Sharing the love!

Hello everyone, we hope you've all had a great week!  This week our blog features some birthdays, a guest post by three amazing girls telling you about their candy-gram fundraiser, and a little bit about some of The Small Things' committees who are looking for people to join them!

Birthdays!

Saimoni (5 years old)

Today is Saimoni's 5th Birthday!  He is such an amazing boy who has done so well to overcome the rickets he suffered from when he was younger (especially not easy when living in  an orphanage full of more mobile kids) to become the happy, laughing and extremely imaginative little boy that he is today!

Left to right: Faraja (8 years old), Baracka (4 years old) and Neema ndogo (1 year old)

It's been a busy week birthday-wise!  Last Friday, we celebrated two other Birthdays: Faraja - who was at Nkoaranga Orphanage until the age of 6, when she left to live at a nearby SOS children's village - turned 8, and it was also Baracka's 4th Birthday!  And last but definitely not least, just yesterday Neema ndogo turned 1!  We are so happy that they are all growing up safe and happy, although it is very scary how fast it is happening!!

PS. Just in case we are confusing you, 'ndogo' means 'little'!

Candy-grams

by Carly Charlebois, Amanda Roberts and Ashley Pollari

"We are students at Camosun College in Victoria, BC and our team consists of Carly Charlebois, Amanda Roberts and Ashley Pollari.  We are currently taking a Sociology course: Introduction to Africa Studies. One of the main components of our class is to come up with a service-learning project, which positively impacts an African country in a sustainable way.

"All three of us have been to Africa at some point in the past few years.  Carly and Ashley have been to Kenya and Amanda was in Burkina Faso.  Together we have developed a passion for this incredible continent and the amazing people who live there.  Having that personal connection and the experience of being to Africa are important and provide us with a strong basis for this project.  We all connected to The Small Things organization through Kristina Alexander; who we know either through the African Awareness Committee at school, or work.  Having Kristina here at Camosun has been a huge help in developing our project plan.  Since connecting with Kristina and learning more about what The Small Things is doing for the orphanage, we have taken a huge interest in their future projects.

"Two members of our group, Carly and Ashley, are preparing to start the nursing programs in the fall.  Therefore, we are quite interested in how we could create a sustainable project for medical development on the ground in Tanzania.  Our hope is for these funds from our service-learning project to help build the HIV health care facility for the new children’s village, as well as aid in the employment of a full-time nurse.  In addition, Ashley and Amanda plan to make it to Tanzania next year to see the impact of our efforts, which makes the connection much more real.

"Our first fundraiser for this project was a Valentine’s Day candy-gram service that raised awareness and funds for the Nkoaranga orphanage.  For three days, we sold handmade cards, and Fair Trade chocolates on campus for two dollars.  Then they were delivered on Valentine’s Day.   

"We had a positive and optimistic outlook from the beginning about our candy-gram fundraiser.  Despite it being a last minute decision to do this fundraiser, we feel as though we reached out to many people and fostered awareness about The Small Things and their mission.  In the end, we raised approximately $150.   

"In the coming weeks, we hope to build on this success through a penny drive and bottle drive.  As we learn more in our Sociology class, we will continue to work with Kristina and The Small Things to support Nkoaranga Orphanage.

"Our reward will come when can visit next year and meet the children that we have grown to love though photos and stories."

Committees

We are looking for passionate and dedicated people to join The Small Things's committees!  Below is an outline of the different committees and the sort of people who we'd love to join us working on them.

Stevie, Andrea and David drinking the
filtered water provided by Project Maji

Strategic planning

• What it involves: discussing in what direction to develop the charity for the future and considering factors which influence this; planning how to implement these decisions
• Looking for: Individuals who have experience starting or building a successful company or non-profit
• Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month

'The Mosaic Ladies' - a beautiful
quilt made by Sandra to auction off to
raise money to rewire the orphanage

Fundraising

• What it involves: Working with volunteers to support their own fundraising projects, organising events to raise money and awareness and developing products such as calendars etc to sell
• Looking for: People who have experience organising events, connections to companies or experience with general fundraising
• Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month

The kids looking delighted in beautiful
clothes donated by 'Fred's World'

Child welfare

• What it involves:Consideration of how best to support the mental and physical health of the children in our care, developing advice for volunteers in the form of manuals and development charts, coordinating in-kind donations such as vitamins and clothing
• Looking for: People with medical, psychological, or child development expertise
• Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month

If you are interested in working on any of the above, please get in touch with us at info@thesmallthings.org - thank you!

Vicky (2 years old), loving her new nappy
donated by 'Baba and Boo'

Thanks for reading!

