Pictures of People from various villages

Cleft lip

 Hydrocephalus

 Cerebral Palsy

 This child is deaf and greeted me by grabbing my beard

 She has learn to crawl thanks to KCBRP training the family to do exercises she has CP

More Children from the villages. Here are more pictures of children from the villages. This young lady is 30 years old. She actually has two children. At the age of 18 yrs old she started declining rapidly. It looks like she had Cerebral Palsy but it is not that. She is bed ridden. She seems to have very low brain function now too. She can move she hands a little and smile. When i hold her hand she is able to squee mine. And she gets really excited when I take her picture. I am very curious as to what she has. 

THis patient has cerebral palsy. She has learned to crawl though and can now take herself out to go to the bathroom. The parents are excited to see progress from the exercises they are performing everyday. 

This child has hydrocephalus. A shunt was put in and the head has stopped growing so it worked.

This child has cerebral palsy. 

25 children yelling “Michael, Michael, Michael.” It is lovely to have everyone want your attention but it is also hard. It is challenging. You cant please every child and they will fight to get your attention. I try to be equal amongst all the children. The thing I really enjoy it is so easy to make a child’s day just by picking them up or shaking there hand and playing with them. They mainly just want your attention. Christopher has cerebral palsy and he is always smiling. He has a lot of brain function but lacks the mobility. He speaks english and swahili. One has to do just about everything for him that is picking him up and putting him in the wheel chair, feeding him, brushing his teeth, taking him to the bathroom and make sure he is sitting up right on the special toilet seat. He never complains. He always has a smile. Spending time with him really humbles oneself. He is a role model for everyone for the attitude of life. He loves having his picture taken and holding his hand. What ever we do with the children takes prep time. It takes a good hour getting every single child ready, fed, and taken to the bathroom. 

Stefanie took me for a hike that went to the top of the hill to get a view of Kemondo. Beautiful view. 

On Saturday they have an outpatient clinic. People from the local villages will come with there child who has a physical or mental disability and get help. They will receive medication if needed and they will perform exercises for the child. Stefanie use to take children to the hospital with club foot to have surgery but it was time consuming and the problem is the parents wouldn't follow up at the hospital the child must have a follow up and perform exercises for months or years to correct the problem. 

I am eating a lot of rice and beans. I don't think I am losing weight this time. Last time I was playing soccer everyday for 2 hours. I think I am just maintaining. I am craving cheese. The sun is out and it seems to be a beautiful day.

Took patients to Kadondo Hospital

Agouza Pholbert female 8 yrs, Runyanga. The Patient has osteomyelitis. The family waited for 10 months hoping would heal. The bone was sticking out of the skin. The doctor removed the Bone. The father is single because his wife left him. The patient needs and x-ray to look at the infection in the leg. The patient is walking but should not walk because of lack of bone in the leg. The patient has a high risk of fracture

 Radius Robert Male 18yrs, Ihanda. The patient was in a bomb accident. When playing football there was a Bomb on the field and 6 children died but he survived and needed surgery. The bone has been exposed for about a year. The patient has Osteomyelitis and it is severe. The cost for the surgery for the bone removal is 250,000 Tsh. The affected bone is the fibula. 

Adveran Domiwan 3.5 months old. Female. Nyakasimbi. The patient has club foot in both feet. The mother took the child to the local village doctor and he suggested using boiling water to heal the foot. They just burned the child’s foot. The child will have surgery for the club feet. It is sad the lack of education and people giving bad advice. It will cost about 50,000 Tsh for the surgery. That is the doctor sparing his time for the patient. 

I am now in Kemondo working at St Nicholaus Center. There are 25 children with physical disabilities or orphans.  There is no internet where I am. I havet to travel to the local town so more than likely I will only checking once a week for emails. The children love me already. The boys I take them for bicycle rides or long walks to Lake Victoria. 

Patients in village

4/19/2015 Spent three days visiting villages. The first day was dangerous because of the rain. Drinking a motorcycle on mud is not a good idea. We almost crashed twice. It was quit an experience going to the different villages and hearing the stories and meeting the people with disabilities. Many sad stories. I will tell some of the stories.

However the last day I got sick and had to go to the hospital. I had bad 

stomach pain. More than likely it came from dirty water. Because I was completely normal in 24 hrs. It was only really bad for 1 hour luckily. Getting discharged from a hospital seems to take forever. I can relate to patients that have waited for hours even a day. After 4 hours I felt completely fine but they wanted to keep me for 24 hours. Luckily I got them to let me out 2 hours earlier. I am glad to be rid of what ever I had. 

Nyankayanja Wedding

 The Bride is carries the Groom's coat in and puts it on him

 The Bride is thanking the guests for coming to celebrate the wedding

 The mother and father of the groom. The mother is carrying the father's plate of food

 The line for food which was cooked banana, rice, beans, hot sauce, chunks of beef and pineapple

 Nyankayanja Wedding-     This the line to give gifts to the bride and groom and to congratulate them.

