Orphanage in East Africa, Tanzania - Tumaini Children's Foundation

Cherie's Blog 2009

November 29, 2009 Update! 

So much has happened since I returned to Canada at the end of September.  First of all I was able to send the children of Tumaini House to a circus!  In many cases the 23 km. drive to Arusha also represented their first ride in a vehicle.  (We rented a small bus to take the children).  The photo attached was also the first photo I’d received from Usa River since my departure.

 Esther has completed the first of three surgeries she will require to correct a drop foot and her hooked hands and Latifa is recovering from her “club foot” surgery very nicely.  Two of our children have been ill, one of the mamas I’m helping has been sick with recurring tonsillitis and all of the mamas I made micro loans to have made their first repayment installments.  Not one was late or needed to be reminded.  Thank you Mama Grace!

 Several of our children have received sponsorships.  Julie’s Spa in Burlington has sponsored Neema’s education, Design Concepts in Port Dover is helping to sponsor Francis, and Harriri, Priska, Janet and Emmanuel have all received help with their sponsorships.  As little as $10 or $20 monthly will go a long way towards helping me help these children.

 We’ve also accepted our 24^th child, Connie.  You may read about her on our website at www.tuchifo.com.  The site continues to grow and here is the most exciting news of all!

 Last Wednesday November 25^th our container left Simcoe for Usa River!!  Norfolk County and many of you were fundamental in us needing to up the size of that container from 20’ to 40’ and then to stretch it to an “HQ”, which gave us approximately 18” more in height and did we use it!  Thank you to John and Kevin and Amanda and Luke and Stephen and Steve for helping to load the container but an even larger thank you goes out to all of you who donated SO many items to this cause.

 We ended up saving more than $4,000 by having the materials donated in order for Delhi Secondary School’s wood shop to build 19 sets of bunk beds in conjunction with Gerry getting us not one but three schools to empty of desks, chairs, tables, chalk boards, etc.; thank you to all of the automotive companies in/around Simcoe who virtually rebuilt the truck Steve so generously purchased for Tumaini House.  This will enable us to drive away from the city (Arusha), where prices are exorbitant to purchase supplies farther inland and save money!  The truck will also give a very dear man, Peter, who was my driver in Usa River, a job.  Thank you to Steve and so many others.

 My flight is booked to return to Usa on December 30^th.  I’ll be gone for two months.  I’ll arrive in time to receive the container and dissuade theft of some of the more valuable contents. 

 We’ve been on acquiring our charitable status (the good news) but have been advised to expect it to take about one year to receive (the bad news).  I have begun fundraising speaking engagements at local high schools, Port Rowan Community Church, and attended my first private fundraising event (Thank you again Lisa).  Several speaking engagements are scheduled farther ahead and thank those of you who have extended those invitations.

 My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you who have so very generously given of your time, energy and wallets.  Special thanks to so many of you who have taken on this cause as your own and solicited donations from your own friends and contacts.  I cannot begin to thank each of you enough for reaching out to help these children. 

 Our dear friend Blair has given us radio time, The Hub, Delhi News and Simcoe Reformer have written articles, and so many of you have spread the word . . .again my thanks.

 I don’t think I expected this project to be as much work as it has started out to be and my prayer is that some of the pressure will let up soon and let my family and I catch our collective breaths, but I must, one more time, say such a wonderfully enormous and hard earned thank you to all of you, you know who you are and what you’ve done to help, for trusting in, and embracing me and my need to help these so very needy children.

 Asante, asante sana, Cherie

September 18 – 11:00 a.m.

Today is Ruthie’s 5th birthday. I have baked a pink cake and we have strawberry ice cream (no one here has ever tasted either) and I attempted to translate in Kiswahili “Happy Birthday” but there is no translation. This will be Ruthie’s first birthday celebration and she struggles to conceive that today is all about her! We are going to decorate a chair with balloons and we’ve purchased some gifts which will be very special. After supper the entire Ndonde clan will come for cake and ice cream and well wishes.

Chi is very sick and at the clinic right now being diagnosed. Last night when I was baking the cake (at Oddo’s sister’s house because there is no oven here and Neema has a toaster oven), Chi wanted to join me but half way through the process (I had to bake one layer at a time), he started to fade on me. I cuddled him and his head rested on my bare arm where I discovered he had a raging fever. He had not complained one time, just sat there burning up. I brought him home and we gave him some aspirin for his headache and fever and sponged him down. Oddo and Scola had him sleep with them and said this morning that they had to sponge him several times in the night and off to the Dr. he went this a.m. We are optimistic because Chi did ask for three, not two and not four, three chapattis this a.m. He ate one but would take no chai. I’ll let you know of the diagnosis.

Well, I am in the honey business. Note to bring a filter system for honey. Mama Grace, a beautiful woman who sings in the choir, and is a volunteer in my Langa ya Iruva group had me to her home yesterday. She showed me her family business (honey and I’ll expand on the story later) and I’m lending her capital to expand. She is the first person I have met who needs capital to EXPAND her EXISTING and SUCCESSFUL business instead of looking to me to help find an answer. I was ecstatic! She, her husband, her eldest son (her younger son John is in the seminary) all work in the business. I had a very good feeling about Grace when I met her the first time six weeks ago, when she got me into the HIV/AIDS group she volunteers for. In any event, she spends a great deal of time working with families and children affected and orphaned by HIV/AIDS and by expanding her business she will have more time to help the group which is a good thing for me as she can be my eyes when I am out of the country. She is savvy on the internet and can read and write in English and can open a bank account so will be a great help to me and she is atypical for the poverty stricken Tanzanian. Look at her house though. I have included photos on Facebook, but to say that the family lives modestly is an understatement. They built a mud and log house in 2000 (the front window is proudly painted announcing such), and she and her husband are one of those families (Joan and Jerry come to mind) who are active in their families, church and community, not to mention their own careers and I am proud to be assisting them in growing their business. Mama Grace gifted me with a bottle of her honey on the first day I met her and I’ve since seen it in Usa and Arusha at several markets. The family has no vehicle and so “buses” their honey into Arusha for distribution (26 km.).

I’ve got some upsetting news. We went to Arusha today to pick up the boys at Camp Joshua school as well as Tony and Margaret to bring all of the children from Arusha to Dr. Limo’s office to begin their lab work. Margaret was nowhere to be found and her mother was drunk and would not come to speak with us initially but eventually staggered over to inform us that we are not taking Margaret, that she wants us to care for her at her home. In other words, she wants us to continue to bring groceries and supplies to the mud hut, where she will steal them and then resell them to get money for more alcohol. I was already worried about her but worry even more now. Margaret’s sister and mother of Tony begged us to take Evalin, Tony’s 8 year old sister. I asked Oddo to beg Margaret’s mother but she wouldn’t budge. For now at least, Margaret cannot join us and we are forced to stop bringing supplies to the hut because the village council wants the children removed from the environment and we’ve inadvertently provided Margaret’s alcoholic mother with a new source of income with which to purchase drink. I am sick with worry for Margaret and what a mother like this would do to her daughter in order to get her next drink. Oddo has promised to bring prepared dishes only and then stay and ensure that the children are fed in his presence, without allowing Margaret’s mother access to the food. He assures me that once she realizes we are not bringing her any more provisions, and once Tony and Evalin leave, she will most likely come around and let Margaret join us. How bad do things have to get for a child before a little girl gets a break and a chance at life? Tony’s mother and her older sister promises to try to intercede on Margaret’s behalf but confirmed that when her mother is drinking, there is no point in attempting any serious conversation with her. I will try to see Margaret one more time before I leave but she seems to have “disappeared”.

Tony, on the other hand, who just had his head shaved today, gave the nurses at Dr. Limo’s office a blood sample and you can see in the photos he was none too happy afterward. Little George had to return to the outhouse to provide “enough” of a stool sample for testing for worms and Evalin was terrified of the needle and needed to be held down by a nurse and her mother while a sample was taken, but Twix bars settled everyone quickly afterward, and then we all went for lunch, chips, kuku (chicken), Tanzi children’s favorite, especially since most children do not get meat often. It was interesting to watch all of the children, even little Tony, eat fries and salad first, only then devouring their chicken . . .every child left their chicken untouched until everything else on the plate was finished. When I asked why, it was explained that they so rarely get meat and when they do it is usually such a small amount that they save it until last, much like we do dessert, to savour as a special treat. By the by, only Yusuf, of the five street boys knew his birthdate. Two of the boys couldn’t even give the year. How’s that for life on the street as a child?

An emotional car ride yesterday as we picked up Latifa and her mother Amina and returned them to their village. Latifa will probably be able to stay in her village and she has her follow up consult with Dr. Limo on the day I fly out so unless there are complications, or she gets sick after I return at Christmas, I may never see her again. I had hoped to see her walk normally once her foot heals, but in all honesty hope she doesn’t need my/our help anymore, that she remains healthy enough and that her mother has enough income to support her/them. I pray her father will accept her now that her foot is corrected.

I am certain that you can imagine how many times I’ve cried, or teared up since I’ve been here. I am certain Oddo thinks I am the sucky baby of Canada. I welled up yesterday saying goodbye to Latifa, but life is so hard here that people don’t even cry when they lose a family member. Children almost never cry when injured. They fall on the ground, grab the spot that’s hurting, grimace, and writhe around for a few moments until the worst of the pain stops. Chi didn’t even complain last night when he was burning with fever. People are hardened off in a cruel sort of way by the severity of life here. Starvation, sickness and death surround every person, every day, and life, even for the luckier ones, is difficult, to say the least and yet here is Mzungu, sitting in the back of the car, with tears streaming down my face while a collection of Tanzanian men stare into the car, wondering why the white woman is out of control. Peter and Oddo didn’t know what to do with me and so did what they do if I hurt myself or drop something, or bang my bag into the wall. They say, “Sorry”!

I shared my charcoal story with you the other day and have included a photograph of charcoal piled at the road for pickup by a buyer. I needn’t remind you how challenging a business charcoal making is when we consider the income. Tough is an understatement.

I thought I’d include some photos of the cows coming home. It’s a daily occurrence here and the animals are so tame that a person simply walks along with them. (That would be all except the bull that charged Peter’s car a couple of weeks ago).

10:30 p.m.

Ruthie’s birthday was wonderful and the first party she’s had. Tanzanians have a ritual where the celebrant serves bites of cake to the guests of honour, usually the senior members of attendance, and Ruthie served her grandfather, father and myself tonight. She received some new pink shoes and a couple of outfits (I bought the gifts from Mother and Father) and we had quite a celebration! You might notice in the photos that she has a slightly stunned expression on her face . . . that’s because she didn’t know how to behave at a birthday party . . . it has never happened for her before. Her first was witnessing her Baba’s, Oddo’s birthday.

