Johari and Agonza

Johari was a really treat. I remember her from last year. She suffered from rickets or bow legs. She had surgery last year and it was a success. When I visited her she was excited and jumping up and down. What a blessing.

Agonza story is sad. She is a nine yer old girl who has osteomyelitis which is infection in the bone. Single father and he is poor. KCBRP paid for her to go to kagondo hospital and have surgery. However I see her a year later and there is still discharge from the leg. She still has a bone infection. The father has been gone for a week and the step mother seems to be negligent. I tried to really emphasize to the mother that the child needs to go to the hospital for surgery. But I don’t think the mother will do anything. 

My time in Kayanga was nice as always. I saw wonderful people with great stories and some tragedies. But mostly good things. My last day I scored two goals playing soccer and my last goal was a rocket of a shot. The goal keeper just stood there in disbelief. It is time to go back to Dar es Salaam and try and retrieve this container.

 This is Johari with rickets or bow legs before surgery last year

 This is Agonza, unfortunately she still has an infection in the lower part of her leg

Thi is Johari a year later

Generous People

These three girls made me  clothes. The two on the left are deaf and the one on the right has a hyperextended knee and cannot bend one of her legs. This is a vocational school for teaching how to sew and be tailors. They were very excited that I gave them nice fabric and money.

 She is measuring me to make a shirt. It came out small but that is ok.

 This is Florian's neighbor who was so excited to see me again that he gave me a chicken. I told him thank you very much but you use the chicken to feed your family.

 So he gave me a glass of honey. There is still the honey combs on top.

 This is Baraka he was in a motorcycle accident. He had to have surgery on his legs. He can bend and walk but he needs to eat more. He needs more vitamins and minerals.

His mother was so thankful for KCBRP and I told her a medical container is coming filled with supplies. She gave me 3 pineapples.

The people here are very generous. I am no hero at all. Every home I step into some one gives you something. It is usually coffee beans or ground nuts. Whenever I am doing home visits it is custom to give the guess something. You always take the gift out of respect or they feel insulted. I was full of ground nuts and coffee beans so I would stick them in my pocket. The thing with house visits you always run the risk of getting sick from the food you are given. Luckily I have not gotten sick.  I am always amazed by the peoples generosity.

Great to be in Kayanga.

It was so awesome visiting the old clients and see the success. To see how they are doing and recovering. It was phenomenal. I loved it. The smiles on there faces. 

We visited a vocation school for girls and being tailors. One of the girls had a hyper extended knee and was unable to walk. She had surgery through KCBRP and she cant bend her leg but she can walk. KCBRP got her into this vocation school for learning a skill. KCBRP had been helping her for 10 years. My guess is she is about 16 years old. I also met two other deaf girls there. I thought I want them to make me some clothes. 

The best part was going around town searching for a kitanda to make a shirt for me. Kitanda is the best kind of fabric in Tanzania. I ended up paying around $15 USD for this fabric just to make a shirt. Which is expensive for here. We then went looking for the girls because they have to do chores at the school they are staying at. We found out they were down buy the river to collect water for washing. 

It was so empowering just to pick them up from getting water from the river and having them ride in the car. That was special. They were excited. I then asked the three of them to make me a shirt and dresses with the fabric I gave them. It was amazing. To empower them. Florian said ‘no ,do not buy that expensive fabric and give it to them. Have a professional make you a shirt or buy cheaper fabric for them.” But I didn't listen I bought the expensive fabric for them to try. They are learning to become professional tailors. I want to give them a chance. They spend there time sewing news papers and magazines. It felt amazing to see them excited.

Then I played in a soccer game and I scored. My team won. The best part was how many people remember me. That was the best part. They told me to come back again tomorrow.

 This is our tent when camping with the boys in Kagondo

This is Mwesiga and Safura is behind me. We picked them up from Preschool. They both have mental disabilities. It is nice they can go to a school where they don't get picked on.

Saying good bye to the Children

Saying good bye is always difficult. Especially for the older boys. They are surrounded by women who are the workers. However there is a german volunteer who is 19 years old and he will be there for a whole year. This will be very good for the teenagers. A few of them are going through puberty and I can tell they are having a tough time. They have a lot of energy and need to burn it.

The boys were begging me “Please don't leave. Stay here please.” Or they would ask if I could tack them to America. “Take me with you to America”. They would hug me and squeeze the life out of me. It has been a real joy as always. I will say they are becoming westernize. They all want to see my phone to look things up, play on it, or watch videos on the computer. They love the visual stimulation. 

I told them I will be back some day. I know I will. I love the children at St. Nicholas Haus. 

I have now arrived in kayanga at KCBRP. Here I will be trouble shooting how to get the container to them in a timely fashion and more importantly how can we get the container at a reasonable price. We need to find a way to get the container.

 Everyone eating breakfast.