They used trees to make a stage and a fenced in area with tarps for invited guests only the entire reception celebration probably cost about 3 million Shilling which is about $1600 USD so that is a lot. For some people that is a full years salary or almost a full years salary. We got there an hour early to get a seat because they fill up. Then there is an MC who is on the microphone running each step of the celebration. Visit the village leader gives a brief talk and invites the Pastor to give a blessing. Then the Lutheran pastor gave a reading and blessing. Then the village leader thanked everyone for coming. The MC then called all the Aunts in from the groom side, then Uncles, then grandparents, then sisters, then mom and dad then they do the same for the bride side of the family. They all dance and parade in with gifts when they are called to enter. The groom is waiting this whole time on stage with the best man and bridesmaid. Then they call the bride in and she slowly dances in and the groom meets her halfway and has hist sports coat and puts it on him and then they walk up together to the stage. Then the groom takes the mic and thanks everyone for coming. Then the bride does the same thing. Then the village people start dancing. Then the cake is revealed to them and there is three cakes. One for the groom side for mom and day. One for the bride’s side that is mom and dad and then one for the bride and groom. They are small cakes.They then bless the cake and cut it together and feed the groomsman and bridesmaid with a piece of cake and then the bride and groom feed each other a bite. Then he groom and bridesmaid presents the cake to the in laws then the bride does the same for her new in laws. They get on there knees to do this. Then the aunt grabs a bottle of champagne and dances with it for a whole song then at the end she opens it and champagne is spilling every where. They pour a glass for the wedding party and they give each other a sip that is the bride and groom. The whole time the Bride and groom are trying to look serious. They are suppose to look serious the whole time for respect. I would rather see them smiling. Which they did do a lot but tired not too. Then each family member danced there way to the front and presented there gift to the wedding couple and then friends did it to. It is a way of showing what they are giving and what the wedding couple is recieving. There was even a group of young men dancing carrying a live goat to give.Before this everyone is given a beverage whether a pop or a beer. Then it was food time. Basic assembly line. But the interesting thing was the bride and groom went first of course but walking back to there seats the bride is carrying her plate and his plate of food. And they don’t eat infant of everyone. The wedding party leaves the room to eat because it is disrespectful for the bride to eat infant of the mother in law. She is not even suppose to shake the mother in laws hand. Then there was a bunch of dancing involved. Then people came up congratulating one by one and handing out more gifts. Then they got on the microphone and blessed them and told them that they were going to give them a gift and what it was whether a cow or goat. Lots of assembly line dancing up tot he front to the wedding party. Non stop music. It was a fun celebration to experience .

Piñata

At Bukoba Beach there was a couple from Venezuela  who saw us on Easter interacting with the children and they wanted to do something for the children. We celebrated April birthdays and they brought a piñata which they made. Each child got to take 3 swings at it. Every child got a chance. Probably the most durable piñata ever. When the candy flew the kids went crazy. It was a joyous site.

Bukoba Beach

 I had a wonderful Easter meal on the Beach of Bukoba. I met Sr. Stephanie there and 20 of the children from the St. Nicholas Children’s Center. Sr. Stephanie started this center 4 years ago. Now they have 25 children. Some who have no parents, some have cerebral palsy, HIV, genetic diseases, autism, learning disabilities and more. It felt like I was in a different world being on the beach in a beautiful setting with all these children. Unfortunately we could not go in the water of Lake Victoria because there is some sort of parasite that can get into your liver and cause a serious problems. It was  a wonderful day. I spent the evening on the beach and spent the night there watching english premiere league soccer on the TV on the beach. It seemed very surreal. Very relaxing and very enjoyable. Then the power went out and that ended the night.

Easter Pictures

Easter Vigil at an outpost station. A generator had to run to have lights in the building

 The Children dancing on Easter morning. They have been practicing. They dance all mass.

Easter in Kayanga

Easter Vigil.

Wow it was a long mass 4.5 hours. 10pm-2:30am. They sang everything including the readings. I joined the Bishop because he asked me. I didn’t do anything but I was up there with all the other clergy and altar servers. I did hand out communion. I was extremely tired. Then we had a meal afterwards. I enjoyed the morning mass more because the children danced throughout the entire mass. I then got a bus to Bukoba. I was the first one there at  the bus and sat for an hour until the bus was packed full. The bus does not leave until it is completely full. There is no time schedule for local buses. So I prayed for people to show up so we could leave.

Good Friday

Good Friday.

Went for a long walk then I went with Fr. Robert to an outpost station. It was basically having mass in a barn. I really enjoyed it. The kids sat on the ground which is covered in hay and the adults sat on small wood benches. The mass started with Stations of the cross in which they didn’t have so the altar server took the crucifix which is covered on a purple cloth and went around the room standing where each station would have been. The moment I enjoyed the most is when the people go up to kiss the crucified Jesus. A long line and seeing the kids on there knees crawling forward then going up and kissing Jesus’ feet. I wish I got a picture of it. It was a beautiful rural rustic mass. 

Ihanda Community Resource Center

It is sponsored by Sweden. It is a center for people to gather and get information and pamphlets to get educated in all areas of life. They can learn about disease, government, alcoholism, really anything. The goal is to educate people on there needs. They have weekly meetings where the people will learn something then have a group discussion. There is a TV there to watch the news and other programs. The center has two computers for people to use the internet and find and answers to there questions. The center has a photocopy machine for copying articles to take home. They also have a salon and small store for people to get hair cuts and buy things. It is a way to bring the community of people together and deal with problems that are going on in the community. It is like having a town hall meeting once a week.

                                         This is the resource center right by Mlushaka

 This is the media room where they can watch TV, read pamphlets, discuss topics and have meetings

 This is the salon where people can come and get there haircut and hang out.

 This is the computer room where villagers can check there email and get information.

This is the store where kids can buy, soda, candy or other hygienic goods that are needed.

Every Day Tanzania

 Making Bricks out of mud. These are the molds for making the bricks

 These boys harvested bananas and load there bicycles up walking up a steep hill to town to sell.

 This young man is carrying a couch on his head. It is heavy. No hands and down a steep hill

This is Michael. He runs to me everyday when he sees me. He loves being picked up high in the air.