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| Mike Morley, Dave Egles and Dave Spittlehouse summit Mount Kilimanjaro! |
We are well for the most part . . . it is HOT! And no rain . . . the children are WONDERFUL
and so big and doing incredibly well!!
Our climbers summited successfully, all but one who was brought down
with pulmonary edema. The other three stood
on the top of Africa . . . thank you to all the supporters who have helped them
reach some enormous goals . . . physically and (for us at Tumaini) financially. Your kindness and generosity are so very much
appreciated.
Rashid came to us just one year ago, fighting AIDS (CD4
186) and speaking no English. He is a
walking, talking English dictionary now and after our visit to his AIDS clinic we
discovered that his CD4 has skyrocketed to 905.
You or I, without HIV might have that CD4 count. Every child has grown since my departure in
May but Rashid and Neema present the most dramatic changes. Little Neema is well and still does not
require ARV’s and Glory is stable, if not better, although she requires a ton
of medication and struggles with rashes virtually all the time. Mary will attend her clinic on February 15
and we’ll update you then.
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Rashid Clinic Card
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| Glory Clinic Card |
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We have worked for a year to reunite this family . . .
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We’ve grown by two more children (Karoli and Nazema) but before that . . .
ATHUMAN is home! After a year of
struggling, threatening and negotiating, we finally have our boy back and he
sits upstairs at his Class II desk, getting reacquainted with his brothers and
sisters . . . oh, and he brought us Nazema, the youngest in the family and so
the entire family (except for an adult brother who lives in Dar) is with us
here at Tumaini. Deo, Anna, Gaspar, Athuman,
Harriri, Liadi and now Nazema who was immediately sponsored by our own Mama
Korosho and we are so very grateful for that!
Asante!!
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| Mama Korosho and our newest and youngest . . . Nazema! |
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| Karoli Chikira has come to us and looks for a sponsor. |
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| Sorting and packing for school . . . |
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Third, fourth and sixth class Amani Students
Haradali School returning students l/r Eva, Margaret, Angela, Mwanhamisi,
Lazaro and Emmanuel
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Neema and our crazy Antony off to Kilimani
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Speaking of Harriri (and Daniel, Martha, Eliza and Christina)
who performed so well on their end of year first grade exams that we challenged
the second year ending exam for Amani Primary, the sixth best primary school in
Tanzania and they passed! They are now
seated in Class III at Amani with Gerehad, Jenny and Esther. Kudos goes out to Teacher Winner & our students for their hard work!
And further thanks to Dave Egles and friends and HES Solar for allowing
us to be the ONLY house in the neighbourhood with lights after a cut out of
power . . . how lucky are we?? It is not
too difficult to see who has the only solar power installation in the
neighbourhood . . .
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| Lohai helping Dave install the panels at Tumaini |
Nelson was home for a visit, unfortunately with typhoid from
bad water at his school and headed back last week to contract malaria AND the
flu which most of us here are suffering with.
He is lying low but had begun to rally after he got dawa (medicine) to
kill the parasite, and by the by, he is fifth in his class at Minaki Secondary
School near Dar Es Salaam, a school very respected for their strength in maths
and sciences. My friend Mama Mchome, who
is the District Education Officer here exclaimed when I told her Nelson’s
position, that a student that strong at Minaki school is most likely one of the
strongest math/science students in the country . . .
And speaking of illness, we’ve got ourselves the MUMPS! Priska blew up like a balloon and we’re
watching Liadi and Christina and most of us are fighting a terrible sore throat
(I am hoping it is not strep). There are
about six or seven of us with it now.
And Liadi just lost his first tooth!
He is a bit of a scaredy cat with most things and that included pulling
a tooth. The two bottom adult teeth are
through the skin already and so he has six teeth (4 baby and two adult) where
he should have just two. He was eating a
mango and came running into my office to tell me it was loose and I sat him
down and did my dental floss thing with him, explaining that, if it hurt we
would stop and try again another time.
He gave me the green light and I got the floss around the tooth and he
grimaced and POP it was out! I held the
string up in front of him and as he realized he was looking at his tooth, began
to jump up down shouting, “I didn’t cry!
I didn’t cry!"
Enormous thanks to Maya and Ella (and Mom and Dad), co-sponsors
for Anna and Martha and to Mama Lotte and Dada Christina, sponsors for Esther
for allowing us a wonderful pool party! Much
fun was had by all and I’ll include photos in my next blog, but please know how
grateful we are!!!
