Happy Birthday Pendo!

Well, it's been quite a week! Everything is going well, the kids are thriving and happy, I'm just worn out. Today is the sixth birthday of our beautiful little mama, Pendo. As you may remember from our post, "Meet Pendo," she has had a rough time of it in the past - a probable history of abuse, moving from her parents to her grandmother to the orphanage, etc. That said, this girl is unbelievable. She is SO smart and talented, and has just blossomed in the past year. We made a choice to keep her back at the orphanage for an extra year rather than sending her to school last year, even though she was old enough, to allow her to settle in better - she had only been with us for eight months last January when the others headed off to USA River Academy. The past year has proven that to be the right decision - the shy, quiet, overwhelmed little girl has turned into one of the most smart, motivated, helpful, and loving kids you can imagine.

We're also thrilled to be able to say that Pendo is all ready to start school in January, since she is fully sponsored! All of our gratitude goes out to Emma Shaw, Millie Pike, Anna Black, and Anna's parents for her year-to-year sponsorship, and to Claire Wyatt for raising her first year's tuition towards her up-front costs. We are so very proud of her and excited to see what she does next! Here are some of my favorite pictures of this amazing girl.

The first day I met Pendo - outside her grandmother's
hut with her grandmother, great uncle, and Mama Pendo
holding Zawadi

The sisters - Zawadi and Pendo on her first day at the orphanage

Beautiful girl Pendo (left) with Farajah and David, as she
settled in during her first months with us

Pendo cuddling Miriam

Beautiful smile

Rocking an LSE sweater

Cuddling with Claire

Tumaini and Pendo singing

I'm also thrilled to officially announce that three of our four kids starting school next year are fully sponsored for their year-to-year costs! Huge thanks to My African Child for sponsoring Andrea and Kristina Alexander, Wayne and Sandra Leland, and Emma Shaw for sponsoring David. Now we just need to find a sponsor for our wonderful special-needs boy, Abdulli, and to finish raising the two years up-front tuition required for each kid. Check out all the details here. Thanks also to Rob Wyatt, Claire's father, for his generous recent donation!

Then and now

It's amazing how fast time flies at the orphanage... sometimes, history repeats itself, and some things never change!

Frankie 2010

Frankie 2012

 Frankie's cheeks are still for the ages!

Me holding Pray and Simoni 2010

Me holding Pray and Simoni 2012

I still adore this funny little pair, who couldn't be more different from each other if they tried, despite being just a few months apart in age...

Baracka (left) with bubbles 2010

Baracka with bubbles 2012

Baracka still loves bubbles, but has moved up the totem pole, and now gets to blow them rather than just pop them!

Simoni grinning 2010

Simoni grinning 2012

 Simoni still has the world's best happy face...

Eman 2010

Eman 2012

Eman is still way cooler than I will ever be, and he still likes chilling on the trampoline...

Stevie (far right) as a baby with volunteers (thanks Amy for the photo!)

Stevie (far left) 2012 with volunteers

Stevie's mouth still exerts its own gravitational pull... 

Tumaini with Zawadi 2009

Tumaini with Peace 2012

And you still can't keep Tumaini away from the babies. Ok, so a few concrete updates on the kids - Peace is out of the hospital and back home with us, missing only a little of his belly chub. Big Ebenezer has taken his daredevil antics to the next level and smashed out his front teeth - poor boy! Little Ebenezer is doing much better and should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow (yay!), so our whole little family should be at the orphanage together as of tomorrow! Thank you so much to everyone who donated for his care - he was in about ten days altogether, so his bill will be high. We continue to gratefully accept contributions towards his hospital bills. 

And as a final bonus, a lookalike feature: 

Which of these pictures shows our gorgeous boy Shujaa, and which shows a Japanese Kabuki crab ? Both are surprisingly fuzzy on top. 

Greetings from Nairobi!