Good Luck Gracie!

Beautiful Gracie

This week's news from The Small Things includes an exciting update about Gracie. Sweet Gracie, aged 2 years and 8 months, has left the orphanage and her Grandmother has brought her to the SOS Children’s villages. Gracie has an older sister already at SOS so they will now be together. Born very underweight on June 21st, 2010, Gracie Spent her first three months in the hospital and was very sick. Her mother was HIV positive and died shortly after birth and at around three months old, Gracie arrived at the orphanage. Since then, she has grown into such a beautiful little girl who has a great future ahead of her. This is a fantastic opportunity for Gracie and we are very happy for her. We will miss her so much, as will the other children! She is such a bubbly and happy girl who will no doubt make an impression and fit in well at her new home. Luckily she won't be far away so it will be easy to visit!

Gracie, I don't think that is where the nappy is supposed to go!

Gracie will not be on her own. Our wonderful Farajah is also there and thriving. Farajah will be turning 8 years old on Friday and has always been a very bright and mature young lady so we have no doubt that she will keep a watchful eye on Gracie as she settles in.


To find out more information about the work of SOS, click here.

More good news! The kids who had malaria in the last two weeks are now recovered and doing really well. Mama Pendo has informed us that Little Ebeni is crawling everywhere and very quickly! Little Neema is still "swimming" on the floor but doing well and is very mobile.

Poor Angel is fighting an ear infection that's leaving her miserable but she's otherwise healthy and really gaining weight.

Keep a look out for upcoming blog posts featuring guest blogs from our half marathon runners who are hard at training in preparation for April 7th, as well as details on our new fresh food program at the orphanage and an insight into our new addition to the media team - Chelle McCann!

Click here for The Small Things 2012 in review newsletter released today! And if you aren't already signed up to receive our annual newsletter by email, sign up now to avoid missing out next time.
(You can find the subscription link on the right).

Bekka with Grace on day 1

A very happy baby

Even happier when she got her independence and learnt to walk!

Gracie and Eman, amazing children. We will miss you Gracie!

Happy Birthday Farajah and Baracka!

Beautiful Farajah

Smiley Baracka

Today we are doubly joyful - it is the birthday of two fantastic Nkoaranga kids - Farajah and Baracka. Baracka was tiny and underweight when he started at the orphanage - Amy had to nurse him every few hours for months to keep him alive. Now he is a gorgeous and happy three year old!

Farajah, our little mama, is no longer at the orphanage - she has moved on to SOS Children's villages, a fantastic organization that runs family style housing and provides incredible schooling for some very lucky kids. We went to visit her in December, and she was absolutely thriving, so proud to show off her new home and friends - as was Aroni, our other FABULOUS little guy who is living there with her now, along with two older Nkoaranga "graduates," Wema and Heavenlight, and a number of former NK toddlers who are now teenagers!

Me and Aroni now!

Aroni as a baby (thanks Amy!)

Yesterday was also International Women's Day, and what better time to highlight, once again, the incredible work that our Mamas do for the Nkoaranga kids? We are so grateful for their tireless dedication, and we couldn't be more honored to work with them all.

To Mama Andrew...	Mama Ellie...
Mualim Cantate...	Dada Happy...
Mama Pendo...	Mama Linda...

...and all the other amazing women we work with, thank you a million times over for everything you do.

Guest Post by the lovely Amy Summers!

Amy is a great friend of Nkoaranga orphanage who is in the process of finalizing her adoption of Pray, a gorgeous five year old who lived at Nkoaranga until he was three. She has graciously agreed to write a guest post (hopefully one of many!) to keep us updated on the kids! You can read more about her journey at Kusali-To Pray. Thanks also to Amy for letting us use her gorgeous photos here and elsewhere on the site.

Amy and a grumpy Zawadi

Maureen Ndogo

Gracie pushing around Amy's son Pray!

Oh wow, my first post on The Small Things! I feel honored.

After almost two months (school starting, moving, etc. A busy time of year!), Pray and I finally made a much-needed visit to his old home. I, of course, had to take photos of Zawadi for Bekka! The kids are doing well. Frankie and Filipo were in the hospital with malaria, but the rest of them were running around as usual! Zawadi was being changed when we got there and seemed a bit grumpy. Probably because of the diaper changed--no one likes those! I managed to get a few photos, then she waddled off to play with the kids. I only saw her once more in the next hour--busy girl! Gracie is practicing her walking skills. 

She almost has it! Maureen mdogo is proudly crawling and is more beautiful than ever. I didn't think it was possible! Frankie was almost crawling when we visited in late July, so I imagine he is a pro by now. Vicky was being held and then put to bed, so I didn't see much of her.

