now and we will hope that we are able to connect soon at the Lodge.