Guest Post: Claire, Stine, Peter

Claire and Gracie

Coming to Tanzania as three privileged people has made us more appreciative of everything we have, and allowed us to recognize our good fortune and focus on what is truly important. Straight away we all felt a sense of connection and love between everyone at Nkoaranga orphanage.We take for granted all the necessities that the orphanage so strongly depends on - we don't realise how lucky we are to  have access to the basics whenever we want in our countries.

Nkoaranga orphanage offers a community and access to education, which is vital for these children in their process. Education is extremely important for the children and they are so lucky to have the school house and access to our own wonderful teacher. We volunteers look back to our home towns and recognize many younger individuals that abuse the opportunity of education, which can change lives here. It's not something we will take for granted again!

Peter and Shujah

The most important factor the orphanage offers is their home. The passion and hard work of everyone involved in the orphanage (and The Small Things!) is the reason for the success and happiness of the kids. This success comes from the pure love and attention that the kids receive from the mamas, volunteers, and each other. They all want to please, and all depend on this nurturing to thrive.

The orphanage offers good nutrition, medical care, and a healthy environment for these children, which in this society is nothing to be taken for granted. They are bathed and changed continuously, and all the children are very well fed - don't let the fact that they chant "CHAKULA!" or "FOOD!" before each meal trick you into thinking they aren't! The children have a strong bond with each mama, and it's heartwarming to see these relationships. The mamas are extremely hardworking, and the orphanage could not function without them.

We each have our own personal memories of the orphanage - below, we will each write about some of our favorite moments.

Ester shot by Claire

Claire: My name is Claire Wyatt, I'm sixteen years old, and coming to Tanzania has completely changed my perspective. I encourage any young people to do something like this when the opportunity arises, because it puts your priorities in order and makes you realize what's truly important. I come from a big family - I have two brothers, two sisters, and three step-sisters. Before I came here, I was always grateful for having such a big family, but now I appreciate it even more. The orphanage feels like one big family, with all of the children (and their big personalities!) forming strong bonds with each other. Pendo is definitely the little mama, and Simoni is everyone's cautious grandfather. My fondest memory comes from a day when I was sitting in the house, which looks onto the orphanage. I watched little Ester (2 years old), who had wandered outside on her own, and started to cry. I was about to go comfort her, but before I could act, I saw Loveness (age 4) walk up to Ester and wipe her face, pick her up, and take her inside. This moment brought home to me how deep the bonds are between these kids, and how they look out for each other. It made me realize that while they may not have parents, they do have a family in each other. 

Stine and Ebenezer

Stine and Peter: Our names are Stine and Peter, we come from Denmark and we chose to volunteer over a year ago. We didn't have the slightest idea what to expect - we were totally overwhelmed by the love and the trust the children put in our hands from the first moment. This alone would have made the trip worthwhile!

Our greatest moment was to see the development of baby Ebenezer, who suffered from a bad bout of pneumonia when we first arrived at the orphanage. Stine in particular felt drawn to him from day one. He is over three months old but his size is similar to a newborn, despite how much he's grown since first coming to the orphanage. We noticed straight away his trouble breathing, and after a short period of time, Stine felt a strong passion and responsibility and passion to act as his mother would have. She spent most of her time at the orphanage caring for him, and she felt a strong connection whenever their eyes met. After just a few days she could tell he recognized her as well, and felt safe. During our stay, though, he was extremely ill and struggled to keep weight on, as he was also having stomach trouble from his antibiotics - we felt very worried for his health. However, we and the mamas took him to the hospital to be treated, and we are confident he will make a full recovery. We know he is in very caring and capable hands to monitor him as he recovers. We are also very grateful to The Small Things for allowing us to stay involved in his journey to recovery, and to continue to watch him grow and thrive.

We have so many wonderful memories and we are very motivated to go home and take action on some of these critical issues. We feel a strong responsibility to find a way to help. We have met so many wonderful and welcoming people on our trip. Even though they have their own struggles, and most have far less than anyone from our home country, Denmark, they are so happy and generous. We could and should learn from their example. We want to take their attitude and apply to our own lives, wherever we are. The kids will always be in our hearts - there is nothing like hearing them shouting your name in excitement when you enter a room!