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| Teacher Richard Mrema, Anna and Mary. |
An ongoing concern of mine has been about how most of our
older children struggle academically because of their English, or lack thereof
. . . unfortunately, after a certain age, it becomes increasingly difficult to
transition from Kiswahili to English, even though secondary school is taught
here in English. Students with weak
foundations in academics who find themselves thrust into an English environment
struggle and often fail to “catch on” to the language, falling even farther
behind in their studies. We’ve witnessed
this in many of the children we provide outreach assistance to, who come from
terrible schools and as well as some of our own Tumani Children: Mary, Anna, particularly Gaspar, Nelson and
most recently with Kelvin all who came to us with virtually no English
foundation whatsoever. We’ve tried
various programs in the past – extra study, trade schools, repetition of school
grades and putting children back a class or even two and have had limited
success.
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| Tumaini Class I with Teacher Hoey, Baraka, Francis, Zaibu, Rebecca, Liadi, Tony and Karoli |
With generous funding from the Grand Erie District Retired
Teacher’s Organization in Canada, sponsor support, and the hard work of our volunteers,
we’ve outfitted not only a second but a THIRD classroom, acquired two
computers, and have hired the second of three teachers which will allow us not
only our graduated Class II with Teacher Winner, but a new Class I (which is
currently being TAUGHT by Grand Erie retired teacher Kathy Hoey, through the
end of February), AND our own “catch up” class for those older children
struggling in English which then impedes their secondary school studies. We are ecstatic! Often these children stall at the senior
primary/early secondary school levels because of language issues and with the
support of the RTO of Grand Erie District university graduated (a rarity in
education here still) teacher, Mr. Richard Mrema is hard at work with our teen
children, new texts and computer assistance, improving English which in turn dramatically
affects their learning potential. Thank
you Grand Erie RTO, thank you new sponsors Tine and Emily and Isabelle and thank
you volunteers Jenny, Leneke and Valentine for building and beautifying our
classrooms!
It has taken me two weeks to get this to you and for that I
am sorry, but these have been busy weeks:
two emergency trips to town for textbooks and a replacement school
sweater without which our children will be (physically) punished; two nights
down and out with a nasty flu, three evenings ago, a lonnggg talk with of one
our children who chose to “lift” said school sweater from another child which
may sound trite but for the implications of having a child at Tumaini who STILL
has no respect for integrity or honesty; caring for Harriri whom we thought had
broken his pinky finger in play, (thank God it is only a jam); two nights ago
welcoming Mary (Kelvin’s sister) home from university and assisting her in
provisioning her home after months away; last night, a lonnngg talk with Marko,
one of our older boys who has run away from Moshi Technical School, a fine and
established school here in northern Tanzania announcing that although he is
grateful for the help we have provided him, he desires not to continue his
studies but to “start his life” (his words).
What life can a fifteen year old boy with seventh grade education in a
country with a 70% unemployment rate “start”?
We experience the “ups and downs” of any family . . .
extrapolated a bit perhaps because of our numbers, but a family still. We struggle and we argue and cuddle and study
and love . . . and we do everything with your prayers and support. Thank you SO very much for that . . . your
hearts sit here with us at Tumaini . . . thank you so very much for that!
Nelson came home with typhoid and returned to school only
to catch malaria. He has recovered. Latifa and Esther have been resized for their
leg braces (Latifa for a club foot and Esther for support for a drop foot). Did you know that a person with malaria usually
responds within hours of receiving medication?
Liadi enjoyed his fifth birthday and for those of you who
know this little man, he is so very much NO LONGER a BABY . . . his younger
sister Nazema is now with us at Tumaini and although she may pass him soon in physical
growth, he tries very hard to be the big brother. Liadi came to us as a baby of just two years
and had quite a “tabia” or attitude of crying or pouting whenever he didn’t get
his way. He is 
Marko has dropped out of school . . . one of Oddo’s
longest supported students, and one of the first “24” of Tumaini’s children
when we began, has decided that secondary school is not for him and we are
devastated. Marko comes from a
desperately poor family up Mount Meru and Oddo found him on the street and has
worked for years to find support for his education. Ranger Safaris has generously paid his school
fees for many years and we began supplementing his support here in order to
give him what he needs to study. He
entered Form I, first level of secondary school and ran away in less than two
weeks. He came to us here (Oddo and I)
for guidance and we persuaded him (we thought) to return for the balance of
this year and if unhappy still, we would find another school for him as long as
he performed and provided us with a strong report card. It is especially sad because he was accepted
in Moshi Technical School which is very well respected. We cannot imagine what he will do with his
life now for “home” is not a long term option for him..JPG)
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