Ebenezer and his proud Baba

David is so big!

Ebenezer's baba (father) was there visiting! He seemed very proud of his son. I pulled up some pictures of Ebeni from his first week of life and his baba was amazed and said he forgot Ebeni was so small! Ester is running everywhere. She politely asked for a banana and proceeded to stuff it all in her mouth. She was another one that was so little. Thanks to Annette and Miriam takinig her home every night, she thrived and you all know how precious she is now! David mdogo is another walker/runner now. He was glued to the TV and Faraja was nicely sharing her lollipop with him. Neema has lost some of her chubbiness now that she runs everywhere! I don't think I saw her walking at all, just running. She still has her gorgeous dimples and has turned into such a little helper.

Baracka has been one of my favorites since I met him at two months old. He was such a difficult baby. He spit up every ounce of every feed and would scream within 10 minutes because he was hungry again. I love watching him grow. Despite his many days of crying and fussing (even now), he was in a great mood on Wednesday and kept asking me to turn my camera off and on. It has a little picture on it as it turns on. Maureen mkubwa was outside most of the time, so I didn't get to see much of her. She had a very serious face on when she finally came inside (against her wishes!). Pray is as ornery as ever. He went straight for Claire so she would hold him. He still seems a bit behind, but he's much healthier than we ever thought he'd be! He was another sickly newborn that I often worried about. 

Andrea (left) and
Baracka holding hands

Simoni offering to share his candy

Saimoni, oh Saimoni. His unusual gait from the rickets is hardly noticeable now. You would never know he struggled so much! I love that smile and his happy attitude. David mkubwa was helping Gracie walk. I am always relieved to see how sweet he has turned out. Besides his physical battles, he went through a period when he would just walk up and bite even the tiny babies. And with a smile on his face! He now prefers to hold them and help the mamas. What a mini adult! Andrea was my second favorite before Baracka came along and still has a big part of my heart. I will never forget the night when he was 14 months old and sick with pneumonia and malaria. I watched his little heart beat and I thought it would beat right out of his chest. Ironically, after that hospital stay, he lost weight and started walking! He talks up a storm and had no interest in the TV--yay! Loveness sat and watched over the volunteers who were holding the babies. She's still such a little mama! 

Pendo was also outside most of the time, but seems to have settled in. She gets along with the other kids (mostly). Back in July, every time I heard someone crying, it would be her. Of course, our visit was only two hours, so maybe she was just having a good morning - but we hear good things from the mamas. Dainessi has three missing teeth! It makes her look SO much older and fits her new mature personality. She can't wait to start school. Stephen was busy watching a movie with Ericki, Faraja, and Aroni. He obliged when I asked for a photo and gave his big ol' trademark Stepheni smile! Ericki is just so 

Proud Dainess

Stevie is way too cool

handsome! He was watching a movie and then playing with pictures. I often wonder about him and his history of headaches, but he seemed well and happy during our visit.

Farajah and Aroni *should* be going to SOS on Monday. The twins from Cradle of Love are going on Monday and they have been waiting since April, too. I asked Mama Andrew, but she said she hadn't heard anything and Mama Upendo would know better. Unfortunately, Mama Upendo wasn't there. Wema, an older Nkoaranga kid, will also join them, along with two older kids, Allan and Vumilia. HeavenLight is supposed to go, also, but he recently went to live with an aunt and last I spoke with Mama Upendo, everyone was very happy with the arrangement. Hopefully we will hear something soon about the kids going to SOS. It is past time for Faraja to be in school! And I don't know why Aroni stayed behind after the summer holiday. His English had been progressing so quickly and he loved school. I hope SOS ends up being the perfect place for all of them.

Abduli is still Abduli. Pray was often in tears asking to leave because Abduli pulled his hair, pinched him, or punched him. I remember the days when Abduli's father and other family members would visit every weekend. I wonder if they stopped because of his obvious delays? It breaks my heart, because we all know how hard life in TZ is for people with disabilities. (Hopefully we can find a school that will help him to thrive for next year -Bekka)

In related news, there are two new babies. Shugya (I need to check her file for the correct spelling, but it sounds almost like "sugar" but with a "ya" at the end) is about two months old. I don't know her story, as the mamas were very busy and we didn't have much time to talk. She looks very healthy, though. The other newbie, Daoudi ("Dah-oo-di" Swahili for Davidi, said Mama Andrew), turned two weeks on the day we met him, making his birthday October 12th. He weighs all of two kilos and is very skinny. He is not as small as Riziki, quite a bit longer, but looks very unhealthy. I hope he will get the love and nourishment he needs to grow
. 