Fried grasshoppers. taste like french fries

Took the boy scouts for a hike

We took the scouts for a hike and for camping. It was about a 4 hour hike. They got very tired. Luckily we were able to buy more water along the way. Some hill climbing, some forest, and some long open field grass. They spent a fair amount of time catching grasshoppers so we could eat them when we got to camp. The only real challenge was crossing a ten foot wide river on a skinny tree. Luckily we got everyone across without getting wet. As soon as we got to camp they collected would and started a fire with one match. No problem. They are all good at making fires. The grasshoppers they pull the wings and the legs off and cook them in oil. Tasted kinda like french fires. For a tent it was just tying a blue tarp to two trees and holding the ends down with rocks. It worked. I thought it was funny because none of them wanted to sleep on the ends because they are afraid of owls. I think they believe it brings bad spirits. But if they ever hear an owl they get scared. We also had a big camp fire and I sang some camp fire songs for them they thought it was funny. Especially doing the Hokey Pokey. 

Then the next day I took the boys for a bike ride up the small mountain to the radio station. It was a long trek for the them but they were tough. We made it to the top in about 2 hours. Then it took probably 30 minutes to go down. I’m glad to be here and give the boys these opportunities. They are lacking male role models here at the orphanage being around sisters all day. It was a another fun weekend.

 The guard dogs have not been washed in one year. It was long over do so we washed the dogs

 Playing pool outside under at thatch roof

The children at the orphanage are writing letters to Corpus Christi Church in Tucson, AZ

The prices in Tanzania

The little toy transformers that I gave out, I would say half of them are broken already. But that is expected. They stick them in there mouths and step on them or run them into things. Just typical kids. The wooden trucks I handed out I think will last a bit longer. But we will see. The older kids are more responsible. They still have there transformers for now. But I am sure they will lose them or break them at some point.

I took Christopher, Edina, and Agnus for a walk to the lake. All the children wanted to go but I thought I should only take the ones that strong enough to walk and the ones I don’t have to really keep an eye on. But of course all the other kids were crying and crying because they didn't get to go. Whenever I am walking through the villages the people just stare at me. But that is expected. I am unique entertainment for them.

Things are very inexpensive here as you can imagine. I took the bike I am using for a ride into town and someone asked if they could wash my bike and I said sure? I will explain cost in US dollars. It cost 50 cents to wash my bike. I played two games of pool which is amazing seeing 3 pool tables outside under thatched roofs. It was basically 15 cents a game. Then I ate a chapte. which was 40 cents. Then I had a beer which was about $1.10 for a 1/2 liter. For my tanzanian phone it is $2.20 for 70 minutes, 200 text message and 120 MB internet for one week. Not bad. But talking with people is very enjoyable for me. It helps me learn the language and everyone wants to talk to white man. Of course everyone asks me if I could take them to America. 

But it was an enjoyable day. Today I am taking the boy scouts for a hike and we are going to camp out. It should be interesting.

Once a month clinic

The government puts on a clinic only once a month. They weigh the babies, then give them a pill for worms and a pill for vitamins. The women are responsible for holding onto the childs card to watch the child's growth.

Witness

This is witness. She is 4 years old and has AIDS. Both her parents died when she was just a baby from AIDS. She is very small and very light. My guess is only 30 lbs. But she is a real treat

Playing with Kids

My back is sore. I am constantly picking up kids all day. But I am enjoying every minute of it. First part is getting the kids out of bed, clothes on and fed and then out the door to school. Where 18 kids pile in a pick up truck . It is always quite a sight. Each kid is such a unique character and they are always making me laugh.  I also here my name about a thousand times everyday. In the morning I spend time with the disability kids doing exercises for them and then we play the drums. They have amazing rhythm here. Elliot always impresses me. She might have cerebral palsy but she can always create a beat with anything that is better than anything I could ever do. She is always laughing and always dancing. She is a real gift. Today I gave the kids pictures of themselves and letters from the youth group from Corpus Chrisit in Tucson. They were so excited. Half the kids cant read let alone english but they were so excited to get a piece of paper from someone in America. I cant express the excitement on there faces. What a treat for me. I am going to have the children write letters back to the youth group in the U.S.

Everyday I go bike riding with the bigger boys. The bikes here take such a big beaitng from the mud, dirt, and rain. Plus these are teenage boys so they don't take care of the bikes at all. I’m constantly having to tinker with the bikes here. 

Today was unique because I washed the dogs. They have 4 security dogs that have not been trained. People are scared of dogs in Tanzania. They are used for protection. It was an adventure to say the least because one of the dogs escaped me. 

As far as the container I am waiting for the tax exemption response from the TRA because the clearing agent told me they received the tax exemption letter. As soon as the clearing agency gets the cheque or remaining bill from he TRA I guess we can move forward then. Nothing is easy here yet hakuna mata. It is just life. 

St. Nicholas Haus

It is great to be back in Kemondo. It is like I never left. The kids were so excited to see me, They were jumping all over me. I felt blessed to get such a warm welcome. I feel blessed to have grown up in an environment where I can fly in a plane and see the world below. It is amazing. 

I love the children here. They are all such different characters and know how to really make you laugh. The hard part is all the children want your attention and you can only do you best to spread it evenly. On Sunday it was Corpus Christi and they did an hour procession after church down to the main street in Kemondo. Well I should say the only tarmac road in the whole town. Lots of singing and dancing. I don't know how they do it after singing for 2 hours in mass then singing and marching and dancing along. They have passion.

Kulwa and Dotto have first communion. We had a celebration afterwards at the house. Cake. They love cake. But I am exhausted. Long day but a very enjoyable day. I’m glad I'm here.