July 29th from under my net at Tumaini House!!!

 First of all, Happy Birthday to my seems to be “catching up” sister Bonnie and speaking of birthdays, Pendo adored her gifts so big thanks go out to Auntie Pam and Heidi for loving her!  She is a happy little girl and shares all of her toys very generously with the other children.

Oddo met me at the airport and so did Harriri, Latifa and Liadi who chatted nonstop all the way back to Usa with me . . . IN ENGLISH!!!!  Latifa could speak almost no English when I left.  Liadi was coming and Harriri was farther along but they actually conversed!  “How is Baba?  Where is Lohai?  Is your plane ride nice Mama?”  I was dumbfounded!  The other children are advancing so very quickly also and in only three months!  Martha, big Daniel, and Margaret are vocalizing much more and they are doing so in English . . . it really is something to witness.

The children are well for the most part . . . we have some nasty rashes going on here . . . Christina, Priska and Pendo and Gerehad and Liadi all have body rashes (most are ringworm but Christina and Priska have a new rash I haven’t seen before).  Many of you will remember how Zawadi (Joseph) suffered with a terrible rash all over his face?  Well that is completely cleared!  His mouth has healed from when he fell off of the bicycle (although he is loathe to ride again) and his beautiful face is clear and bright again!

IT IS COLD!  Not a little cold, but where the heck are my socks cold!  Sweaters, even during the day but I marvel at how few colds we have amongst the children. .  .  thank you Jamieson Vitamins!  We could do a commercial for you!  Everyday a child comes to me asking, “Mama may I give the vitamins today?”  They pronounce it “veetameens”, and they love them!  We lock them up because the children are convinced they are pipi (sweet) even when we explain they are dawa (medicine).  How can something shaped like a lion and in a variety of colors possibly be dawa?

A friend sent me with some money for a fun day for the children and so next week we’re having a play day picnic with our volunteers.  Games, picnic, fun and treats!  Wait for our photos!

All of the children are home now from school and do we have some work to do!  Almost no one has shoes . . . school or sport and flip flops are mismatched and torn and we’re down to them.  It is frightening how quickly they go through shoes but there are no roads, just mud and dirt and rocks and they only have one pair of school shoes soooooooooooooo . . .

Speaking of school, report cards are in . . . Angela, they are checking but she may just be the top of her SCHOOL!  Either way, her performance is outstanding and her test results range from a constant high of 100% all the way down to 94%!!!!  Ema, #2 in his class of 58 and Lazaro #7 in the same.  Francis #1 in his . . . Some of our children still struggle but Martha, Gerehad, Jenny, are showing remarkable improvement!  We are going to town for a lunch date to celebrate.  This will be their second time ever, in a restaurant.  And on the subject of food we made Baba’s burgers last night with chips (fries) for the family.  I purchased 7kg. of ground beef in town and made patties and Raymond cooked them on Baba’s grill.  The family had not had burgers for the three months since I left and so enjoyed them immensely!  The favor was returned today when I enjoyed pilau which is rice and meat mixed with spices and was “tam, delicious.  Pilau is a favorite of mine . . . and tomorrow?  Beans and chapattis!

Harriri accidentally kicked the ground yesterday while playing football (soccer at home) and folded back ALL of the skin off the tip of his big toe.  It was ugly . . . I rebandaged him this morning and after church he came to me saying, “Mama when I was playing outside” (Harriri has one of those whispery voices) I sedently (accidentally) removed my bandage.”  No kidding, five years old and he “removed” something. . .

Kelvin has a sore throat and so came over and learned how to gargle with warm salt water . . . afterward, on his return to the main house he looked over his shoulder (the big boys are home from Amani) and when he saw the coast was clear said, “Hug Mama please”.  Life doesn’t get any better . . .

The Boys are Here!

Lohai (l) and Raymond (r)

July 13^th from Mama . . .       

And so, you might wonder, how do two young men from a coffee plantation in Karatu, Tanzania, desperately poor and hopelessly fighting for some kind of a future find Ontario, Canada? 

“Eet is gud,” they reply.  Steve (my husband) and I gifted Raymond and Lohai with a visit to our farm this summer and they arrived just over one week ago.  Mastering the airport transfer in Amsterdam themselves, they arrived excited, exhausted and without a hitch after we got their visas arranged and after missing their first flight because the headlights failed on the car their were driving in.  (There are NO streetlights on the way to the airport . . . when it is dark IT IS DARK!
Raymond and Lohai, you might remember, are two of the finest people I have been blessed to meet, ever, and they have, each in their own rights, earned their way here.  No one at Tumaini works harder than 26 year old Lohai, whose parents were too poor to send him to secondary school, and who, through years of malnutrition, weighs just 107 lbs.  Most of you who have met the boys remark on their sizes for their ages.  We need to fatten Lohai up a bit.  Having said that, his sleight build doesn’t slow him one bit from working hard and we feel honored to call him a part of our Canadian family here.

Raymond, at 129 lbs. beats out Lohai by 22 lbs. (I weighed in at 123 lbs), but is still sleight, instead Raymond has developed muscle from playing football (soccer here) and working out at school.  He was more fortunate when Oddo found him a sponsor to attend a neighborhood secondary school.  After meeting him, I helped bring him to Makumira from where he will graduate in February Division I, which is the highest academic achievement one could hope for in Tanzania.

Thus far, they have mini-putted, enjoyed ice cream, and seen and walked on a beach for the first time.  Raymond especially is enthralled with automatic doors (when we went to another store lacking them he waited quite awhile for it to open).  Both of them love scanning groceries and were “blown away” by a drive thru restaurant.

They LOVE the food, (not too crazy about shrimp though) some of which we have introduced at Tumaini but their favorite, here AND there is burgers . . . hands down, and without a doubt.  

They have snowmobiled on grass (you’d have to take that up with a certain crazy fellow named Dave in Stratford), attended a wedding, are visiting Niagara Falls with fellow director Lisa Engelhardt Robinson today (and will be jet boating), will ride up in the CN tower next week with fellow director Dr. Patricia Barry and hope to go out on Lake Erie with John Davies, our treasurer.

Raymond would like to return after graduation and attend post secondary school here in Canada but that will certainly require some financial assistance and Lohai is improving his English and learning how to drive tractor, use farm implements, etc. which will help him back home.  

I thank those of you who stop us in town to welcome the boys and give them a moment of your time.  This is a great big new world for them and your greetings make them feel welcomed and special. 

Thank you also for your continued love and support of our very lucky Tumaini children back home in Tanzania.  They are well and happy and busy and we will take new bikes back with us when we return.  Our boarding students are writing exams and returning home for a month off in August.  For myself I must say thank you again for your encouragement and support while I’ve been ill.  It has been a rocky road these past few months, health wise and I am only just getting back on my feet, this time, after suffering through shingles.  I hope the worst is over and I am finally, finally on the mend!  I may be returning to Tanzania at the end of this month if all goes well.  

Don’t forget we are planning a yard sale (hopefully July 23 and 24^th) so feel free to contact us if you have gently used things you’d like to donate.  And remember to watch Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies compete on our behalf on August 17^th on the new show, Canada Sings and please consider sponsoring one of our climbers who are fundraising for us by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro next month!  Visit www.climbkilifortumaini.com.

Specifically, there are several important thank yous to go out but, next time!  Be well, we hope you are enjoying your summer, and for everything and from the bottom of my heart . . . Asante!