Time is moving quickly in Tanzania, and somehow two months have passed since my last journal entry! But so many great things are happening here that I’m excited to tell you about.

Thanks to generous donors, we have raised enough money to build the first two homes for the girls. This will allow us to move the girls from the hotel and temporarily house the girls in a somewhat crowded fashion. Construction has begun and the girls are looking forward to moving before the end of the year. As the homes are designed to house 12 girls and 2 house mothers, we are continuing to raise funds to build the remaining homes.

In July, three of the girls competed in the school sports competition. Faraja, Maria L. and Upendo M. started at the district level and qualified to go to the regional competition. From there, Maria and Upendo went on to participate at the national level in Tabora region where Maria won the national title in the 100-meter race! It was a great opportunity for them to travel and make new friends. They returned home to a party celebrating their accomplishments, complete with decorations, singing and cake.

From July 28 through September 5, the girls enjoyed an extended summer break, due to the national census. The daily school schedule here is long, and doesn’t leave a lot of time for play, so it was nice to let kids be kids. Though some time was still spent on academics, the girls spent most of the time outside playing games, riding bikes and enjoying themselves.

During the break we had a family of volunteers visit from the States. They organized games, craft projects and even fingernail painting! The girls love having visitors and enjoyed all of the activities. They especially seemed to love having a girl their own age visit.

And if all of that isn’t enough, we have had two more girls join us at MGRC. Both came to us from Neema Village, which is a baby home that took them in when they were orphaned. Venossa is 2 and Neema A. is 4. Those additional homes will certainly come in handy!