September 16 – 11:09 p.m.

Two days ago we had no electricity until 5:30 p.m. at which time I went to take a shower. Since then we’ve had no water to shower with. Lohay and Happy bring water in the national tool, the five gallon bucket and we heat it on a kerosene burner and that’s been our showering system for the past two days! There are nine of us living here plus we have Dao, Scola’s baby brother staying with us because he was expelled from school for fighting with the night watchman and cannot be at school to study for the national exam on October 5th. He, Furaha and Scola will all write the same Form 4, Secondary School exam on that day but Dao is not permitted on the school property and so must attempt to study on his own which makes it almost impossible for him to pass and to retake the same form is about $800.00. Oddo is ready to kill him.

It seems that the electricity problem may be due to Tanesco (the sole, national electricity supplier who, without explanation, regularly rations power!) The company sends representatives out into the villages with loud speakers telling people to come and pay their bills but why would we rush to pay a bill for service which is intermittent, at best!

This a.m. was the end for the chickens, most of them anyway. All in all, Scola lost 20 chickens, or 10% of her crop to disease and they butchered about 160 this a.m. Photos are on Facebook!! Two men arrived early and began selecting their victims and were followed shortly by a group of women who cleaned and plucked the poor things. Their payment? Chicken feet and heads. No money. They had much fun abusing me and my lack of Swahili until the conversation led to father’s and they asked about mine and I told them mine just died in April . . . Father’s and Mother’s and death are taken very seriously, and honoured very seriously, here in Tanzania.

Oddo, Peter and I went to visit Latifa and then dropped my darling little girl Furaha (Happy) back at school to study for her National exam. Enroute, we stopped in Moshi to purchase Masaai sandals and some wooden art pieces (we MUST open a store for the orphanage!!!) and lunch! During the meal Furaha says, “Dee, look a rabbit!” I turned (we were in an outdoor restaurant with plants climbing to the roof from the ground up) but alas, that darned language barrier . . . not rabbit . . . . it was a RAT! In fact it was the biggest rat I’ve seen in years!! Oddo went on to share that many tribes actually eat rats. Well, meat IS meat isn’t it and Tanzanians LOVE their meat!

More news. Chi and I were doing his homework together (Kingereza, or English, because I stink at the Kiswahili) and his assignment was to understand a list of words with double “o” in them. Roof, hood, mood, etc., One word was tool. I was asking him if he understood the meaning of each word and he told me no, he didn’t understand tool. I explained that for example a hammer is a tool, at which point he got excited and told me that a thief was caught by the villagers here in Usa and they took a hammer and beat the thief about the head and then put a tire (Chi said “round gari (car) part on the ground), around his body and then poured fuel on him and burned him and then called the police. He went on to tell me that one thief had his arms cut off with a machete (asking if a machete is a tool). I confirmed these stories with Oddo and he told me that yes, he knows of three burnings (do you remember when I thought Oddo had said “banned” instead of “burned”?) It puts a whole new twist on the story don’t you think?

I will close. Be well and thank you all so very much for your love and your emails. We have been without electricity for more than two or three hours at a time for three days and it takes me an hour to get to town so have been unable to keep the batteries charged (literally) enough to write/email but will catch up when I can. I still have the boys’, Oddo’s and Anita’s stories to share!

C

September 14 – 10:53 a.m.

I am sick. I woke in the night with a violent headache, one of the worst I’ve ever had, vomiting, diarrhea and the shakes. I’m feeling a bit better today but am not certain if my malaria medication has failed me or I’ve picked up something from the water/food. Either way, I’m laying low today with the hangover from and threat of a recurring headache. I am on cup five of chamomile tea with sugar and so far it’s staying in and down. Keep your fingers crossed.

September 15th – 8:27 a.m.

I am better. Yesterday progressed into a better and better day for me. My stomach and head settled down, I took my malaria medicine one day early and it stayed down and I ended up eating a full supper last night, consisting of kuku which I watched Lohay kill, squash soup, and ugali. Everything stayed down although I am still “gurgly”.

I have less than two weeks until I depart and suddenly there is so very much to do and I am beginning to panic about what I will and will not be able to accomplish before I leave. We need to finalize the stove/oven issue which I struggle to cost out. Electricity is VERY expensive here evidently and so we look at wood to cook with. I must run. Latifa’s surgery was a success and she is convalescing. I will see her tomorrow (Wednesday). Photos to follow. Be well, know I think about all of you each day and take good, good care.

September 12 7:04 p.m.

Hello all. Today I took Eliza (Oddo’s but not Scola’s daughter) and Happy (learning challenged young woman who lives with Oddo) to have dresses it made. They have never had a brand new piece of clothing and were ecstatic! It will cost me $8.50 for the tailor for each girl. Shopping life just doesn’t get any better!

On the down side of things, before we left I visited with Scola who is very sick with malaria and spitting up blood. She took her curative medication yesterday (a one dose remedy) but I am becoming concerned for the family because in order to transmit the disease a person must be bit/stung by a female (it’s always our fault) mosquito who has already bitten/stung a person with malaria. She is convalescing and I am keeping my distance. It seems that I am in the most precarious position here because there is still a chance I might contract malaria and for me the disease would be very serious. My understanding from Dr. Limo is that every time a person has malaria (and people here experience it about every one to three years), they become less sensitive to it and the symptoms are not quite as severe. For children (malaria kills 20% of African children), and people like myself who have never been exposed to the disease, things are quite serious. We are keeping an eye on the children especially. It doesn’t help that we’ve had two unusually sunny and warm days here which, as you know is an ideal breeding environment for mosquitoes.

I had to stop for a few moments to deal with a room raid by first Chi, who barged in to show me his Masai dance. He was followed immediately by Ruthie (4) and Reba and Mao who are 2/3. Only Chi and Ruthie speak any English and Ruthie is limited so we had quite a Masai boogie going on here in Kiswahili for a few moments until Reba (the serious child in all the photos) decided he wanted a “pipi” (lollipop) off of my shelf and grabbed for one of my O.B. tampons. Don’t panic . . .I traded him for an authentic pipi before he could get the wrapper off!!

The noise here is incessant and overlapping. I can hear the conversations going on within our compound, someone rapping on the metal gate at the house next door calling “odi, odi” a sort of greeting call asking to enter which is answered with “karibu”, the sound of the store keeper next door arguing and at least two conversations going on in the front of this building, not to mention the animal sounds which are ever present.

We visited the boys at boarding school (Camp Joseph), Yusuf, Josefat, Rwekiza and I met Marco and George. We took them black dress shoes (used and purchased at market), required for school, biscuits, exercise books, pens, pencils and chocolate. These are street children Oddo has saved and they are currently sponsored by a safari guide named Gary. Oddo takes care of their clothing requirements and brings them home for the holidays. I’m compiling their history and will share it shortly, but suffice it to say their stories are heartbreaking. Just look at my photos. They have the worn out looks of old, broken people, not children of ten and twelve.

On our way out from the boys’ school I passed two children playing in the garbage and I mean garbage. I had just given Chi heck for throwing his trash out the window when we came upon the smoldering remnants of the local garbage dump. Goats roamed about dining on whatever leftovers the rats and homeless had left behind and the children played. The boys’ toys consisted of a yellow, plastic automotive oil bottle with a string tied to it, which one boy used to tow some small stones. The other boy had a collection of flat stones like the ones you bounce on the water.
Sorry but I was just invaded once again by the mini monsters of Usa River. They left the tampons this time and went straight for the pipi drawyer. In, grabbed a lolly, gave a dance and a kiss and they’re gone!

While in town we visited the African equivalent of T.S.C. It is a farm supply store, very similar, but on a smaller scale than T.S.C. where we purchased some gardening tools, a hose, seeds for mchicha (spinach), carrots, collard greens, beets (for me!!), onion sets, and maize. I have been worrying about affording a pump to get the water out of the creek and up a hill (usually people just bucket it but our garden will be too large and is going to be maintained by our children so the bucket idea isn’t feasible), until Mr. Chi saved the day! I’ve priced pumps in the range of $350.00 Cdn. plus we’d need fuel to keep it running but while at the farm supply store, Chi, being Chi, jumped onto this piece of equipment neither Oddo nor I had noticed and began “pedaling” it sort of like an elliptical machine. Well, it’s a manual water pump which, very efficiently I might add, with the use of pedal power, pumps water! Chi will have the biggest thighs in Usa River by the time this garden is ready to harvest!! The good news? No fuel costs and the device only set me back $100.00!! I’ve included a photo!!

On our way home last night we picked up some fruit, vegetables and beans and visited Margaret and Tony. It was 7:30 by the time we arrived and 4 yr. old Tony was home alone, in the mud shack with a kerosene, open flame burning. Margaret came once someone told her Mzungu had arrived and she was followed by Tony’s mama and Bibi who was intoxicated. I had purchased shoes I wanted to try and brought biscuits which Bibi grabbed from me along with the cooking oil I had brought. I wouldn’t give her any of the vegetables or fruit but she took the oil and drank it. There was an older man, drunk also, who frightened me with his aggression and I am quite confident that once we left the adults gorged on the food and the children went without. They had eaten nothing until I arrived with the cookies and other groceries.

You can tell in the photos that Tony was filthy and Oddo gave Mama heck for not being home to cook the children supper (she said there was nothing to cook), nor giving Tony a bath. It was dark but I noticed some red blotches on his face (you can see them in the photos) which concerned me, and the drunken man was paying too much attention to Margaret, so I stopped back in today to assess things. Tony was again home by himself chewing on a piece of unpeeled sugar cane but the marks on his face didn’t look as threatening today so I am less worried. Margaret, however, was nowhere to be found and that does concern me a great deal. I am going to have Dr. Limo confirm that she hasn’t been sexually assaulted when he checks her and if she has been then Oddo has promised not to let her return home. He’ll keep her here until we open the orphanage. Oddo reaffirmed that for the most part women are considered chattels and not persons in the Masai culture and that it is only a matter of time before something happens to Margaret, if it hasn’t already unless we get her out and protect her. I am realizing that women, in general, have very little autonomy in Africa and compromised women, such as children, elderly women, handicapped or extremely poor are especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

It is now 11:21 and I am off to bed after going to Neema’s house (she has an oven) to bake a cake for a graduation celebration tomorrow for a family friend. We film mass at 7:00 a.m. and then I’m off to Arusha for the graduation ceremony, unless, we have to personally deliver Latifa for her pre surgery consultation. Her operation is Monday morning and I cannot wait to update you on this little girl and her eventual recovery! As you know, being able to help her not live her life as a cripple stands out as one of the most remarkable, yet simple things I have ever done and I will have years of joy, watching her grow and run and play like a normal child, all because I forewent a bottle of wine!