Peter and Andrea

Greetings from Nairobi! I'm currently on a brief trip up north to Kenya to drop off Riz at the airport – I'm going to miss him! The kids loved hanging out with the “big boys” this summer, and they'll be disappointed now that Peter, Adam, and Riz are all gone. Andrea and Simoni were especially thrilled to hang out with them – there are some very cute pictures of them together. All three guys are hoping to make a return trip at some point, and we also strongly urge any guys considering volunteering to take the leap – it's a really wonderful experience and the kids benefit hugely from having positive male role models around.

It's been a rough week at the orphanage – everyone still has the flu, and it's hit the little ones especially hard. Ebenezer is still in the hospital in town, although his fever and vomiting have subsided, so now we're just waiting on the diarrhea to stop so he doesn't need the IV fluids. Peace is also in the hospital, although he's been able to stay at Nkoaranga – the fever that was mild and transient in the other kids has been high and persistent for him. However, we're hoping he'll also be out soon. Medical students Martina, Lorenzo, and Daria (from SperanzaTanzania) have been of immeasurable help with keeping a watchful eye on all the kids, going on hospital visits, and helping us to figure out when to seek more help.

Riz and his baby Peace

I had the flu early and so was out of commission most of last week, but have been available now that more of the kids have been hit. That said, we've been having lots of meetings and hospital visits, so it has been busy for me too! Meanwhile, many of the mamas have also come down with the flu, and since we've needed even more staff than usual to stay in the hospital with sick kids, many of them have worked straight through it. We are so grateful for their superhuman strength and dedication!

Mama Pendo has started her management course, and is enjoying it despite having to get up very early in the morning to make it to Arusha on time! Although we and the kids miss her daily presence at the orphanage, it is worth doing without her for three weeks for her to attend such a prestigious program. We're confident that it will help all the staff and kids in the long term.

In completely unrelated but fun news, Chundvi and Pili Pili (our rabbits) have apparently been having fun together in their hutch – I'm told Pili Pili is pregnant! Once she gives birth, we'll be separating the males and females to avoid a rabbit overload. I'm excited to hand raise a few of the babies to be pets for the kids – it's good for them to learn responsibility and compassion, and it might just keep them from trying to chase down the chickens! The other rabbits will eventually be either sold or eaten – while I am officially neutral on which course they choose, I would prefer not to be present for the eating of the bunnies! That said, anything that leads to better nutrition for the kids is a plus in my book.

Anne with Neema

Anne has been busily at work on some great English/Swahili books for the kids, most new ones and a few translations of our favorite classics – currently working on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. Leave a comment if you have any ideas for good books with simple vocabulary that might work for the project! It's going to be really useful for instilling an early love of books in the kids, and for volunteers who want to improve their Swahili. We're very lucky to have Anne working with us!

I'm in contact with Mama Pendo and the other volunteers daily, and I'll let you know as soon as possible if there are any changes with the kids. Keep them in your thoughts!

Microgrants Update - Adam

First, I want to give a few pressing updates about orphanage business - then we'll move on to Adam's summary of the microgrants project and its current status! 

• Thank you to those who have donated for Ebenezer's care. He was released on Tuesday from the hospital, but was re-admitted yesterday (Friday). His chest has remained wonderfully clear, but he's caught the flu going around the orphanage, and had a high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. He was admitted for rehydration and observation. Fingers crossed he will be out soon!
• One of the microgrant widows, Mama Agness (not the same one Adam describes below), was also admitted to the hospital on Thursday, along with her son, Evans. He has had chest problems since he was a baby, and we offered in the course of the project to pay for him to get medical care. When they arrived on Thursday, Evans couldn't walk because of extremely severe pneumonia, and Mama Agness could barely carry him, as she had severe malaria, anemia and dehydration herself. Both are now recuperating in the hospital, and along with our friends at SperanzaTanzania, we are trying to figure out the exact nature of Evans' long term problems. Many of the possibilities will require extended, long term care, so this is an issue we will touch upon again. 
• On a more positive note, we now have two orphanage bunnies! The kids are loving getting to know them. One is white and the other is black and brown - what could they be but Chundvi (salt) and Pili-pili (pepper)? 
• The solar panels are being installed as we speak, and they should be done tomorrow! Hooray!

