Aubree and Jason living in Africa: Week 6

Fun Facts:

Jason and I bought ice trays! I know this doesn't seem like that big of a deal but we haven't had ice in a month. We celebrated with Gin and tonic.
When dump trucks slow down for the massive speed bumps people jump in the back and grab a ride into town.
What looked like a gray ferret with a white tail ran across our yard.
We eat Chipsy Maiaa (french fry omelets) and mishkaki ( beef kabobs) once a week from our favorite pub, Zion.
When you are getting on or off the Dalla dallas the conductor (guy who takes your money and tells the driver where to drop you off) says "chop chop".
Jason found a pummel stone at the market. My feet thanked him!
One of the girls at Cradle was playing with a rag and started to try and wash my feet with it. She is only about one and her name is Amity.
We found a new favorite Tanzanian restaurant called Mirapot. We had the beef and pilau (spiced rice) along with salad, beans, spinach, and lots of sauces. It was delicious and cost $1.50. Next time I am getting the fish!
Jason has learned not to be the first motorcycle to park in a spot because all the rest will park behind you. A kind man helped him pick his bike up over the curb so he could drive down the sidewalk to get out. This took place a week before he had to drive through the bushes to leave the DMV.
At Mirapot everyone left there chicken and fish bones just laying on the tables.
The waiters and waitresses wash the table a lot while you are still eating. At Zion Lisa, our favorite waitress, will often clean our table 3 times while we are eating.
Ginger, our goat, had her baby!! We named him Kidogo (meaning "a little" in Swahili). He is orange like his mum with white on his face and neck. Pictures are at the end of the blog.
My mom calls twice a week and the call usually ends with her calling card running out.
I have never seen a lawn mower in Africa. People just use machetes or curved knives.
One of the reasons we like renting is that we don't have to cut our grass.

I have wanted to start an NGO since 2005 right after my first trip to Africa. I decided to put it on hold until we moved here to be able to really see where I was needed. I named the NGO Walk in Love.

Walk In Love: Finding Inspiration

Ibraheim

I mentioned Ibraheim in my first blog about Cradle of Love. He is a beautiful little baby with the face of a beautiful old man. He has dark skin, dark eyes and barely any hair. When he laughs the world is a better place. Ibra came to Cradle when he was one month old. His mother died shortly after his birth and his father is unknown. His family did not want to give him up but they knew that they could not support him. They had to make a decision: keep Ibra and he would more than likely die or give him up and he would live. The staff told me that when Ibra was dropped off there was not a dry eye in the place. His family was holding him so tightly that everyone could feel how much this baby was truly loved.

Patricia

On Monday morning I arrived at Cradle and met our newest addition, Patricia. She is three months old but looks like a tiny new born. She has mocha skin,big light brown eyes and lots of curly hair. Her mother had dropped her off over the weekend because she was no longer producing milk. She didn't want to leave her but she knew that Patricia was already too small and malnourished. There was nothing the mother could do to help her only child anymore. The mother herself was starving and could not feed her daughter.

"Isaac"

I do not know this boys name but I will call him Isaac. This is a story that I cannot tell without getting choked up. I have told many people and every time I want to burst into tears. I met Isaac at the SOS Childrens Home. We were taking our older children to live there until they are 18. We can only keep children until 2 or 3 then they go to bigger homes. SOS is a beautiful place and I am happy that our children were able to get in. While we were settling our children in there was Isaac there with is mother. I would guess he was around 10 years old. He never spoke and neither did his mother. They just sat with the saddest expressions on their faces. After about 30 minutes Isaac and his mother were in one of the back rooms. All of a sudden I heard a blood curdling scream and the mother went running out the front door. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I can right now. This experience will forever be with me and haunt me.

These three children and the circumstances that they and there families are in have moved me. I now know what direction to take Walk In Love. I want to help keep families together. Mothers and fathers love their children the same in the USA as they do in Tanzania as they do all over the world. The difference is that I/we, in the USA, would never have to give our children up that we love and want because if they stayed with us or our families they would die. I cannot imagine having to make that decision but I know which one I would choose and I know you do to. I know that if I could not take care of my children then my parents would and if they could not then my aunts/uncles would and if they could not then my cousins would. These are not options here. I would like to give parents and families the option to keep their children and loved ones.

Many of the children at Cradle have fathers but no mothers because they died during child birth. Many times family members will take in children but too often this is also not a possibility.

I want to help the fathers/families to keep there children by providing formula, diapers, daycare and eventually school sponsorship. I want to also have a program that sends the parents to a trade school so they can provide for their children with eventually no help. I want to have women empowerment groups to help women take control of their lives and the lives of their children. I will eventually have a home/s for women to stay at to keep the families together until they can stand on their own two feet.

This is just a brief description of what I want Walk In Love to be and will continue adding programs and details. I am making a Walk In Love Facebook group and I hope to see you all there!

Everyone can make a difference and there is no such thing as a small difference.

Week in review:

On Monday I was lucky enough to escort our 9 older children to there new home at SOS Childrens Village. This was all the kids in both of my classes so I had grow quite attached to them in the last 3 weeks. I was sad to see them go but I was happy they were going to such a great place! SOS is set up like a village and each child has a family with a mum and 6 siblings in a house. The mums do everything in the home and get to decorate so every home is different. It is located outside of the city with lots of room for the kids to play and run. They have a preschool on location and the primary and secondary schools are just a short walk from the village. The children living there were so happy and sweet. I volunteered to be the last person from Cradle in the room with our kids when we dropped them off. We wanted it to be gradual and not everyone leave at once. I was just playing with them when I realized that I was the only one left. I got up slowing and kissed Hidaya on the forehead and walked out. It felt like we were abandoning them but it is all for the best. We went to speak to the director about sponsorship and thanked him for taking our kids. Jason and I will be sponsoring Hidaya. Only one little boy, Dotto, is without a sponsor. The car was pretty quiet on the way home except some talk about getting drinks and chocolate.I plan on visiting next week. This was the night that I knew the direction that Walk in Love would go and I started planning.