Good night everyone and be well. Wish us luck at mass in the a.m. and for Latifa in the afternoon. I pray that everyone is well and happy and strong and I look forward to seeing you in sixteen days!!

Much love,
C

September 8 - Update

We have returned without relative incident. We successfully and economically outfitted the kitchen for the orphanage and investigated the purchasing of a used refrigerator and having a wood burning oven/stove/kettle made (photo attached). Both the trip and the journey were equally educational and rewarding. For example: I discovered that some people can be terribly cruel to others, particularly children and it surprises and saddens me because this particular person is someone very close to Mr. Oddo and he is so caring of the children. I will investigate further.


Westerners would find doing business here very frustrating as we are spoiled in the amenities and services we have available. I refer once again to the search for the business telephone number I spoke of.

We passed through a small town called “Chekalei”. The name of the town is actually a spelling error in translation and refers literally to “check the rail” or, check that a train is not coming down the track which crosses the road which became a stop which encouraged the location of a small village which was then named “Chekalei”. I thought this a cute story.

Speaking of cute I must share a bit about Mr. Chi or Joseph, Mr. Oddo’s son. He is just seven years old, but speaks with such elegance (in English anyway, I am uncertain of his Kiswahili grammar), referring to Baba as “fatha”, note the accent, or “Dee remove this at once please”, that one believes him to be older. He was picked on incessantly by a certain nasty person for our entire journey and I being me, became angry and defensive. He sensed that and very quickly attached himself to me. We rode together on the way home where Chi a) discovered the blonde hairs on my arms and the black ones on my legs (my apologies for the detail), and he was most interested in why I had hairs of three colours on my body, not forgetting the bibi (grandmother) hair on my head). In any event, Mr. Chi had the most fun pulling out my hairs!! I then taught him the English (Kingereza) word “ow”!! He, more than I, I must admit, had the most fun until I started pulling HIS arm and head hairs out at which point he practiced his new word! Chi is just about the sweetest child I have ever met. Children are not shown much physical affection here in Africa, perhaps the transmittable illnesses, bugs, or desperateness leaves a parent/caregiver without the energy, but I have taught them the word and action for “big hug” which Ruthie pronounces “bigug”.



In any event, Chi reminds me of my nephew Jason with his interest in all things and his simple “boyishness”. He struggles with greed a bit, but I think that stems both from his being last to receive because Ruthie is a bit spoiled and usually gets anything she wants and his having desires for so many things in life which go unanswered. He is a very intelligent young man and will grow up to be a sensitive and caring person if his spirit of goodness isn’t beaten out of him. He wants EVERYTHING he sees and looks to me to purchase it for him but when I reason with him that I only have so much money and we are working hard for the children (which he is very excited to help with) he pauses (yes he still pouts for a few minutes) and thinks things through and then accepts my reasoning and is happy again.

Perhaps I am drawn to him because he suffers so much less than many other of the children I have met and I get a reprieve with a more dare I say “normal” child, at least from my perspective. In any event he warms my heart and I enjoy spending time with him.

On our way home we ran into a police check where, (usually the police won’t attempt extortion if a white person is in the car but this one took our driver around to the back where we couldn’t see him) and informed him that he didn’t have his mailing address on the outside of the vehicle which I guess is the law. The driver argued that it was a minor infraction, and the police officer tried to extort Tsh. 20,000 (that much because a Mzungu WAS in the car and he thought I’d pay it), but Huruma (compassion or sympathy in Kiswahili) just cursed at the cop, jumped in the car and we sped away leaving him eating gravel!! I laughed my butt off but Mr. Oddo was a bit shaken. Huruma, it seems has a bit more experience with these situations.

As I mentioned earlier oranges are a huge business here and we purchased them on the way home. Let me paint a picture . . . it is dusk and the sun is setting. We pull over to the side of the road where about ten young boys/men come chasing us with peeled oranges which they slice in half and start feeding us (we probably devoured ten while we were waiting). Mr. Oddo paid Tsh. 3000 Cdn. $2.50 for 75 oranges plus the ten we ate. These kids remain out at the road all night because so much vehicular traffic continues that they sell 24/7.

About the charcoal . . . along the entire 620ish km. journey I would see 100 kg. bags full of charcoal piled at the side of the road. I believed they were being dropped off for pickup and resale in the interior but I have my facts backwards. The trees are cut in the interior, a mud hut is constructed and the wood from the tree is burned very slowly until it becomes charcoal. It is then broken up, bagged up and hauled all the way to the road to where it is picked up by transport and resold. It takes about a week for a family to produce one bag of charcoal and they receive somewhere between Tsh. 10,000-15,000. It is resold here for Tsh25,-30,000.

I will close. I am doing well although I have some new gurgling noises and sounds today and Ruthie came in to get a “bigug” from Dee and then ran out of my room squatted, and shat herself with diarrhea (koohara) so we are all a bit concerned that we’ve picked up something from the chakula/food.

My gurgles and I shall close. I am particularly missing all of you of late . . . as time passes. We have ten days to go until Ruthie’s birthday where I will bake a cake and have ice cream, her first birthday celebration, and by then I will only have “eight sleeps” until I leave to return home. I am doing such good things here I know, but I need to be home and see and hold my family.

Much love to you all. Karibu sana and asante sana for all of your well wishes.

Be well, be happy and know I am thinking of each of you,

C
 

September 3rd – 6:41 p.m.

Yesterday was a productive day. We went to town to investigate, telephone and internet for the orphanage, shipping costs for the container, information about incubation of chickens for Langa ya Iruva (Light of God) HIV/AIDS group and then home to a pile of paperwork and the shaving of more costs from the budget. Gasoline costs Tsh. 1,450/L which is heart stopping considering the poverty but most people do not have vehicles so I guess all things are relative. I didn’t sleep much last night so this a.m. 6:15 arrived in a hurry but for a wonderful cause.

On our way home we pulled into the village only to have Peter (our driver) pull the car over to the side. He started and stopped the car a couple of times. pumped a pedal three or four times, shut the vehicle off and turned around to tell me we “have no clutch”. We had NO clutch! We rolled into our house (thank God it didn’t happen in Arusha!) and off Peter went to find a clutch!
Today we met Latifa and her mother Amina who live in Majengo village, enroute to Machame Hospital near Moshi. We picked them up near Kilimanjaro Airport and then headed to the hospital where we met with another Dr. Limo. It seems that Limo is the African equivalent to the name “Smith” back home. They are not related. After a surprisingly short wait (and the payment of Tsh. 2,000 for consultation at the bone clinic) we were ushered into Dr. Limo’s office.
A “mature” gentlemen to say the least (70ish) Dr. Limo was jovial, warm, and VERY kind to and about Latifa. Our experience with Christina’s Dr. and his arrogance and air of superiority had left a sour taste in my mouth so I was overjoyed to meet this doctor. He had three young student doctors watching him consult and so in a tiny 6’x9’ room there was Dr. Limo and his three students, Latifa and her mother, a nurse, a secretary, Peter (my driver and Oddo’s brother in law), Toti, and myself. Cozy hmmmmmmm?
In any event Dr. Limo had met with Latifa two years ago when she was first diagnosed but without the funds her mother was unable to proceed with the corrective surgery. Dr. Limo shared his pleasure at seeing Latifa again to do the surgery as well as a story about his being in Canada (Vancouver) in 1982. He was happy to see me helping children and explained that I would pay Tsh. 50,000 ($45.00 Cdn.) plus Tsh. 5,000 per day for she and mother to stay for one week as it is major surgery and Latifa will require about one week to recover. Latifa will have her surgery September 14th. They will share a bed and Amina/we will be responsible for feeding the child as you will recall hospitals here do not feed their patients.

I cannot begin to explain the emotions I felt as we left that hospital. For about the cost of a good bottle of wine Latifa will walk again. You cannot imagine looking at this child (and then holding her in the car on my lap on the ride home), knowing that she’ll have a real shot at life without the stigma of being handicapped. Latifa will still come to live with us at the orphanage because her family’s poverty is just too great and her father rejects her, but her mother will come to see her monthly and we will get Latifa into school, something which would never happen were she to stay in Majengo. When I met with Latifa and her mother she gave me a letter from the village elders of Majengo. It introduced Latifa as being of the village, a handicapped girl child (horribly discriminated against) of extreme poverty and asking us to help her in any way we could. I tear up thinking about this and ask all of you who made donations to pause for a moment, take your left hand and reach over your shoulder and pat yourself on the back . . . without your help I wouldn’t be here and Oddo wouldn’t have discovered Latifa’s need and we wouldn’t have pitched in together to save a child from a lifetime (although that may have been a shorter lifetime, of disability and excruciating poverty. Go ahead and pat yourself again folks. This is one of the those BIG things we should all be just a little bit proud of I think.

Oddo tells me that I have about 1,000 people praying for me and my ability to bring aid to them and to Usa River. I will continue to work with Langa ya Iruva (tribal for Light of God), the HIV/Aids group, for the elders and of course for our orphanage. Oddo and I intend to host a monthly celebration where the elders of Usa River will join our children at Tuchifo for an afternoon meal and visit. The seniors of Usa are just as terribly neglected (not out of choice, simply need, for there is just no one to care for them).
September 4th – 1:56 p.m.
GOOD NEWS GOOD NEWS! WWW.TUCHIFO.COM IS UP AND RUNNING! IT ISN’T COMPLETE YET BUT IT’S THERE!!! THANK YOU CINDY!!!!!!! FURTHER INFORMATION TO FOLLOW!!!!!!
Today is a good day. Leo ni siku nzuri!!!!! We started off poorly by attempting to leave at 5:30 a.m. for Dar Es Salam but 3 minutes into our safari the axle broke!!! Pole!! However, we shall attempt to depart again on Sunday and Peter took me to the Danish Centre where I received your emails and discovered that Tuchifo is up and running!!! We are now in Arusha downloading a much needed printer driver, getting money to shop in Dar and having cappuccino and croissants at an internet café!!! Nzuri sana!!

Peter’s wife Neema made us sambosa na mandazi meng and we roasted chicken for our safari so we are saving them (hopefully) until Sunday a.m. when we attempt to depart again!
Happy Birthday to you Pam . . . and much love to everyone else. Be well and take good care

September 1, 2009 – 5:41 p.m.

It feels good to write this date because it puts August behind me and heads me into September and home to all of you sooner. There is so much important work to here but I must admit that I do get homesick.

