Volunteers are asked to conduct fire drills at Tudor Village and Pilgrams (the boys home) while staying here. One Saturday, we decided to do ours. Without telling anyone, we both made our way to the rusting car wheels hanging in trees that are used as the siren for fire. After ringing the “bell”/clanking the wheel with a piece of rebar, I ran into the Tumaini house, to help the children with special needs get out.
To my surprise, the older children from the other houses were already in there, grabbing the kids bigger than themselves, who are unable to walk due to cerebral palsy or who are deaf and blind, and carrying them out to the set meeting spot. I was amazed at their efficiency (yes, that is a word that is not often used here in Tanzania) and caring for the other children. Neema, a 10-year-old who has really touched us, nearly broke her back trying to carry out Beatrice, a girl bigger than her!
After less than 3 minutes, all staff and children were out at the designated meeting spot and accounted for. We were excited by the success and the seriousness given to the drill and gave out pee-pees (CANDY) to everyone. A couple weeks later, we tried this again at the boys home, only they had hidden the warning bell to ring! Those mischievous kids – let’s just say they got an earful from Mama Lynn.
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