I got to work on Tuesday and there were puppies in my classroom. The directors dogs, shih tzus, had had puppies 5 weeks ago and needed a place to put them. I didn't think this was the best place but its not my call. I held my classes, all new kids, outside. The problem was that all my new kids are very young, all 18 months and younger. I kept there attention for about 10 minutes then they were off running everywhere. After Tuesday I pretty much told them that I wouldn't be teaching until the classroom was puppy free. I will still go in but I doubt I'll make the hour trip every day just to play. So hopefully that will inspire them to find another place for the puppies but as of right now they are still there. Jason had a meeting all day and started the licensing process for the company.

On Wednesday I did some cleaning, laundry and went into town. Jason needed some socks and we needed to get some food. We bought all the essentials: tomatoes, avocados, onions, peeled garlic!, green beans, peppers, cilantro, bananas, bean, rice and carrots. I was really excited to find the peeled garlic and cilantro. I made cilantro rice with green peppers and onions that night for dinner with coconut rice for desert.

I decided to go to Cradle on Thursday even tho I didn't have a room. I went to the nursery first thing like I do every morning. I was happy to find that Ibra was awake and ready to be fed. When he takes his bottle he immediately starts sweating. I don't mean he get a little sweaty either, I mean the sweat is dripping from his face mid feeding. Next I fed Kareem whom I have never fed before. He is one of our tiniest babies but his hair makes up for it! After lots of cuddles and loving I finally make it up to the big house. I decided to spend my normal classroom time with Noel, our baby boy with down syndrome. I try to spend a little time every day with him but its difficult with all the kids around so I decided to take him on a walk to the park, just him and I. When I started pushing him on the swing he started to laugh louder than I had ever heard him laugh. He was laughing and kicking his legs and clapping! It was a great moment with Noel. He is such a sweet little boy but he gets left out a lot. After the swings I took him on a walk. Even tho is is almost 3 he doesn't walk. He has barely any muscle tone and will not put any pressure on his feet. I sang songs and he clapped his hands. We stopped to watch some carpenters work and watch the cars go by. He is very curious and likes to stop and look at everything! When we got back to Cradle I took him into the nursery to look at the babies through the window. I noticed that his put his foot on the wall and pressed. This was a great sign and I decided to take him into a room and try some physical therapy with him. I don't really know much about physical therapy but I got him to press against the wall and did some stretches. I loved my afternoon with my sweet boy Noel! After work Jason met me at our normal spot. We usually sit and have a soda while we talk about our day before heading home. Today we decided to go into town and grab some lunch. We went to Mirapot for the first time. It is a small Tanzania restaurant. It had a pretty good lunch rush but we weren't part of it because Jason decided to order chips, french fries, instead of anything else that was already prepared on the menu. While we waited we saw people walking in and getting food immediately and walking out. I overheard the mama saying something about chips about 30 minutes after we ordered and then the waiter walked out with money and a few minutes later walked back in with oil. I told Jason it was a good sign, at least they were ready to cook them now!About 10 minutes later I got a plate full of pilau (spiced rice), beef in yummy sauce, beans, cabbage salad, spinach and different sauces. The chili is my favorite! Jason got the same except chips instead of pilau. It was the best Tanzania food we have had since arriving! It was such a nice day that we decided to drive around a for awhile. We were driving around enjoying ourselves when the strangest thing happened, a Tanzania police officer on a motorcycle was pulling us over! We had never seem a Tanzanian moto cop before! We were pulled over for not wearing our helmets. Normally I have a helmet on but Jason forgot to grab it when he left to pick me up. The cop took Jasons drivers license and we followed him to the police station. We went to sit in a room with a lady and the cop that had pulled us over. I'm not exactly sure what he said but it is either "you have to be mentally retarded to drive without a helmet" or "driving without a helmet will make you mentally retarded". They also said it was a 60,000 shilling fine and we had to pay right now. In the middle of all this another bigger man walked in and started barrading us for not wearing helmets and we must pay 30,000. While this man was trying to intimidate us another officer walked up and held hands for the remainder of the intimidation, which was no longer intimidating once he started holding another grown mans hand! This is normal in Tanzania but still makes me giggle. We ended up paying the 30,000 and left.

I am typing this blog on Friday because Jason has been working all night long. He is working on a business plan and a proposal to an investor for another air craft. While Jason was working and I was typing this blog Ginger, out goat, went into labor. Baran came to tell us immediately because we are always asking when it is going to happen. I could only watch for a minute because she was bleating so loud and Baran said she would probably die. About 30 minutes later she had her kid. Mom and baby were fine! We named the baby Kidogo, which means "a little" in Swahili. He is standing on his own and feeding. Baran says they should both be just fine! We were supposed to go on a date tonight but we will just go tomorrow night. I am thinking Mexican food and The Descendants.

Well the weekend came and went without a date but Jason did finish a business plan and investment proposal that his bosses were very happy with. We were going to try and go to the movies this evening but the only movie we wanted to see is no longer at the theatre. We will try again next weekend!

I hope everyone is enjoying the blog!

Aubree and Jason

Welcome Kidogo!