New baby Shugya

I will try to go back this Wednesday or Thursday now that Pray's midterm break is over. Hopefully Zawadi will be smiling and Mama Upendo will be around to get more updates! 

Until then,

Amy

Daoudi

Little Daoudi

Without a huge amount of attention and care, premature babies like Daoudi and Ebenezer don't make it - as we learned the hard with with gorgeous little Reziki. Please consider donating to help us hire more staff to care for these incredible children. 

Beautiful Girls

Because Farajah IS beautiful

There's been some interesting rumbling on the internets about an article on Huffington Post that brought up the idea of staying away from calling little girls pretty or beautiful, in favor of focusing on their internal qualities - their brains, their hearts. A lot of the dialogue has centered on the difference between women talking to their own daughters, where the consensus seems to be that mothers should tell their daughters they are beautiful AND smart, as opposed to how we speak to other peoples' children, who we don't have the chance to impact in the long term quite the same way.

For myself, I hope that someday my daughter will know that I think she's brilliant, and also that she's gorgeous, and also that it wouldn't matter to me if she wasn't. With that said, I personally make a real effort to make my first comments to little girls that I don't know NOT be about their looks - although it's definitely a work in progress. If little girls grow up having every new person that they meet comment on their looks right away, whereas they see little boys being asked about their activities, that makes very clear implications about the world thinks is valuable.

Most of the orphanage kids don't have the patience
to have their hair done - except Loveness

The orphanage kids fall somewhere in-between, and, as volunteers, our role is a hard one to figure. On the one hand, the kids meet new volunteers on a regular basis, and they are effectively their connection to the outside world - so what we praise about them matters, in terms of their ideas about what is valuable in themselves. On the other hand, they don't have families to instill confidence in them - confidence in their strengths as people, but also confidence that they are beautiful, desirable, worthy of every kind of love. Even more potently, family and not government provide the security net in Tanzania. Impoverished girls in Tanzania lack access to welfare, schooling and jobs available more easily to girls in the developed world, and many more end up turning to prostitution as a last resort. How do we balance teaching them to be confident in their beauty and desirability with simultaneously teaching them to rely on their brains and guts rather than their bodies to achieve their goals?

Andrea (a boy) with his "baby" on his back

In some ways, the kids grow up oblivious of gender norms, and I love that - and we try to give them balanced portraits of caretaking by encouraging male volunteers, both short and long term, and encouraging all of the kids to help with the younger ones. They won't stay that oblivious forever, though. Tanzanian culture is very clearly delineated between male and female roles, and while cracks are beginning to appear, in most cases women are the caretakers and men hold positions of power. 

So what approach should we take? For myself, I'm trying to be conscious of how often I talk to the girls about how pretty they are, and make sure I'm (at least!) balancing it with praise about their other qualities - their language, their creativity, their kindness. And with the boys, I want to prolong as long as possible the time before they learn that pink and dresses and nail polish are "for girls," and that anyone might think less of them - frankly, for any reason, but especially for what they wear or look like. 

At the end of the day, it all comes down to the same thing - letting them know they are loved, deeply and consistently and unconditionally. Part of that is supporting the mamas, easing their burden so that they can spend more time just being with the kids, nurturing them as people. Part of it is encouraging and guiding new volunteers. And part of it is showing up, as often as possible, in person or through donations - to teach them that although our lives might take us away for a while, our hearts and our minds stay with them. That we're thinking about them, their safety, their futures, and their happiness - whatever they look like on the outside.

Kids dressing themselves DOES
 lead to interesting choices... Simoni
with a diaper hat...

... and Pray in tie-dye and pink...

Equal opportunity family

One of the things I love most about Nkoaranga orphanage is their total lack of awareness of gender stereotypes. Partly this derives from sharing everything - if a dress happens to be the closest thing on the rack that fits, a dress it'll be!

Very happy cross dressed Simoni in pants turned shorts and the wrong shoes

Simoni was an especially frequent example of this phenomenon, simply because with his rickets it's a little harder for him to scale the shelves to find something that fits him just right - so when he finds something, he pulls it on, no questions asked. He also likes to do things himself - as evidenced by the shoes on the wrong feet!

One of the kids' other favorite activities is when volunteers bring over nail polish, and then EVERYONE gets in on the action. Really, the only limiting factor is patience - Pray was particularly funny running around with one hand with red fingernails for a week, because he simply couldn't hold still long enough to get both done.

Eman showing off his nails (Thanks Amy for the pictures!)

