When my parents first told me we would be taking a family trip to Africa to volunteer at an orphanage and go on a safari, I didn’t know what to expect. My first thought was that the those  two weeks would be the longest  of my life. After that first day at the orphanage, however, the rest of the trip  went by like a blur and by the end I didn’t want to leave.

The day we arrived at Msamaria in Moshi, Tanzania, (the orphanage where we would be working), all of the children burst through the gate with beaming faces and gave us all a hug. They grabbed our hands and led us inside to sit with them in a little room with benches and a couple of bags of rice stashed in the corner. Although none of the kids spoke English, it instantly felt as if we all spoke the same language. Communication was not a problem.  I just had to say football or bracelets and the kids would know exactly what I was talking about. Every day for the three weeks we worked there, the kids would race outside whenever they heard us walking up the road.

On an average day we would either do crafts or play games while my parents were painting a new computer and playroom for the children. One of the most popular activities was making bracelets, mostly because the kids loved showing off the jewelry they made. All of the material was donated by our family and the community so it was amazing to see all of our beads and string being used by kids that didn’t have access to simple things like plastic beads one can purchase at a local store in the states. Seeing this I felt so thankful for the opportunities I had living in the U.S.

Another activity the kids thoroughly enjoyed was playing soccer, or as they call it, football. They would laugh and run around the dusty field happy to be playing around. Before we delivered the donations to the orphanage, the kids were just using a fuzzy, deflated ball that could hardly roll. The field was just dust with two metal poles on either end that served as the goals. We brought them a box of cleats, cones, pumps, jerseys, and new soccer balls. Everyone immediately put on the jerseys and strutted around excited to show off their new equipment.

One day, we went into town using the money we raised to buy enough food to feed all of the kids in the orphanage for at least half a year. The kids even had access to some specialty foods, such as tomatoes. Every time they would eat a treat, they were overjoyed. One time, a kid named Adam was even willing to share his tomato with me instead of just keeping it for himself. However, my favorite day at Msamaria was when we gave the kids our old clothes. Each time one of the kids tried on an outfit, everyone would cheer for them. Seeing the kids so happy about our old clothes is what made me so happy about volunteering overall. After that day, if a child was wearing something we gave them, they would run up and show us with excitement.

Besides the orphanage, we also took a couple of day trips to remote Masai villages. During one of the day trips, we took a three– hour bus ride up to the border of Kenya with twelve other volunteers. When we got out of the bus it was like stepping into a scene from National Geographic.

All of the people were dressed in colorful cloth wrapped around their body like a toga. Their houses were made of dirt packed around wooden beams. Many of the people had problems with their eyes because giant horseflies would fly around their faces and crawl practically into their eyes, up their nose, and anywhere else that was even slightly exposed. It took all of my willpower to keep myself from swatting the flies away from their faces.

Another day trip we took was near a lake outside of a small Masai village. When we arrived, there was only my family and four other volunteers. I started kicking a ball around with a boy who was herding sheep and goats. Soon, another boy came over and began playing with us too. We gave them both jerseys, set up cones and started scrimmaging. Before I knew it we had a whole village gathered around playing soccer. After we finished playing soccer we gave the villagers two giant bags of rice. They were so thankful for our generosity. They gratefully took the food and jerseys back to their village.

At the start of this trip, I was already counting the days until it was over. As the weeks progressed I found that while at first I dreaded volunteering, I later realized I didn’t want to leave. Looking back on this trip, I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to go to Africa and work with these kids. Walking a way from this life changing experience, I learned that the more you help, the more rewarding helping becomes.