Yesterday a.m. I attended an HIV/Aids Community Assistance Group: Langa ya Iruva or Light of God. It isn’t Kiswahili, but a tribal dialect. There are approximately sixty members here in Usa, 54 of whom are women. There is an African saying that to educate a woman means to educate 1000 people. I’m not going to ask if that means women just care more or we have bigger mouths. . . no I will not ask. In any event, they are hosted by the local Catholic Church which allows them a garden (nutrition is so important to Aids sufferers and so many people lack the resources to feed themselves properly) and a meeting place. We discussed that even though HIV/Aids treatment and medication is free in Tanzania, the management of other illnesses brought on by their living conditions and compromised health is not. Nor is travel, and often it is simply a matter of money, or a lack thereof which ends up costing people their lives. The group began their own Vicoba (Village Community Bank) (remember my inaugural celebration?) but struggle to collect any serious money because so many of their members lack the funds to contribute. We brainstormed for income generating ideas: grow/buy vegetables for resale which would net a person up to Tsh. 12,000/week or $10 if they are lucky, but more realistically, to purchase wholesale and then resell charcoal (buy Tsh. 24,000-Sell-Tsh 30,000, net profit Tsh. 6,000/week or $5.00/Cdn per week!)

The group shared that they have been given an incubator for chicken eggs but they have no training in how to operate it, nor is it big enough to generate enough money, nor do they have a place to house the chickens so I am getting into the chicken research business! We will find some training for the incubator and price a larger one, so that they might upgrade once they begin generating funds, we will find them a place to rent $30 Cdn./month and we will purchase some eggs! That will get them into business. I made an enormous faux pas when I asked how many times/week they eat chicken. (I am always looking for protein sources here, there are so few) After Oddo translated, the entire group broke out in laughter. They don’t eat chicken. Chicken is a luxury item here. I didn’t know because I’ve been given chicken almost every time I’ve been invited for a meal. Again these wonderful people do everything and go to extreme expense to show me honor. I am terribly humbled. On the walk back to Oddo’s home I asked how, if chicken is so valuable, no one steals from the multitude of local chickens just strolling around EVERYWHERE??? He told me that should a person get caught stealing some else’s produce they would be shunned by the village and most likely made so uncomfortable that they would leave. I worry about my phone time thief now.

The HIV/Aids group continued with some of their struggles which included: attendance at meetings due to illness, education for HIV+ children, nutrition for parents and children, cost of medical appointment and travel, volunteer assistance. We have a second meeting next Monday and will follow up then.
We got a call from our future landlord and were on our way to negotiate our lease for the orphanage building when our vehicle was charged by a homecoming bull! He was tired and not exactly one of those spunky Spanish bulls . . . more the half starved, completely irritated African bull who reared his head at the front of the car, gave it a shake at us a couple of times while Peter (quickly) put the car into reverse and got us out of its way just as it charged to gore us (well not us, the headlamps!) Not to worry, after a good laugh both of headlamps, our radiator and ourselves carried on and so did the bull. (Did I tell you about the burrow who strutted through the market unattended last weekend and terrified a hawker who didn’t notice it but just looked up into its face at the last moment? Very entertaining!!)
Things were not too promising with our property all of a sudden. It seems we had a language barrier. I was talking in Tsh. The landlord was talking in USD. We are almost 50% apart on negotiations and I feared we might have to find another property but things worked out this morning when we received a call, on our way to Moshi (64 km. away) that the property owner would accept our rental offer. They aren’t happy except that it is going to be used as an orphanage and God will bless them for their goodness. It seems Oddo was of the impression that $1.00US = Tsh 1,000, when in reality Tsh. 1000 = 85 cents Cdn. which makes an enormous difference in my calculations!! Back to Tshillings thank you very much!

Why we were up at 5:45 a.m. this morning you might ask? Well we took Christina (hydrocephalus) to Kiliminjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) to arrive at 8:00. We finished around 12:30 p.m. but the news was good. Christina’s shunt is secure, her skull has only expanded by 1 cm. since last fall, her cognition is relatively good for a child with her condition and other than weakness on her right side and a drooling problem the doctor was quite happy. He was not so happy to hear that Christina’s mother has dumped her child on an 82 year old Bibi. Nor was he happy to see how thin she is but that will change rapidly once we move her and start feeding her better. She has an occupational therapy appointment on November 4th which Oddo will take her to. Between she and Latifa’s surgery news, plus the acceptance of our lease agreement with the landlord, I am feeling just a little sense of accomplishment.
My joviality may be credited at least in part to a delicious lunch I enjoyed as the guest of Madame Chairwoman of Vicoba Group (think inaugural party last week) of green bananas and meat (luxury), a tribal dish made with coconut milk, kuku (chicken) (a huge luxury item), and rice (yet a third luxury item). She has a small stationary shop which we toured and which contains very little but she has made a loan from Vicoba and will stock her shelves. I will bring her solar calculators and balloons to sell when I return! Asante sana kwa chakula tem sana!

I will close but send hugs to all my family and friends at home. . . I hope you don’t forget me here!! (I know some of you won’t). Take great care of each other! Karibu sana!! Tutaonana – Goodbye from the children of Tuchifo (Tumaini Children’s Foundation)!

August 28th Tanzania Update.

Today was a good day!! We started out with a visit to Dr. Limo who a) told me that our HIV positive children WILL receive treatment and counseling FREE OF CHARGE and he assured me that the drugs are authentic. Dr. Limo also confirmed that Latifa will go to a clinic near here, we take her next week, to have her club foot repaired. Can you imagine a child being crippled for life for $100-150.00? We may not even need to keep her if her foot is repaired and her father lets her go home. There is a chance he won’t though and then the mother has to leave her with us because the bibi can no longer take care of her, but at least she’ll walk!!!! I then went to the Danish Centre with my computer camera and had a wonderful video conversation with Steve (even though it was the middle of the night there). The photos of some of our children are posted, and my biggest health concerns for them have been addressed. Yes, today was a good day!
Christina, her Bibi and myself at Dr. Limo’s office!!

August 29th

Things just get better and better! We are trying to shave some more $ off of our monthly budget but more importantly, Dr. Limo saw Christina today. He confirmed she has hydrocephalus, an overproduction of cerebral spinal fluid which causes her skull to be oversized, impedes her intellectually (she is slower than other children) and she has some health risks (there is a shunt running down the side of her neck from her skull into her abdomen where excess fluid on the brain drains), but she is without a doubt the sweetest child you have ever seen and so happy. She told Dr. Limo she loved “Nana” (me), because I am helping her! Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. we leave for Moshi to a clinic where her condition will be updated and her shunt inspected. Dr. Limo gave her some antibiotics and cough medicine for bronchitis, dewormed her. Other than that and being underweight due to malnutrition she is doing very well!
Christina is a terribly sweet child who is open to everyone (we’ll have to protect her), she is intelligent and will become a wonderful asset to Tumaini House.

August 30th 2:28 p.m.

We met three more of our children today. Brothers Lazaro (8) and Stefano (6) Michael and Emmanuel Joseph (7) who lost his mother when he was just six days old and has lived with his bibi all of his life. When we visited the family bibi and the others were grieving the death of one of her daughters (3 days previous) and today while enroute to meet Lazaro, Stefano and Emmanuel we passed a group of people who had collected because a 13 year old boy had died in the night. He had been ill with a fever and when the family awoke this a.m. he had passed. Mr. Oddo stopped to pay his respects while I waited in the car.

You cannot imagine the emotions I experience going through this process. I became overwhelmed yesterday on our return from Arusha imagining attending one of these children’s graduations or weddings one day down the road. It is a surreal feeling, walking into the most deplorable human conditions, meeting these orphans who are in such fantastic need, some don’t even know their birthdates so the boys will have Mr. Oddo’s birthday and the girls will have mine. Bibi’s and Aunties cannot remember definitively even how old some children are. For example in Margaret’s case we have her down as 7-8 and neither she nor Tony have a birthdate! We know that Lazaro was born in 2001 but when and the same goes for Stefano (a big flirt!!) where all we have recorded is 2003. Emmanuel is the shyest little boy you could imagine but I think we’re almost set for a futbol team here at Tumaini House! Uncle Gerry Malo when are you free for class????
We visit the homes of these children and Mr. Oddo explains that in two weeks we are going to come and get each of them for an entire day with Dr. Limo. We are going to have lunch at the new building and show them where they’ll live, where they’ll go to school (public without sponsors, hint, hint). They’ll be tested for HIV, have a general check up, be dewormed, fed a wonderful lunch and given some hope for the first time in their short lives. It is the most remarkable emotion I’ve ever felt. I hold the hands of these little people (or better yet, they take mine!) and I know I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to. You’ll experience the same thing when you come so do, come!!
I’ve been whining about the cold but today the sun came out and it’s about 28C. It is surprising how “temperate” the climate is here and because of the altitude it is grey quite often so the sun is a gift.
Bad news . . .everyone here buys “time” on their phones, usually by the .50c or $1.00 because they have no money. I suspect that one of the family has stolen $3.00 of time (which really is a lot of money here) off of my phone (it is very easy to transfer time credit from one phone to another). I shared my suspicions with Toti who is devastated and who then shared the news with Mr. Oddo. He too is very upset because without trust these people have absolutely nothing and they desperately need our help. Mr. Oddo has visitors now while I write this but I went to market after mass and bought food and clothing for Christina, Francis, Joseph, Janet and their bibis and I had to buy a dress for Christina to wear to Moshi on Tuesday. (Whole fish, carrots, potatoes (a luxury), tomatoes and spinach) and I suspect he and I will have a discussion on our way to deliver the food after his guests leave. It is the money, I would have loaned the money, it’s that someone stole from me and now I cannot trust that person. It is sad but I remember that I’ve only had two negative experiences here in Tanzania . . .this situation and the old man in the market who slapped my face on my first Sunday. The locals are getting used to me now so try me on for Mzungu prices but I tell them baii kichaa! (Crazy price!) and walk away while they stand with their mouths open wondering how I learned their slang. I’m sort of “training” the market people because we will buy some of our produce here weekly and when I am buying I can’t pay Mzungu prices.
5:48 p.m.
I’ve just returned from visiting Christina and Francis, Joseph and Janet to deliver the food and clothing. Christina and her bibi went to market so we missed them but the other children were just returning with their bibi and so we tried on used shoes at $2.00/pair, some clothes and gave them the food. They were ecstatic as they themselves had come back from market with a tiny bag containing only a fish head and some vegetable.
10:10 p.m.
An English woman named Ruth Evans (formerly a student and now a professor, and Ruthie’s namesake) is visiting Oddo and family. She met Oddo ten years ago when she volunteered here for one year. She has stayed in touch over the years and was travelling Tanzania doing research while on school recess and decided to stop in to visit. Her research is on orphaned HIV children caring for younger siblings and living independently. She is published through www.policypress.org.uk.