Baracka testing to see if they're dry

Dainess and Loveness, our fashion plates

I honestly believe this is part of what makes the kids so close - they go through thick and thin together, and they enjoy their little pleasures together (the small things, if you'll forgive me then pun. You won't? Ok, little pleasures it is then.) The result is the gorgeous, happy, if incredibly rambunctious little family you see here.

Farajah and Maureeni

Ericki, Farajah and Andrea in.. a conga line? Not sure, but it's cute!

That sense of belonging is so important for kids, and although the Nkoaranga orphanage family might not be the most traditional family to belong to, and it can't truly replace parents of their own, it's a pretty fantastic one nonetheless. I feel pretty darn lucky to be a part of it.

Help us make our family safer by contributing to Project MAJI - keeping our kids healthy as well as happy with a water filtration system for the orphanage and hospital wards.

The games, oh the many games....

One thing that never ceased to amaze me was the imagination of the children and all the little games they used to make up. Whether it was pretending to make 'chakoula' (food) for you with a book and colouring pencil or herding imaginary cows around the playroom, there was always more fun to be had and no end to the incredible games they would play.

One of my favourite memories is definitely the day Saimoni walked past me muttering to himself. Now, Saimoni would often have a good natter to himself, but this day he kept repeating the word 'wapi?' meaning 'where?', so this made me quite curious and, wanting to know what he was looking for, I followed him into the bedroom. He started looking around the room, searching in different places, and I really couldn't decide what it was he had lost. Then he lifted up his mattress, said 'hapa!', meaning 'here!', and hid his toy duck under the mattress. He hadn't been searching for a lost object, he had been trying to find a hiding place for his favourite toy. When he turned around and saw me, he started giggling uncontrollably with his incredibly infectious laugh, so, obviously, I found it impossible not to join in. I picked Saimoni up, both still in hysterics, gave him a massive hug and said 'Saimoni, wewe cheesy sana', which means 'Saimoni, you are crazy'. He found this even funnier, and again the infectious laughter began.

Watching the children progress and grow and increase in confidence was a real pleasure. I will never forget the morning that I was in the playroom with the toddlers, I had Baracka climbing all over my lap and I was watching Big Maureen and Miriam pottering around the playroom. Then Maureeni stopped, pointed at the television and started chattering in Swahili to Miriam- from what I could work out, she was saying that they couldn't watch Bob the Builder because there was no power, then Miriam turned to Maureeni with a serious but accepting look on her face, shrugged, and said in Swahili, no power. As if to say, 'oh well, never mind.' It was one of the most adorable and hilarious moments I had ever seen- watching Maureen and Miriam discuss what to do with their day; they looked like a pair of old ladies, shaking their heads at the obstacle that was getting in the way of their fun.

The friendships that develop between the children are really special. Miriam came to Nkoaranga orphanage in April, and, when she first arrived, she was so quiet and afraid- understandably of course. But now, she is running around the orphanage with Maureen, having a whale of a time. One day Faraja turned to one of the other volunteers and said 'Dainessi is my best friend'; it's so lovely that the children become so close and really love one another. The children all look out for each another, and if a child is crying in another room, I can guarantee that one of the children will come and tell you, as well as explaining the reason for the tears.

The best game we ever played at the orphanage would definitely be 'wewe chakoula' (you're food), made up by the funny, clever and brilliant Steveni. It could happen at any point in the day- I would be changing Frankie's nappy and suddenly 6 children would come running towards me from the other side of the orphanage screaming 'Emily chakoula, Emily chakoula!!'; this was quite a terrifying site. I would then turn around and (in a very panicked voice) reply with 'Emma chakoula' or 'Megan chakoula', depending on the other volunteers at the orphanage. The children would then turn around and run off, looking for the volunteer I had chosen the name of. The children loved this game, but I think their favourite part of the game, would be the point at which they caught you, because if you weren't careful and they caught you off guard, or you weren't quick enough, they would jump all over you and pretend to bite you as, in their minds, you were food. They found this hilarious and would giggle hysterically as you tried not to fall over due to the sheer mass of children clambering over you. However, unfortunately for the person whom they currently saw as food, sometimes the 'pretend biting' would accidently be real- very painful.

Spending every day running around with the Nkoaranga children, enjoying their made up games and hearing their laughter as I danced around the playroom was the best time of my life. I count myself as one of the luckiest people alive for having the privilege of getting to know the children, loving every single one of them, and knowing that they loved us all in return.

This is a video to show you an example of the sheer mass of children that get involved with the 'wewe chakoula' game and the amount of energy and excitement that goes into it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!