While we are here, though, there are some projects that we and The Small Things would really like to take on, that we can't currently afford. These will be continuing into the future, but here is a brief summary.

• English classes: The mamas have thrived in their English studies, and it has made a big difference in their ability to communicate with the volunteers. They have asked us to extend the courses for another three months. To pay for 14 mamas' classes for three months, including all transportation, costs approximately $1,000 dollars. 
• School uniforms: The kids have been out of their adorable school uniforms now for a while, because they have been worn to pieces. To purchase new material and sweaters, repair existing uniforms, and pay for tailoring, will cost approximately $500. 
• Chickens, rabbits, garden: While Marie and her mom financed the building of a new (amazing!) chicken coop and food for six months, there is still some more work to do to make the entire area optimally productive. The new building requires new fencing, and the replanted garden needs fertilizer. Baba Nicky, our resident expert on agriculture and raising animals, also wants to create a small rabbit area and buy a few rabbits, which will, in time, be a great source of nutrition for the kids (and a lot of fun for them in the meantime). These projects together will cost approximately another $400. 
• Micro Grants: as you know from our last post, the Micro Grants project is going incredibly well, but still needs support. Every dollar helps deserving families in the community to support themselves and become self-sufficient business people. 

Please consider donating if any of these seem like worthwhile projects to you!

Special focus?

Wherever the need is greatest English classes School uniforms Chickens, rabbits, garden Microgrants
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Microgrants guest post: Riz

Hey everyone! I'm here to give you all a general update on the progress of our microgrants project, before my colleague Adam posts a more detailed version in a couple of days, but first I will take this time to tell you all that Bekka was right - Tanzania is AMAZING. Being here and working in the local community and orphanage has been much better than I anticipated, and I couldn't be happier for this experience. But now, we get down to business.

The project is going extremely well, we're ahead of schedule, which has given us plenty of time to head up to the orphanage and hang out with the kids - who've all fallen in love with us, and definitely us with them! They are amazing kids who are taken care of by wonderful, and patient mamas. Mama Pendo especially, must be some sort of baby whisperer (Watch out, Cesar Milan!), seeing as she has the magic to make a crying baby smile in seconds, she is truly an amazing woman.

We've met with a number of families who're struggling to provide for themselves, and we are going to do our very best to give them the tools and materials they need to succeed - whether it be through the kukus (chickens!), or growing vegetables.

One situation in particular touched me the most - though that doesn't discount the rest of the families we've met with. It is of a grandmother in her 80s, who lives with her grandson, Frankie. Unfortunately, both of Frankie's parents are no longer around, giving his grandmother the responsibility of raising a young child on her own. Raising a child can be difficult at times for anybody - but for this grandmother, she's doing it on an extremely low budget with which she can barely feed herself, so she sacrifices her hunger for the sake of her grandson. She told us she spends most nights crying because she doesn't see a way out of this situation. It was a very moving meeting. As we were about to leave, she shook all of our hands with such passion, and told us that she thanks God that we came to see her.

Dad watching his son
during the first class

One other situation I was moved by included the story of a single father, raising his 6-year old son while trying to improve his struggling business. We met the young child, and he was full of zest (where do kids get the energy from?!), which was great to see. We want his father to have a successful business which produces enough revenue for him and his child to have a good life. We don't want them to be neglected, not when they desperately need our help.

Hanging out with the teachers

That is why we're doing this project, to allow families like these who deeply love their children to stay together without having to make such racking decisions. We want to help as much as we can, but by giving them the tools to improve their own futures, rather than through handouts.

While things have been going extremely well, we are working with a limited set of funds which is making us pay extra attention to finances. Currently we are trying to divide our original grant pool into 15 rather than 10 grants, which means less money for each person. We would very much appreciate any donations you can provide - even a small amount like $30 can go a long way to helping us help the families. So please give anything you can! We (and the families) appreciate it greatly.

Safari, snakes, and spaghetti!