August 26th - 7:49pm

I just sat down to start writing to you and the power has been shut down so I can write only as long as my battery lasts. By the by we don’t have water yet either.

We made our first home visit today. Almost into Arusha proper on the opposite side of Arusha Road from Usa River we drove our dilapidated vehicle (cross roading??), to see an HIV positive mother (about 25), of five children. You will see in the photos the desperate situation they find themselves in. The family lives in one half of a mud shack without electricity or water. The toilet is as I’ve shown you and they climb down a steep hill to fetch the water they need. Her husband abandoned the family four years ago and for some reason they feel he is dead. Her mother (she has on the black cap in the photos), smelled of alcohol when we arrived at 10:00 a.m. and begged us to take her last born daughter Margaret because she is dying. Mr. Oddo said yes without consulting me which was surprising but he explained later that a) the mother/grandmother is most likely drinking a home brew of alcohol which is toxic and poisonous and he noticed open sores on her legs which I didn’t see but which are an indication of the final stages of poisoning from this sort of brew. The family are Masai and the Masai do not believe in girls going to school so she most likely will end up a prostitute if we don’t help. Margaret is 12.

Tony is 4 and Mr. Oddo believes he is HIV positive but we will confirm his, and the health of all of our children through Dr. Limo before they move with us. Once we left I asked him how he chose Tony over the other four children and he said that because Tony is the youngest he is left at home alone while his mother tries to find work cleaning or ironing or hawking. He is adorable as you can see and the others are at an age where they might fend more for themselves. One young boy is mentally challenged as you can see in the photo, but we are unable to take him because we just don’t have the resources to take care of a special needs child. He doesn’t have a chance and will become a victim of the streets very soon. We took dry beans, 2k of sugar and I gave the mother, not the grandmother, Tsh10,000 which is equal to Cdn. $10 more or less and will feed them all for a week if she can keep it away from her mother.

The photo of the room doesn’ t do it justice but you cannot imagine six people sharing one bed in 10x10 room with dirt floors and walls. It absolutely broke my heart.
After that we drove to Camp Joshua Christian School where four of Mr. Oddo’s former street children are sponsored by a safari guide named Gary. Yusuf, Josefat, Marco (who I didn’t meet) and Rwekiza, all either 12 or 13 are wonderful young children and will come “home” to the orphanage at school breaks. Historically they have come to Mr. Oddo’s house but look very much forward to their new “home”. Oddo tells me that when the children share their stories of being on the street it too will make me cry. He said it broke his heart. I may skip those stories for now. In any event we took them for lunch (fish and chips Tanzi style), sodas and then bought them some used clothes ($44.00) for one pair of used jeans and two tops each. I almost died! I thought clothes would cost nothing because they are piled up sky high in the markets. You can see in the photos I think.
The beauty in this part of the story is that two of the boys have been at the top of their classes and Yusuf writes his national exam to gain admittance into Form 5, which I believe is his second last year of primary. They are wonderful young men and were very shy with Matron. They call Mr. Oddo “Teacher”.

Finally, we stopped by our new home to take measurements and photos. I am including some. Mr. Oddo insists that I have my own room for use only when I or my family/friends are here and we will have a very nice volunteer “suite”. We are ordering bunk beds and at current count I believe we can house 32 but I am hoping we don’t have to take that many to start. I’m a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of 32 children under seven but Mr. Oddo assures me we’ll manage. I hope so.

The property will have a brick/stone fence completely surrounding it before we move in, there are four large bedrooms and a “sick” room, an enormous kitchen by Tanzi standards (you can see in the photo), the volunteer suite with private shower, bath and balcony and Mr. Oddo’s and my offices and suites each with own bath. We are constructing a second, outdoor kitchen for cooking as we will use wood much of the time as well as an outdoor toilet. The house is completely surrounded by a large brick patio/walkway which can house our guests for special events (we need party tarps), and will make the rainy season much more manageable. We have four patio/balconies which we will use for classrooms, a large dining room, and a large living room which we hope to put a television in for the children to watch movies. All we need now is money and furniture and hundreds of other things.
I hear Ted Kennedy died. That is the only western news I’ve heard since I’ve been here. Is the world still spinning there? It is very cold here and I do not have enough warm clothes.

As we were leaving our new home a gentlemen and his son jumped into our car for a lift. His name is Adrian and he is a safari guide. He is extremely jovial, speaks excellent English and is very kind. Mr. Oddo explained that I am the Matron of Usa’s orphanage and Mr. Adrian said he would take me on a safari, even for one or two days, for free. I believe we will use his safari services until we can get our own vehicle.

Did I mention Ruthie’s body? I bathed her two days ago and her entire body is covered in scars from bed bug bites. It is so sad.

Please wish me luck and say a prayer today. This a.m. I go on our Usa River home visits. We are taking soap, sugar and beans to each home. These are some of the children that are the most needy and who will be moving to the orphanage.
I will close but will be in touch tomorrow. Be well and take care,
C

August 26th 7:11am

Good morning. I was awakened at 5:40 a.m. by the rooster symphony warming up in response formation for at least one km. It is quite funny because one can imagine the first rooster (always, promise me) the one DIRECTLY outside my bedroom window beginning, then a second responding and then a third, farther away and so on. I believe I’ve already written about this. Anyway, back to my morning.

I was awakened at 5:40 a.m. and decided that since I am up and Mr. Oddo and I are leaving for a home visit (a mother of five children abandoned them at HER mother’s home, who only has one eye and is a beggar). We are taking her apples and some sugar and will be taking all five of the children when we open. HIV is involved and the granny is dying. We are then returning to our rental house to measure and plan for furniture placement, etc. We need to house 30 children in five large rooms so will be busy but I am very confident that all of you will approve of our choice. The building has an inviting atmosphere, there are four covered verandahs where the children may play, hold classes, etc., and two guest “suites” for lack of a better word. Two, two room units with private baths so that you will be very comfortable while the children melt your hearts which will convince you to part with your money and help them out! In any event, back to my morning.

So, I awoke at 5:40 a.m. decided to go have a shower, only to discover that we are out of water again. I redressed, went to the kitchen, shooed the four snarly but obedient dogs away, (they don’t scurry quite so quickly when one is standing at the kitchen door), and started water to boil. I located the funnel/filter, bleached and washed it, located the thermos and filtered then filled the boiled water. I boiled three more pots of water as Scola, Mr. Oddo and myself need to “shower”. Yesterday at “Shoprite”, the only European grocer for about 50km. I found cocoa and brought it home for chocolate chai. The children will go crazy for it . . . so will mama chi (Scola).

Mr. Oddo and I had a meeting last night while Scola and Anita (her sister) prepared a new dish (ndizi) for me. It is basically a green banana stew with onions, garlic, grated carrot, tomato and coconut milk. The bananas do not dissolve but stay quite firm and taste quite a bit like potatoes. It was very good.
In any event, during our meeting, Mr. Oddo shared another story which has just been brought to his attention about a grandfather (Steve you and I spoke about this yesterday), who, being the only relative of a very young girl, has put her out as a prostitute. She is just a child and this is her own grandfather! We are trying to find her and will bring her to the orphanage also if we’re successful. Mr.
Oddo says she will stay here in his home until we open . . . if we can find her. He has his spies out looking for her. By the way, front page news yesterday about the conviction of a father who impregnate and gave HIV to his own daughter. I explained to Mr. Oddo that unfortunately similar things happen in North America also.

I believe I mentioned we had a birthday party for Mr. Oddo on Sunday. I’ve attached the photos for your viewing pleasure!!
Be well and take care!!

August 25th - 5:38pm

 Today at 11:45am

August 25th – 5:38 p.m.

Last night we ate makande so that I might know what our children will be eating. It was actually quite tasty and Oddo tells me is a staple at the schools. (Steve do you remember the maize “soup” we ate in Mexico?) It is basically the same, a maize (large, white corn niblets) and bean (dry, not green) soup. I flavored it with green pepper (one the size of a golf ball, for 12 people, veggies aren’t big here), onion, again golf ball sized, grated carrot, large even by our standards, and some spice. We may expect to have this regularly. I must have finally done something right because everyone loved it. I made the last pizza (burned the centre, charcoal is tough), but without meat Tanzanians aren’t really interested. . . Steve, they remind me of someone, hmmmmm? By the way, if anyone has ever eaten Steve’s barbeque chicken (which I might saw a limb off for now) give him a hug in thanks. I had a chicken leg yesterday and without one word of exaggeration, I could NOT bite the meat off of the bone. I had to get a sharp knife and carve pieces off because it was so tough and ended up putting the piece back which was taken immediately by Ruthie. That is Tanzi meat for you.
I’ve just returned from a) putting hot water to boil so that I may filter it and put it into the thermos for coffee, b) washing my laundry in two 5 gal. plastic tubs, (Omo is the equivalent of our Tide), hung it to dry and c) made my first cup of instant (boy do I miss coffee) Afrika! (Think Nescafe). Our powdered milk is off so has to be returned and so it is black.

For the most part OUR children (the lucky ones) may expect ugali (white maize flour mixed with water to a very thick paste like quality, rolled in the hand mixed with a wilted green veggie) daily. Quite possibly they will have no breakfast, simply a sort of chai (no tea but lots of sugar and powdered milk mixed with hot water). Chai is a custom here. Adults and children alike consume it like the worst of us do Tim Horton’s. The problem is that it consists primarily sugar and the Tanzanian dental hygiene is optional to say the least. Oddo and I have agreed to discourage chai and instead invest in a cow ($800) for milk. It will cost more for the milk but our orphans may have teeth. Ruthie is four years old and has her second teeth already. The front four are only half length because she has been allowed to suck on sugar (sukari) sweets since a baby and they have rotted. It is so sad because she is such a pretty little girl, yet will have no front teeth.

For lunch our children may expect soup or ugali and possibly ugali again or makande for supper. Rice is a luxury item and they may only expect rice, and porridge (wheat and maize flour mixed with a bit of sugar and water and reduced to our thickness of porridge. Its okay but I brought Quaker Oats and so am eating that. We hope to have meat twice a week, fruit once daily (but I think that is optimistic) and vegetables every other day. Our budget only allows for the equivalent of 3 large margarine tubs of vegetables monthly. Monthly! That doesn’t include beans or maize, and we will eat potato leaves and grow our own vegetables on a neighboring plot of land which the owner is not building upon yet, but folks, it’s pretty grim by our standards and I am talking about the lucky children of Usa. There are many, many children who will not eat anything in a given day and I will go to southern Tanzania (Oddo’s birth village) when I come back in January where people eat dirt (or nothing) and drink from puddles and have NO clothes. As distressing as it can be here, we are wealthier than many other Tanzis. That is why we must find a way to support this orphanage.

