Subtitles, Please?!

I visited Tuleeni orphanage in the Rau village for the first time on Friday (February 6) with Jess, a Canadian girl who’s on her second trip here. It’s about a 30-minute walk from the hostel. When we arrived, I was once again in a flurry of mixed emotions. It was sad to see so many orphans, depressing to see their living conditions, frustrating to not know the language and inspiring to see such smiles on their faces! We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I knew it was where I wanted to spend the next 7 weeks. After I saw their faces, 7 weeks sounded like far too short of a timeframe! How would I ever learn Swahili quickly enough to communicate with them and would 7 weeks really be enough time to make a difference? I went back on Monday and basically spent the entire time listening to Swahili, wishing that some subtitles would magically appear so that I could understand what they were all saying. Hopefully in a few weeks time I can catch some things here and there…