Masaai Triplets and the beginning of something great!

Hi everyone, I just want to let you know that from now on I will be updating my blog twice a week because I don't want you to get overwhelmed and not read it! I will also be starting a separate blog for Walk In Love. I have some very exciting news for everyone, Walk In Love has officially partnered up with Neema House Baby Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania. I will serve as an outreach program but you can be sure I will be at the baby orphanage playing with babies whenever I have spare time! Neema House has rented accommodation about 15 minutes from our house so the long traveling everyday to Cradle will be cut down to once per week just to visit with the Cradle babies, mainly Ibra:) Hope everyone is enjoying the blog! Miss you all and I hope to make a trip home in September to visit and do some much needed fundraising!

This is a new addition to our every growing Tanzanian family. Barran almost ran over this little guy while on his way back to the house one night. He decided that the best thing for him was to take him home! We haven't named him yet. Any suggestions???

Tom and Barran came over on Sunday to make us Sunday dinner. We had goat, chips (french fries, a stable here) and rice. It was very nice and we have decided to continue on with Sunday dinners. Next week we cook!

Full from Sunday dinner, Jason and the puppy take a nap.

For all of you that do not know, Jason and I live in a house owned by a safari company. During low season, now, we have up to 7 Safari vehicles in our compound. They are constantly moving them and Jason decided to join in the fun!

Warning: The following pictures are in reverse order.

On Thursday Claire took B to the doctors and I offered to look after Selemani and Nancy for the afternoon. We had a blast! I am also happy to announce that B is HIV negative!!

B now sure what to do with herself after busting her water balloon.

Nancy was thrilled when she popped hers! Unfortunately for B is was directly over her head.

B, Selemani, and Nancy not quite sure what to do with the water balloons.

Eating supper with the kids and Claire, not pictured.

Selemani and I playing the in the yard. You might be asking yourself why is there a tent set up in the yard? As I said earlier the house we live in is owned by a safari company and about a month ago they set up all their luxury tents in the yard to take pictures and have yet to take them down. The tent directly behind us is the kitchen tent.

Playing with Alex

Jason came home early to play with the kids. They love him!

Eating all there lunch!

Patricia is growing everyday! Such a beautiful little girl.

Ibra

These are the twins that I have mentioned. Princess is on the left and Prickett is on the right. Princess is doing great! She is eating well and growing nicely. Prickett on the other hand is struggling. Please keep her in your prayers.

Kitty playing with puppies tail. We really need to name these animals.

All my big babies!

Me and Ibra

Weigh in Day!! These are some of my favorite pictures that I have taken. Next Monday I am going to take pictures of all the children being weighed. So cute!

Walk in Love

Walk in Love has officially partnered up with Neema House Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania.Because of all the new and exciting things that will be happening with Walk In Love I have decided to make a separate blog for those who want to follow our programs and progress. This week I went with Claire and Micheal, directors for Neema House, to visit Masaai triplets. Claire's daughter, Nancy, is from a Masaai village about 20 km away from the triplets. When Claire was visiting Nancy's family about 2 months ago she heard about the triplets and was taken to them. When she arrived they were very tiny and the mother was not producing enough milk. Claire decided that she had to do something and with this the triplets became the first outreach family. Since I will be doing outreach for Neema I was invited to come along and meet the Masaai family and deliver the much needed formula and some clothe diapers.

On our way, about 2.5 hours, we came across a huge herd of giraffe. About 30 total. It was so exciting to see them roam freely outside of a national park.

This is the Masaai village the triplets live in. The houses are made of sticks and dung with thatched roofs. The homes are surrounded by a gate made of thorn bushes to keep any predators, like lions, out.

This is the house that the triplets live in with their mom, and 3 sisters. I believe I was told the men live in a separate hut. The triplets father had 2 wives but one recently passed away during childbirth. He has 10 children including the triplets.

This is inside the boma, house. It was so dark that when I took this picture I could not even see the people. I was just told the mama was sitting in that direction and asked if I could take a picture. It was small and hot. There is a constant fire going int he middle of the home. They also had a baby calf gated it he corner.

The "dada" (sister) dressing one of the triplets

The siblings were very affectionate and caring with the triplets. They were a very loving and lovely family.

Micheal holding 2 of the triplets and mama holding the other. Micheal has the two boys and the other is a girl.