We had an AMAZING safari last week with the kids, thanks to Marie, Mama Marie, and the donors. The kids were excited for days in advance - we frequently take them on a small safari (safari ndogo) in the afternoon, down to the local field or the store. This was their BIG safari (safari kubwa), and they couldn't have been more psyched! On Mama Pendo's advice, we went to two locations for our trip - first a snake park out towards Maasai country, then to Meru Game Lodge, a local place, for lunch. Due to some communication confusion, my mom, Patty, Adam, Riz and Claire ended up at the wrong snake park - but not to fear, they met us at the game lodge later. 

In their gorgeous donated FredsWorld clothes!

The kids got all dressed up in their beautiful new clothes, all organic, donated by Fredsworld in Denmark - thanks so much! As you can see, they looked even more stunning than they do every day - they loved the bright colors and soft fabrics.

The snake park was fantastic - the kids were allowed in for free, and they created a tour just for us, personalized to the kids and in Swahili and English so the volunteers could understand too! The kids got to see crocs, tons of snakes, and touch turtles - and then the brave few got a chance to hold a snake themselves!

It was so funny to see who stepped forward - Zi and Abdulli were hesitant but ok with the snake, Simoni, Andrea, and David LOVED it, and Pray was utterly terrified and refused to go near it! Just goes to show that despite his tough exterior, he's still a regular four year old underneath. Mama Pendo was NOT thrilled when the snake guy draped it around her neck, but she held up like a champ! Wish I had space to post each of the photos here - more will be up on our Facebook page, please be sure to check it out and Like it to keep up with all the content that doesn't fit on the main page!

Then we went through a small exhibit showing traditional Maasai life, and into the camel rides area. Marie and I volunteered to take two kids at a time each to ride the camels. Again, it was funny to see who the takers were - Loveness, unexpectedly, LOVED the camels and the whole process, as did Baracka. Teacher Emerte then girded her loins and got up on the camel too - so proud!

After that we moved on to Meru Game Lodge - although the drive was notable as it passed the Arusha air field, which was HUGELY exciting in and of itself to the kids. They adore planes and get excited every time one passes overhead - getting to see them land and take off as we drove by was possibly the highlight of the day. Who knew? Anyway, we eventually arrived back at the Game Lodge, and had a great time. One large antelope in particular was very interested in the kids and kept coming right up to the ledge to get petted and sniff at their hands. They also saw zebras, ostrich, and some monkeys leaping through the trees - check out Adam and Zi's faces as they catch a peek!

Mama Pendo helping
the kids with their pasta

They had a fantastic time and were extremely well behaved - a few guests were very kind and played with the kids, as well, although we kept them away unless the guests said they were ok with it! Then the food arrived - spaghetti all around, delicious. We had a bit of a fuss at the end of the day when we went to pay - we had spoken to a manager previously about getting a discount on the food, because it was for the orphanage kids and we were ordering so much. However, the person on duty was extremely rude and unwilling to work with us at all. After a good fifteen minutes of back and forth, an extremely kind guest whose daughter had been playing with the kids all day stepped in and offered to pay the entire bill! The staff was a little shame-faced, and we were extremely grateful. More money for groceries, vitamins, formula, staff salaries, nappies, and all the other bits and pieces that gobble up the orphanage budget each month. He declined to be named so that we could thank him publicly - but if you are reading this, we are profoundly thankful. 

Internet has continued to be difficult but I have MUCH more to tell and show, and the kids are thriving. A few quick notes - our little guy Ebenezer is really struggling, he has a bad pneumonia and needs IV treatment every few hours. We're working on some long term ideas to prevent this kind of thing from happening - more information to come, I promise. We're thrilled with Stine and Peter and all of the other amazing volunteers we've had lately, including Sarah, Jacqueline, AnneMarie, and everyone else. Soon a post dedicated to them! Chicken coop is almost done and chicks are hatching, they're such cute little puffballs at this age! Solar panels are coming, some bank problems are holding things back but it should be settled soon. Phew, it's going to be a busy couple of weeks... but I can't wait!

Parties and playing

The internet has been an elusive creature for the last week or so... power outages seem to magically time themselves precisely for my arrival in internet cafes. It's downright uncanny. That said, I have a lot of exciting news (and, as always, adorable photos) to share.