Our budget is currently $5417 monthly. That will support 30 children (with no education fees included), no social events for the children, no treats or special things of any kind. Food and wages are too low in my opinion (although Oddo says the children won’t believe their good fortune and won’t want to leave). Mr. Oddo, as I feel compelled to now call him (when a woman greets the head of a household here, she either sits down out of respect so she is lower than he, or she curtsies. You chauvinists will love it here!
Oddo’s salary is less than half of what he says he needs to support all of the people in his life and I believe him. He is asking for $600/month but really needs $1,500 to do everything he needs/wants to do for his family. (He is supporting or helping to support himself, Scola, Elizabeth, Joseph and Ruthie, his mother and father, three siblings, and their families and that doesn’t take into account what he sends to south Tanzi. I have complete faith in his honesty and integrity so am trying to find him more money.
The caregivers and the night watchman get $150 per month and the cook $200, but I plan to cook for the first three months so we’ll save some money that way. After some retraining in batik Oddo’s sister will do the cooking at the orphanage. She is a wonderful cook and a wonderful woman and one of the warmest greeters at my meeting last Friday where I became Matron. (I had her fish, which I hope to have once weekly at the orphanage), and Claire I am gorging on samboga (Tanzi people differentiate between sambosa (meat) and samboga (vegetable). Oddo’s sister and I will make them together!!
Joanie did you notice that everyone here picks their noses? It must be the dust but everyone, EVERYONE does it. A person will be having a conversation with you and a finger will head right up there! It was a bit disconcerting to me at first but I am adjusting, just not trying to shake so many hands.

I’ve mastered the eating with the right hand thing. We still use spoons for soup (or we slurp it), and rice but other than that, it’s the right hand!

The President of Tanzania and his entourage drove past me yesterday on the bus. Their cars are clean!!

Today we are going to have some African clothes made. Joanie could you email me and let me know what your batik fabric and batik art cost you and what color batik art (or is it fabric) you would like? Also to all of my friends, please email me because I am shopping for fabric (it is stunningly beautiful and we are considering getting into that business because batik is so popular with tourists) and let me know if you would like some batik fabric and what color. I am having a trouser suit with a long top made. My tailored outfit will cost me $10.00 to make here.

It is surprisingly cold here. Low twenties most of the time and it sometimes climbs up to high twenties. I don’t have enough warm clothes. Did I mention the dirt? I got my first mosquito bite last night. Dr. Limo suggests that if westerners are going to stay for any length of time (my next trip) they go off the anti-malaria medication and allow themselves a bout of malaria which he will then treat. He suggests that the drugs are hard on the liver (I’ve not had an alcoholic drink since I arrived so I may still be neutral), but I think we’ll worry about that another day. Joanie do you know if that’s true about the liver? Dr. Limo is a Godsend. He is headed to India because his wife has a brain tumor and he there is only one surgeon in all of Africa who does the surgery and he hasn’t a prayer in affording the surgery. It is much cheaper in India (although with greater risks) so he is most likely preparing for her to die. That is simply the reality here and he is a doctor!

Folks, I get excited when I think of you, my friends joining me here. The home is quite lovely and will be very comfortable and the children, the people, are remarkable!! I can show you the village where our poor orphans come from (Oddo tells me we cannot fill all of our beds because he knows the police will be dropping off children/babies), we can arrange safaris, we can arrange tours for shopping in Arusha, and the country is beautiful!! We are completely surrounded by mountains. Please do start spreading the word and thinking about your own trip to Africa. Every dollar we can channel through Tuchifo (Tumaini “Hope” Children’s Foundation), is a dollar we do not have to find to support these poor children. Joanie may I ask you to print off my correspondences and pass them on to Betty? Thank you!

I am completing the application to register a charity in Canada and require three directors of which I am one. I thought Mr. Oddo could be one but no, we must all be Canadian. Do I have any volunteers?
Well, I’ll close. This a.m. we are having a treat. It is a sort of deep fried sweet rice ball and quite a delicacy. Mzungu is buying breakfast today. Ten of us will dine for $2.00!!

All the best to each of you. I hope everyone is well and I continue to thank you for your well wishes. My heart is heavy at times with the desperate situation here, but it is also lightened by the kindness these people show and the support you send me. Take good care of each other until I see you again,
Much love,
C

August 24th Update

How is everyone?? I hope all are well. The past few days have been quite interesting. First of all my Vicoba Group inauguration on Friday afternoon (photos are on Facebook) where I was asked to be the matron of the organization and was seriously honoured with roses, Masaii shoes and two kangas, not to mention an enormous meal. Saturday, I was a guest of honour at a wedding (photos on Facebook), where I was invited to open a bottle of champagne and pour for the parents of the bride.
Saturday afternoon I went to town to purchase the ingredients for a birthday cake for Oddo. His birthday was yesterday (Sunday). What an adventure in baking. Imagine two large steel pots with the cake ingredients in them. Cover with newspaper then attempt to seal with a lid. Bake until you guess it is finished over a charcoal brazier. . . Then, hide it in my room which is the only thing that locks so the children don’t steal it. Then dig it out of the pans, frost and decorate and, wait, did I mention pizza?
I made pizza (on the brazier again) last night for Oddo’s birthday. Three meat and one veggie pizza. They LOVED it, but no one told me we would have 25 people show up for cake and pizza (which they serve together in the same bowl/plate). I made four pizzas for just the 11 of us thinking I’d show these hungry Tanzanians, but no, they just brought more people!!!!!!!
I attended Mass yesterday and broke down in church. Everyone was wondering why mzungu was crying in church (I am tearing up telling you this story), but, these people have virtually nothing, they struggle just to get through each day, and yet they have a vitality and a spirituality we in the west could and should learn from. Oddo is asking Father for permission for me to video my walk to church and then mass to bring home and hopefully teach us a thing or two about faith.
We have selected our building for the orphanage. It is about a 15 minute walk from the old part of Usa but is in the newer part which I like better for air flow (higher) and because it is closer to the schools and so far is cleaner. The building itself is beautiful (I’ll send photos soon), and we will have two guest rooms, so that visitors/volunteers will be comfortable and able to live with the children and teach/guide/coach. Our location in Usa is actually ideal because people may fly in from Nairobi or Kilimanjaro and we are just off the direct road to the Serengeti or Kilimanjaro mountain for climbing. Our hope is to purchase a safari jeep and hire Tumaini Children’s Foundation out as a hotel stop on the way to and from safaris. The building is superior to others in the neighbourhood and we got it for the same monthly rental as the others were offered at but it will appeal to western tastes more and the guest rooms will be more comfortable. There is a stone area so we won’t have to deal with mud so much with 30 children during the rainy season (we need children’s boots, raincoats and a basketball net). It is quite lovely and Oddo and I are optimistic about marketing it. (That sounds harsh but the fact of the matter is that we need to find ways to earn income here so that we won’t always be dependent upon donations.)
Some of our brainstorming ideas include: a dry cleaning service in Usa, there is none); at our library, computers both for training purposes and rental use; professional musical instruments (trumpets, clarinets, etc.) which we can rent out for weddings and celebrations at $20/instrument/night, which is HUGE money!!! , wedding/funeral/festival tent covers which we can rent out. Everyone takes the bus, so if we could purchase a bus we could generate income, but I think most importantly is the safari van/vans (I’m being optimistic) which we would be able to generate considerable income from!!
We have discussed purchasing a house which we could rent out, purchasing farm land nearby and building our permanent home/visitor centre, and becoming flower (roses) farmers because they are such big business here. All we need is capital. I am meeting with some bankers this week to discuss lending rates, etc., because I think (to be verified) that we could earn more interest on loans here and as long as we give the people some time, they will repay. They are responsible people for the most part and are so grateful to receive opportunities to develop business ideas that I believe they would definitely repay loans. The problem here is that the bank rate is in the double digits so no one can afford to borrow.
I want to share another story with you if that’s okay. I was in the “loo” yesterday, which backs on to a sort of courtyard for three or four other houses and fronts onto the alley in front of our gate. I could hear two babies crying, Scola discussing supper with her sister (who is staying with us because her husband beats her so badly that they fear for her life. . . she lost one of her two children to malaria at the age of ten. I believe we are going to hire her as our cook and housekeeper for the orphanage. She is a dear person who is ultra sensitive to corporal punishment which Oddo and I will not permit at Tumaini House), a goat bleating, four or five dogs barking, etc. It is a surreal experience living so closely together in a village like this. It is very concentrated. Just look at the pictures.
I will close but send everyone well wishes and hope you are all getting my emails. Take good care and please let me know if there is some way you can help with contributions vis a vis my needs lists.
P.S. I have asked Amanda and Steve to help me get some medical equipment for Dr. Limo, but should probably extend the request to all of you just in case you have a medical contact. He will care for our children and LOVED our medical bag. His list is as follows:
1. binocular electrical microscope 2. calorimeter machine, 3. haematological analyzer machine, 4. water , ath, 5. medium size sterilizer, 6. ultrasound machine, 7. blood pressure machines (manual), 8.Operating table and lamp, 9. ecg. Machine, 10 forceps, scissors of different sizes, 11 ent diagnostic set, 12 delivery set, 13 c/s sets, 14 protoscope set, 15 Wheelchair.
I don’ t even know what all of this is and it is his “wish” list, as I asked him for , because we discussed that one never knows where something may come from so please ask.
We also need working, used laptops and a flat screen t.v. if possible. These things are very valuable here and we can resell them for profit at this end.
Much love to you all. I’ll be in touch soon!
Asante sana!!
C

August 21st Update
What a couple of days we’ve had! Yesterday we walked approximately 10 km. (and yes it is polio for Oddo’s leg), looking at and attempting to choose 1 of 5 rental houses for our children. The country, the roads, the garbage, the dirt, all is so much more than you can imagine! Did I mention the dirt?


Do you see the white sign up on the right? That’s our place.


How handy, the butcher is right next door!

By the by Joanie, I split the knuckle of my second finger open today so am most grateful for the saline solution and the rest of the first aid kit. You will notice in the photos that Ruthie and Joseph have had their heads shaved completely. This is a regular habit in Africa to help control head lice. My head may be next.

First thing this a.m. we visited Dr. Limo and gifted him with our medical supplies compliments of NotJust Tourists.org in St. Catherines and what a gift. He has virtually nothing.

Photo 1 – In our alley with Lohai driving the bag to the office (just try to find a sidewalk) and Oddo left.
Photo 2 - Oddo, a colleague of Dr. Limo’s center and Dr. Limo on the right.