The difference between the smallest triplet, Frankie, and the biggest is 2.1 kilos. Frankie only weighs 2.6 kilos and he is 3 months old. We are trying to get him to the hospital because he is also hydrocephalic. Claire is taking some pictures of his head that we took to a well known American pediatrician to get some medical advice and an estimate on surgical costs.

Lucia was only happy with her Mama!

As I mentioned early, the father had another wife that died during childbirth. This is the 4th child. He is about a month old and is also in need of formula. He is living with his loving grandmother on the boma next to the triplets.

Me and the family. I can not say enough good things about the Masaai family that I met today. They were all so friendly and kind to us and one another. If the man had never taken Claire to the triplets I very much doubt that they would all be alive today. The only option they would have had would have been to take the long journey to town and drop them off at an orphanage and once a Masaai child is at an orphanage for too long they can not go back to the village. Masaai life is very hard and a child that has been raised by western standards would never make it in the villages. Most Masaai families chose to leave their children in the orphanages because they know they can not return. It is simply to dangerous for them. This is why outreach is so important.

Mama Musa showing off the new diapers.

I hope you are all enjoying the blog! I will put the link to my separate Walk In Love blog up shortly. Have a great week!

Lots of Love

Aubree and Jason

Easter Dinner and the Cultural Art Museum

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter surrounded by family and loved ones. We miss everyone at home and think of you often! I not only missed my grandma this Easter but I missed her ham and noodles as well!

This was Jason's first full week of work. He works from 8-5 Monday - Friday right now until he starts flying. Once he starts flying I expect to see him even less! He had a couple of meetings and I'm not really sure what else he did. I had a very nice week. I went to Cradle on Tuesday and met our new twins, Princess and Prickett's, family. There father, grandmother and two aunts came in. They were holding the twins the whole time and whoever wasn't holding the twins were holding other babies. It was really sweet! They even stuck around for feedings and helped feed al the kids. The father looked pretty sad but always had a baby in his arms. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. His wife had passed away 5 days earlier while giving birth to his daughters and he couldn't even take his daughters home with him. I do believe that they will one day go home tho. The fact that the family is already visiting and stayed for over 2 hours is a great sign. They obviously love those little girls! With the twins I noticed it was really difficult to get them to take a bottle. The nurses told me that because the twins had been in the hospital for 3 days before coming to Cradle and that they had gotten used to being spoon fed milk and had not learned to drink from a bottle. This sounded very odd to me so I asked why and came to find out that even the hospitals around here can't afford to have bottles.

Tuesday was Claires last day at Cradle so when it was time for her to go I just went with her. We went to a nice cafe called Tanz Hanz closer to Usa River. Tanz Hanz is a cafe set up by a local rehabilitation program. They help a lot of people in and Arusha. I had the best chocolate banana milk shake and Claire had pineapple cake (or cakie) here. In Tanzania they add an i on to the end of about anything and if you do not know a word in Swahili then sometimes just add an -i. For example when Jason and I were trying to get to the bus station, I asked the bajaji driver to take us to the busi stationi and he knew was I was saying! They also add the -i onto names. When Jason was getting his sim card the lady looked at him and asked Jasoni Packardi? Anyways, after Tanz Hanz Claire, the kid and I all went to look for potential rental sites for Neem House, the baby orphanage that Claire will be the onsite director for. This is the same project that I hope to be the outreach program for. In Tanzania finding real estate can be very tricky. All we knew about the property was that it was an 8 bedroom house and that the rent was around $800 per month. When we got there it looked like a construction zone. They had no plumbing or electricity in the main house but had what looked like a nice little house to the side. When we went into this building it was actually the bathroom. A girls side with 3 toilets and a shower and a boys side. It was very odd and Claire and I just cannot figure out what the building was supposed to be to start off with. I was a huge house with a lot of property but didn't understand it and never found a kitchen. So the search continues!

On Thursday after working I met with Claire and Micheal, the off site director for Neema House, to talk about a possible partnership. The meeting went well but I am still waiting for my answer. I would like to work with Claire and Micheal but if it doesn't work out then I will just go forward on my own.