One of Mama Pendo's oldest with one
of the youngest!

Last Saturday we had a real treat – a local community development class graduated and held their ceremony at the orphanage. They provided a HUGE meal, and thanks to your donations, we were able to supply transportation for a number of older kids to come back to Nkoaranga from the places they are currently living. We had a group from USA River Academy (the kids who are enrolled with TFFT), as well as a group from SOS Children's Villages, which included Farajah and Aroni! We also had some kids from SOS who had been at Nkoaranga 16, 18, or even 20 years ago, when the orphanage had JUST gotten started, and was mostly just Mama Pendo in a small building next to the mortuary trying to take care of a few abandoned kids! Needless to say, it was fantastic to see them all back – and SO much fun to see the reunited kids playing together. It reminds you how much they really have grown up as siblings – being separated is difficult for them, and they are thrilled to be back together. Zawadi in particular jumped on Farajah and refused to be moved for most of the rest of the afternoon, even to come to me! She missed her “little mama.” All the kids also loved the cake – especially Neema, who ate four or five pieces!

Neema blissed out on cake 

Mama Cantate with Wema, Farajah, Pendo, and Aroni

Stevie with the memory book I made for him
with the help of many former volunteers' photos!

Ericki with his memory book 

The USA River Academy kids performing 

Overall, the day was wonderful – a pleasure to see all the kids, to see their excitement at the improvements in the orphanage (especially the playground!), and to see Mama Pendo honored for her many years of hard work.

Adam with Loveness
(top) and Baracka

Riz and Simoni

Adam and Riz have both arrived, and the micro-grants project is in full swing. In the last two days they've already done eight interviews, and are off today to (hopefully!) polish off the rest. Although many families just want chickens or other basic livestock, a few have really creative ideas – and we're hoping that bringing these families together will allow them to collaborate and share ideas and resources. The first class is later today - we will keep you updated on how it goes!

Adam and Neema

Of course, not all the time is dedicated to work on the grants project... Adam and Riz have also been loving their time with the kids, and vice versa! The kids are always so excited to meet new people, and especially when those people are “cool guys” - they don't have much exposure to positive male role models, so we are thrilled to give them a few. If nothing else, they love being thrown, flipped, and turned upside down – and the guys have been happy to oblige, and tire a little slower than I do!

Peace

Shujah and Peace are working on crawling, although they are currently most talented at spinning in circles on their tummies. Ebenezer and Neema are growing and thriving, and are now both sharing their beautiful smiles with us! Poor Ebeni was a little off this morning, and he seems to generally struggle a bit with digestion – we are hoping that the gentle preemie formula coming over with Claire, Dorothy and Patty on Sunday will help soothe him a bit! Neema continues to be a little stunner and captivate everyone when she bats those big brown eyes.

Neema

Filipo took his first steps last week, which was incredibly exciting. We had all been trying to coax him towards it for a while – but of course, it was Mama Pendo who finally got him to make the move. I swear she has baby magic. As soon as he got up, he hasn't looked back! Frankie is now all alone sitting on the floor – although even he took a few steps last week. Unlike Filipo, however, that hasn't tempted him towards full-time walking. He still prefers to be carried everywhere, and bawl loudly if that desire isn't immediately satisfied!

Mama Marie and Frankie

It's also been a huge pleasure to hang out with Marie and her mom - their donations have and continue to be thrilling and hugely helpful. Special thanks to the big, beautiful box of gorgeous organic kids' clothing from . As you can see, the kids also enjoyed just playing in the bags it was brought over in! They've also taken on the very exciting project of rebuilding and expanding the chicken coop - it is about half done and will be fully finished soon, allowing the kids to eat meat at least once, often twice a week! Huge progress.

Marie and Neema

Mama Pendo, Marie and the clothes donation

Ebeni and Frankie playing in the suitcase

Half finished new chicken coop

 And now, just a few of my favorite shots from the last week, because why not?

Beautiful Ebenezer

Me and my baby girl!

Coming up: A Wednesday kids' safari to the Arusha snake park and Mount Meru Game lodge, the arrival of Dorothy, Patty, and Claire, and a report from the first grants class. Stay tuned!