I’ve just returned from Oddo’s mother’s house (Oddo’s wife Scola is looking at me as the women prepare the food for the inauguration of Vicoba Group, and community support group founded today with yours truly as guest of honour and matron. The food was fabulous!)

This photo is in the “alley” between our compound and the next. This organization has been saving their pennies since last December in order to host this festival and they wouldn’t have it until I arrived to be their guest of honour. They are so proud that mzungu (white woman) honours their village and trust me, they do everything they can to show me how special I am. First of all when Tanzanians have food they EAT (I think I’ve mentioned this about 10 times) but as a little person and “Matron” these women loaded my plate up “heaping”! I don’t think I’ll need to eat again until I get home! Don’t forget, at the head table with 50 people watching and a video camera catching every morsel, I ate my lunch with my

right hand!!
Mama Oddo peeling green bananas to be fried and looking at the woman in black.

In any event as I was saying I just returned from “Mama Oddo’s” house (I am Mama Stephen), and need to adjust to tell you this story. She had collected water in a steel bowl/pot from either a puddle or a river. The water was black with dirt and had straw and stones in it. As it boiled she was pouring it off through a strainer into a giant thermos and that’s how we all have water! (My water comes from a community tap but we still boil it and if I didn’t boil it I only drink bottled water). Anyway, the sight was unbelievable! The (every compound has an alleyway) alley was disgusting and the house abysmal by our standards. Our children, no, our animals would be removed from us if we set them up as these people live.

I gave her some ibuprofen for her gout in her knee. She is an extraordinary woman.

In any event after delivering the suitcase of meds to Dr. Limo’s dispensary (boy does he need EVERYTHING!) I was gifted with a kanga and (they wanted to “westernize” the event on my behalf, thus the golf shirts and ball caps) tshirt and cap. Note that my tshirt has a special collar because I had to be honoured in a unique way. You will see in the photos that I was also gifted with sandals, roses and a second kanga to wear over my shoulder. Look hard in the pictures, you’ll find me!!



I spoke my first Kiswahili leo (today). I apologized for needing to speak in Kingereza (English), but I am just kujifunza (learning). They didn’t care. I spoke about their struggles as “mamas” without support and how proud of them I am that they have come together to work together to help each other. It was a beautiful celebration and I now have a lifetime membership to “Vicoba Group” Safi, safi, safi, sana!
Last night about 100 people and a few drums, danced and sang their way through Usa. I didn’t go out because there are no street lights (there are not streets to speak of so that makes sense!) but the music was beautiful. Truly!
I’ll close now. It’s 11:30 and I need to be on the road by 7 a.m. Furaha (Happiness) and I are going to “town” Arusha to purchase icing sugar for Oddo’s birthday cake on Sunday. Then it’s home to learn how to BAKE a cake, without an oven. Something about charcoal on top . . . I’ll get back to you. Then we have the wedding and I’ve been warned that if I thought I was spoiled today I’d better prepare for tomorrow!!
Good night and God bless! Be wel l and safe. I’m attaching my “suite” photos so you can place me okay?
C

But before that check out the built ins in Scola’s kitchen! Yup this is it! The wall you don’t see just has garbage cans and 5 gal. drums full of water. Bon appetite!



 

August 19th

 Mon at 6:13am

August 19th, 2009

I am a terrible cook by Tanzanian standards. No one likes too much flavor here so I struggle with food prep. That and the meat is like chewing on a North American leather sofa or sneaker, and boy do they eat a lot! One adult woman consumes more rice than I would make to feed all four of us! Plus soup, plus meat, and veggie! WOW!
I went to the internet today and then to town by myself. Got lost in Arusha, but eventually found my own way home with a little direction onto the right bus by a hawker! Thank you! There is no personal space here. Two young teen girls were sitting across from me on the bus and we were jostled around with knees already touching when both of them simply rested their hands on my knees. Nothing special about that I guess and there is no sexism here at least not in favour of women on a bus. When one person departs, leaving a choice seat, someone leaps into the place before anyone else can. I saw four white people walking into Usa today when I was leaving but never saw another white person the entire day. Not in Arusha, nor the bus home, nor back in the village here. I didn’t feel unsafe or unwelcome, I just felt “unique”. Upon returning to the village we make about a ½ km. walk from the highway into the village proper along a dirt path and the public school released and approximately 150 little children all in green uniforms swarmed me on the way home. I waved and they waved, one of them rubbed my leg to see if white skin feels like black skin.
I need another sponsor. Cecilia Peters is an incoming grad student who is fatherless. She has just (yesterday) discovered two things. 1. That she was accepted as one of less than 800 grad students in a population of 40,000,000. 2. That her mother will be dead of Aids within the next couple of months. The family has been struggling to get the father’s pension because he had worked for the government but it seems that there was a “first” family who will be receiving it and now she faces not only being parentless, but unable to complete her education because she will need to work to support her two younger brothers who will also be forced to drop out of undergrad university. Tuition is $1500.00 usd for one year of graduate study and education is the ONLY chance the young people of this country have. For example, here in Arusha area flowers, and particularly roses are a big industry. There are tons of flower farms which are exported at harvest. The labourer makes $1 per day. A bus ride costs fifty cents. One egg costs twenty cents. Never mind rent, or shoes or school uniforms for your children. 70% of the population is unemployed and approximately half of those who do “work”, are living a sub-existent life. They do not make enough money to survive. They cannot feed and clothe themselves never mind their children. Children are everywhere!!! And they are starving! Never mind the sweets! I buy fruit every day now for the children! I was cooking today and without a lie eighty little ones (under 5) begged at my door for the entire time I was in there. They love mzunga (white woman) because she brings money and food to their village. They don’t even seem to care if they are the recipients! They are just happy that I’m here with my wallet and my groceries!
I’ve just hung up the phone with Amanda and she asked me what my greatest heart break is so far . . . without a doubt, if someone from the west thinks too broadly about this problem it becomes overwhelming, insurmountable, because in reality it is. I keep focusing strictly on the orphanage and sponsorship for these students and whatever help we can provide Oddo’s family in south Tanzania.
The people who live in the villages in south Tanzania where Oddo originally came from don’t have clothes. They don’t have shoes, or jobs or often times, food. Many, many times families go for days with nothing to eat. How can a mother or father care for their children? When I went to market there were displayed hundreds upon hundreds of used shoes for sale, piled onto tarps. These shoes are mass shipped here, bought for pennies and then resold for a few more pennies. I saw two hawkers selling t-shirts on a street corner today. Do you know what they were? Leftover AIG tshirts from a promo of some sort. It is quite twisted actually because I see children in Tommy Hillfiger beside someone with no shoes because used Tommy clothes came from Europe or North America. There is no concept of “fashion” here . . . sorry Claire. The women wear kangas and the men try to wear suit jackets, but they are threadbare, worn through and torn and the labels are still on the cuffs and yet it is their attempt at dignity and the maintenance of self worth. I am actually underdressed here because I should have brought a suit jacket with me for my meetings. Can you imagine trying to keep that clean?
Speaking of meetings please say a prayer for me for tomorrow. We start our home visits and I know I’ll cry. Oddo told me I would and I started to cry just thinking about his need to prepare me. It is so hard here for these people. We have to help. We just have to find a way to make even our little difference here in Arusha.
I hope to organize a container (the size of a tractor trailer). We need 30-40 beds and linens and bikes we can sell, and shoes and clothes and books, encyclopedias, 30 primary text books all the same if we can get our hands on them so that we can teach our orphans and prepare them for school before it starts. We need sewing machines and a well drilled (checking into this) (we could then sell the water and support the orphanage) We need farm tools (we’re looking at getting into the flower growing business here). We need cows and pigs and chickens and rice and beans and sugar and oil and charcoal and, and, and. We need ANYTHING we don’t need there and we need to put it into a container as soon as I get back and get it on it’s way here so Oddo has it before Christmas. Does anyone know anyone who knows where old beds go? Hospital or camp beds? We really should try for bunks so that we can get more children in each room. Cindy Pichette of Silver Parrot Studio was here two years ago. She visited an orphanage in Manyara and asked the orphans to sit on their beds. Four children sat down on one bed and three on another. That is on a twin bed remember.
I’m asking you. Walk through your house and look for things that would/could furnish an orphanage. Look for something we could resell here and make some money. Look for something we could teach to children (we need play equipment for them) like a skill or craft. We need good quality sports equipment (Jerry) because if you could imagine a ball being played with for 10-12 hours EVERY DAY, it wears out relatively quickly.
Steve I’ll ask you to speak to Loretta about shipping estimates. Oddo has his charitable # here now, (Claire for Sue) and we’re doing the paper work to get home started. Cindy, Amanda will email you photos to get the site started. We will need a sponsor this child/student section and I’m photographing those students who need help right now. These kids are in school on a beg and a promise, else if they don’t receive tuition they’ll be on the street. Oddo has struggled so much to get these kids this far and we can’t let them down now. By the by, public school has 80-100 students in each class and one teacher. There isn’t a prayer for them. Private school costs. We need to find the sponsors!
I’ll close now, I’m tired and feeling sad. Send me a hug you guys and get to work okay?
Much love,
C

August 18th Tanzanian Update

 Mon at 6:05am

August 17th

I am unable to sleep. I have to pee but won’t leave my room because of the dogs. I peed in a container.
We have water again today and I enjoyed a hot shower for the first time since arriving. (3 days). The children are bathed every day, sometimes twice, but they live in dirt and squalor and by day’s end are absolutely filthy again. The compound, or house is a collection of rooms joined by a common corridor or hallway. I’ll photograph it so you can conceive of my house plan. We drop our shoes every time we enter a room so there is constantly a collection of shoes at doorways throughout the house. We attended Mass this a.m. in Swahili. The service was exactly the same. The hymns were a lot more rocking though. After Mass we and Scola’s (Oddo’s wife) neighbor and her daughter went to Arusha to visit her father in the hospital. Enroute we stopped at the mother’s home to pick up food for him as the hospital doesn’t provide meals. I tasted ugali (note to bring polenta next trip) for the first time. It is a white maize flour mixed with water and heated to a stiff paste consistency. Basically, the diner rolls a bit of the paste into a ball, mixes it with a vegetable or meat mixture and pops it into their mouth. Dining is both terrifying and entertaining here. The filth is scaring me and I’m off to purchase bleach, scrub pads, etc. Poor Scola only owns one utility knife which she shares with her neighbor (or borrows from) and we (Scola, Heppi, Elizabeth and I cooked today), had to wait for each other to finish before the other could use it. There is no table/counter to work on and I need to bring her some plastic cutting boards. The women chop, dice, slice in their hands, mix in a mortar and pestle, and have several pots but only one gas burner to cook on. Scola has two iron “boxes” which we put charcoal in to keep things warm until each dish is finished. She is a remarkable cook flavor wise, especially considering the conditions but I have to clean things up. The dirt really does frighten me.