Now on to Adam's updates: 

Things have been going extremely well with our community outreach microgrants project! In the last two weeks we have almost completely finished the first and most intensive portion of our project. We have analyzed each family in the program, and given them each the money or materials to be successful. In a few situations there are areas still pending, due to the difficulty of both transportation and communication in Tanzania (but that can be expected!). Those should be smoothed out within a few days however, and phase one will be complete. There are a few families that really stood out in our program and I have decided to highlight a few.

Meet Baba Sunday. He and his son are both HIV positive, living in a house together with no electricity and no stable source of income. When we originally went to see him he told us of his idea of becoming a carpenter, using skills he learned many years ago. The only problem was the lack of tools. We are funding his purchase of new tools and materials to get started.. With the skills he learned from our business seminar and the grants we hope he can use the planning to start a successful business and keep food and HIV medication on his table.

Meet Agness. She is a young adult living with her grandparents and several brothers and sisters. When we met this family we found out the Bibi (grandmother, 85 years old) was digging rocks to make an income for the family. Agness wanted to help and to do so we got her lessons in baking from a local friend, as well as her own oven and a small grant to start her off.

Meet Mama Massawa. She is a widowed woman taking care of 4 children. For her business she is taking on chickens for selling eggs as well as growing vegetables to bring to market. While her business is quite similar to some of the other participants, her attitude is not. After the targeted classes we had on raising chickens and agriculture she told our partner Rehema in Swahili, “If these people don’t succeed with all that you all have given them, it is not out of lack of help. It would only be laziness on the part of the people running the business. Thank you and god bless you.”

To hear her say that means a lot to the heart of this project. We want them to feel as if they are supported more than just financially. We have focused entirely on well-rounded businesses. Her words leave us confident in our efforts.

Sadly, I am back in America now. My partners will continue on, getting each family a bank account with a small amount of cash. They will continue to check on each family, and give support in any way they can.

We hope that all of our participants succeed, and the second phase of our project is just to continue to follow up on each family and their progress, through home visits and checks of their records. We hope that what we have given will be enough. The hard work of everyone involved has already shown. I speak personally when I say we all look forward to the future to see how it all pans out.

Second Round - UPDATED

I feel like history is repeating itself... our beautiful boy Ebenezer, who is just four months old, has been hospitalized for the last several days with bad bronchiolitis and/or pneumonia. Big Ebenezer was also hospitalized around the same age with malaria, pneumonia and meningitis! They were originally hoping our lwould be out of the hospital today, but it looks like that is not going to happen - he's just not well enough yet. We're keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow, though! He is actually at an expensive referral hospital in Arusha, rather than the local Nkoaranga hospital - they lacked the equipment to treat him and were simply out of ideas. The doctors are fantastic there, but it costs quite a lot - we would be eternally grateful for any donations towards his care. Thank you to Emelie for starting off the first donation!

Ebenezer just a few days old

Big strong boy last week

The other kids are doing well, although there's a nasty bug going around that has us all (myself included) coughing constantly, with a sore throat and various flu symptoms - but at least it's not malaria! We're also mourning our imminent loss of Adam, who has quickly made himself indispensable with the kids. They are going to be so sad to see him go back to the US tomorrow! He's gotten especially close with Simoni, Maureen and Vicky. We will all miss him! 

More coming soon, including tons of pictures - but I have to get back to our last micro-grants class! If you'd like to contribute to Ebeni's care, please click "Donate" in the sidebar, and write a note on the next page stating that you'd like it to go towards his care. Thanks so much! 

UPDATE: Our strong boy is getting out of the hospital today (Tuesday)! His lungs are clear for now, but he's going to have another checkup on Friday to make sure everything is gone. Huge thank you to Martina and Lorenzo at Speranza Tanzania for their help getting him safely home, as well as to Patty and Emelie for their donations! We're still not sure what the final cost will be including his check ups and medicines, so donations are still greatly appreciated. 

Ebenezer and Mama Pendo sunbathing in the hospital courtyard

Adam and Ebeni in his hospital room yesterday