The dogs are snarling at my door. Hmmmm. Interesting concept of alarm systems here.
I just hung up from Steve, Cheryl and Claire and cannot tell you how good it is to hear your voices. As much as I want and need to be here now, it is settling to connect with my other reality. I know when I return I’ll struggle with blending the two back together. The disparity of cultures is truly difficult for me to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced such a change. As I mentioned on the phone, everything in Africa is more than I expected. The poverty is greater, the illness is greater (and yet society just lives with Aids like they do everything else), the people are unbelievable in their familial and community spirit. We, in the west, all need to take a lesson here.

Oddo, Scola and their family live with virtually nothing, she took me to market with $6.00 in her pocket to feed eleven people and we didn’t eat meat today. I was the only white person for 4-500 people at market. An elderly man approached me to beg and when I said no he slapped my face (gently), and two hawkers attempted to overcharge Scola for our produce because I was with her but otherwise, it was a typical country market day.

We made potato soup (nothing is refrigerated because we cannot count on electricity) with coconut milk, a sort of chicory or swiss chard with onions and garlic which I loved, (Steve you’ll be excited to know I can make you even more green vegetables when I return!), rice, of course, and Scola spoiled me and bought me peas, but try to imagine that almost every item a person requires for dinner must be purchased that day. My best gift to Scola (other than the chocolate and the Salty and Sweet granola bars) has been pepper. Sugar is huge here and everyone’s teeth are rotten because they live on chai. Steve they eat bbq’d maize and I’ll try it one of these days, but imagine how tiny the vegetables are here. Peppers and red onions the size of golf balls (rooster crowing outside my window) make for much more work in the kitchen but I made a greek salad today with the best tomatoes and cukes and diced red onion. Scola has NO kitchen staples. No oil, no vinegar. When I arrived she had a small bag of salt, and some Maggi cubes (Oxo) which someone gave her, and THAT’S IT! Everything she requires for each meal is purchased DAILY! Garlic, ginger, onions, etc., and her food is amazing! I love her because she likes to make soups. I’m living on M&M’s and soup!

We visited next door tonight to welcome the new baby (boy) who is absolutely adorable and #5 child. These people are wealthy compared to Oddo and Scola with tiles on their floor instead of plain concrete (many families even here in Usa River have dirt walls and floors) and they have staples in their kitchen. I am shopping for Scola today to get some food prep and cleaning supplies for her kitchen.

Masai are everywhere! They are tribal people who live in huts away from society and for the most part I believe are transient herders. They are identifiable by their red and purple kangas (outer fabrics) and rungus or walking sticks. I thought they’d be harder to locate but no!

The children (another rooster crow!) are remarkable! They touch my skin and face and cannot get enough of “Day Day” as they call me. No one can maneuver Cherie and let’s not even go to Szucs so Oddo calls me “Dee”, Scola calls me Mama (out of respect because I am older than she) and to the children I am “Teacher” or “Day Day”.

I’ve begun Swahili lessons. This will be tough. Enough said.

Toti (sp) Oddo’s youngest brother is a remarkable Tanzanian. He is headed towards his Masters degree in university and with less than 5% of the population finishing secondary school and less than 1% moving on to university, I think Toti is one in 40,000! The added bonus is that once he finishes he will have a job that can support 5 or 6 of his family members plus his own family and he’ll still be able to contribute generously to his community which is his intent. Oddo’s family comes from south Tanzania where poverty is even more extreme. Toti shared with me that his family there struggles with daily survival they are so poor and that by educating himself he guarantees his family the support they need. Oddo encourages all of his younger siblings to educate themselves to the maximum and then use their skills to get a good job and help their family and community. It is remarkably beautiful to see. People constantly approach Oddo for assistance because as tough as he has it others struggle even more and he is forever helping people. He has promised several families that he will take their orphans and he does home visits regularly in an effort to maintain a level of support until he can take them and house them. I asked him about trauma on the child. His response was that the children ask if they will get bread. He says yes. They ask if they will be safe. He says yes. They then ask when they can leave. It is that simple and that difficult. It breaks my heart.

I will close with love and prayers that I am able to help these people and I ask for your prayers. We cannot conceive of the need here in Tanzania and yet this is not the worst country in Africa, nor in the world. I can only say how fortunate I feel to be here in an attempt to assist in some way. I can only say how fortunate I am to have all of you back home to lean on for your love, strength and support. Thank you so much for that. My love,

C

August 15th

Today I went jogging. Well sort of. Oddo took me to a “football field”. It is actually a large lot, surrounded by a fence and then housing on all four sides with accesses to the outer roads in the corners. His son Joseph was my accompaniment (he kicked a can and played with a small ball while I jogged), but within two minutes I had an entourage! First of all this 11-12 year old boy started “leading” me in my run, then, 3 little men (4-5) began running directly in front of me. I saw two, 4 year old plumber’s cracks because the boys’ pants were too large for them and kept falling down! Immediately following them, two, then three little girls grabbed my hands and the procession slowed considerably. Within 15 minutes I had to quit because I had a following of twenty child co-runners, plus about 40-50 onlookers and the little girl on my left hand was exhausted but would not let go! She walked me halfway home until Oddo’s nephew who arrived, sent them on their way. It was the most fun jogging I’ve ever had!

On my return, sweating, we discovered that we are still out of water. Do you recollect those movies where the African women carry 5 gal. buckets of water on their heads? Well Happy does! She got me 5 two 5 gal. buckets of water and I had a hot “shower” after my run! This poor Happy is remarkable in what she does around the house. She cooks, cleans, preps and scrubs children and that’s no easy task in this neighbourhood.

After a nice hot shower and pancakes for breakfast I and Tuti (Oddo’s youngest brother) went to Arusha. What a scene. It was total chaos vis a vis traffic, noise, people and did I mention traffic? I had to go to three banks to get money, then we picked up the plastic containers for my stash so that the roach/rat situation doesn’t worsen. Tuti is an extraordinary young man. He has completed his Master’s degree and is working on his Ph.D. Less than 1% of the population even finishes secondary school so he is a rare commodity for sure.

A remarkable characteristic of the African people (and one I know us westerners could learn from) is how strong the sense of community is. Oddo and his family, who have nothing themselves, give so much to those who have even less and many people do have so much less. Many, many people here do not know where their next meal is coming from. We cannot conceive of that. I am still reeling from the disparity of us vs. they.

I’ve just stepped out into the corridor to see Happy combing lice nits out of Ruthie’s (yes the same Ruthie I cuddle constantly) hair. I don’t know why my head is itchy all of a sudden!

Children are everywhere and especially close to me, the white woman. Five children played outside my room today. Two of them have Aids. The poverty and health situation of these people is worse than I expected. The warmth and genuine interest they have in me is so much more. How lucky am I?

Hugs to you all,
C

August 14

Just awoke after a much needed nap. Arrived last night, on time to experience the infamous brown outs of Tanzania. The entire power system shut down in the airport three times while we waited for our visas in the dark. It turned out that my carry on bag got checked at the last moment and then didn’t arrive with the others. My meds, clothes, camera, shoes, etc., were on their way, unidentified, to Dar Es Salam without me but we snatched it right off the plane at the last moment! Oddo and his three children were waiting for me with roses (flowers are a big export here) and we travelled home in a borrowed car. Oddo has a terrible limp from polio as a child, but is very kind, knowledgeable and just happens to have a lovely wife named Scola who had a meal prepared for me at 10:30 p.m. The rumors are right . . .they try to feed me because it reflect s poorly on them if a guest doesn’t leave fatter than they were when they arrived!
Last night. . . well, I was shown the bathroom, rustic to say the least. The entire household seems to share 4 or five toilets all in a row and they have one western style washroom for guests. Let’s just say I’ve had need of the bathroom five times since my arrival and have learned a) that usually there is not enough pressure to flush the flush toilet, and b) how to do the no toilet paper thing in the bathroom! There is a bucket and a tap and I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, but we only had toilet paper for one night. Oh, well, thank God for hand sanitizer!
Oh yes and another grave mistake . . . last night I was introduced to the man who loaned Oddo a car to pick me up in and I grabbed his hand in both of mine and thanked him profusely! Oops. No left hand action here in Tanzania!
Let me get back to my night. I have my own room inside the compound and Oddo had all of my suitcases unloaded and I began to unpack. We ate and then I came to my room to discover my first roach. That’s okay, I’m up for roaches and Scola worked hard to get my room together nicely. Well, the night progressed (at least we kept our power), but right outside my door I heard roosters crowing which actually sounded like people sending signals to each other that the white woman has arrived. Cars shouting, etc., and the Ndonde’s own four loud dogs! Just when I thought it was safe to drop off, the roaches, or something bigger, I didn’t want to look, starting investigating the stash. Thank you Amanda for the Ziplocs but I think on next trip I’ll bring industrial strength ones! Needless to say the nap this afternoon was desperately needed after about 2 hours sleep last night.
I enjoyed a lovely lunch of French fries, fish and salad and hope everything stays in. Oddo’s family is very careful to clean everything but they don’t let me near the food to help so I am not certain. If I don’t fall ill I’ll be fatter when I return.
Oddo and I were able to talk this afternoon and get plans started. He began in the seminary but as the eldest he struggled to uphold his responsibilities and so left to take care of his family. Tanzanians are very family and community oriented and Oddo heads up several community projects and lives with his parents, cousins, sister, etc. and all of their children. He has been on a national advisory committee to help vulnerable children and is convinced that we can make an enormous difference here.
Aids is worse than we are aware of in the west. Children are everywhere and many of them are parentless. Oddo and I will travel to the homes of some of those most in need to visit and take supplies but things are tough here for people. Poverty is everywhere. Terrible poverty.
Oddo and I will tour four houses this coming week and choose one for the orphanage and then it’s hard to work to get things together. We are developing a budget which needs to support 30 -40 children and 6 aid workers. We’re going to start working afternoons to shave numbers, shop, etc., and finalize our plans so that this project really will have an opportunity to survive.
It is a surreal feeling to be here. I am sitting in my bedroom typing this at 11:10 p.m. and can hear at least ten people, not members of this family milling about outside, living their lives, attached to this compound. Weird. It makes me laugh at the idea of locking a door against theft because the back of the house is wide open to whomever or whatever wants to stroll in but I probably shouldn’t tell you that because you’ll just worry.
Well, I’m off for a run tomorrow a.m. Oddo has a guide taking me to the football stadium. He suggests that because it’s safer than the roads. Not that the roads are that bad. Just traffic and Tanzanians are famous for their lousy driving!
In any event, I close but be well and know I think of you all the time!
C

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