On Friday I got my very first Walk In Love woman sponsored! The woman, Joyce, is actually Barran's, our property manager, wife. She came to visit last weekend and after spending an evening with her and Barran we found out that they have 3 children, one with special needs, but only one is living in the house with Joyce. Joyce, Barrans parents and the boy all live about 3 hours away. Barran goes home once a month to visit and give them his wages. Once I heard this I decided that Joyce would be our first WIL women. After a little more time she said that she would like to go to hair school and find a job so that there family can all live together in Arusha. I contacted my cousin, who is a hair dresser, to see if she would be interested in sponsoring Joyce and she said yes! When I told Barran he started clapping and immediately called Joyce to tell her the good news. Now whenever he calls Joyce he hands me the phone so I can talk my very limited Swahili to her. I am so happy for them!

On Saturday we joined Claire, her children, Mama Musa and Susan for a day at the Cultural Arts Museum. None of us had been and we were excited to learn a little more about Tanzanian history. The museum is huge and beautiful but one of the first things noticed was a big sign that said "most items are for sale, ask for assistance" so I thought that was weird. Once we really started looking around at all the art we notice that it was all made in the 20th century and it all had a price tag on it! So much for an art museum, we were just in a big, very expensive, souvenir shop! I said while we were walking around that I bet there was just a shop out back where people were making these items and there was! We walked around back and there was pile of these "rare" masks and sculptures and men behind making them! But T.I.A, This Is Africa. We went to eat lunch at a place called the Pancake House. It was pretty nice and there were monkies everywhere! There was also a trampoline for the kids and Jason to play on. It ended up being a very nice day and I look forward to spending more weekends with our new friends!

Easter Sunday! Jason and I woke up early and started the cooking! We were having a traditional American BBQ, for Easter! We made potato salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs, veggie platter with ranch dip (thanks Mom!), chicken, hamburgers, and hotdogs. Barran and Tom came over later and make some beef kabobs and sausage as well. In all we had 9 adults and 3 children. It was a very nice day/evening. We miss our friends and family at home but we are so lucky to have already made good friends here to spend holidays with.

Claire and her children haven't had water for a week so after dinner the kids got a quick shower and put there pajamas on before going home. They looked so cute!

Easter BBQ dinner

Jason, Selemani and Nancy playing on the trampoline at the Pancake House.

Relaxing after Easter dinner

Easter BBQ, again:)

Tom and Barran, our on site property managers, enjoying their first ever deviled eggs.

Too much excitement for B!

Thats what we call the motorcycle lane and I'm glad we are out of it!

Why yes, that dalla dalla is driving down the middle of the street, No big deal.

Traffic in Arusha

Thats 3 men on that bike!

Two lanes turn into four lanes during rush hour and yes that man did almost get hit by that dalla dalla.

Jasons office guard dog, Myles.

Just goats being goats

We hope everyone is enjoying the blog!

Best wishes,

Aubree and Jason

Week 7 - I'm not a celebrity I'm just a white person that smells like baby throw up

Week 7 - I'm not a celebrity, I'm just a white person that smells like baby throw up

T.I.A. - This Is Africa

1. I used the restroom at one of our favorite hangouts and found dirty footprints on the top of the toilet seat, not the lid, the seat. Most restrooms here are squattys, a porcelain hole in the ground and sometimes flushes, and locals get confused on how to use a western toilet. At the orphanage we have these squatty toilets on the counters for the kids to get potty trained on. I will take pictures next week to give you a visual. Some places actually have signs of a person standing on a western toilet with a red line through it.
2. 80 water balloons cost the same as 25.
3. Jason picked up a baby that was wearing a cloth diaper. Big mistake, he got pooped on! Cloth diapers here have no plastic on the outside.
4. Amani, a little boy at the orphanage, came up to me holding his privates and crying. I proceeded to take off his pants and saw that the gigantic "safety" pin that was holding his cloth diaper on had come undone and was poking him on his privates. I immediately closed the pin and gave him lots of love and cuddles because that looked really painful. Two of the other boys saw this happen so for the rest of the day the boys kept coming up to me crying and holding themselves because they that was the way to get lots of attention. Try explaining that one!
5. When we want good food we go to Njiro center. There is a big courtyard with lots of tables and nine restaurants. What this means is that when you sit down you immediately have 9 waiters and waitresses throwing there menus on your table. They then stand all around and when you pick up there menu they come forward and when you put it back down they usually just walk away.
6. They have prisoner transfer trucks about once a week through down town Arusha. The prisoners on put in huge trucks, they look like cattle trucks with the small holes, and it races through town beeping it horn because it does not stop.
7. While waiting for Jason at the DMV I was writing some notes. A man, I presumed to be educated by the way he was dressed, walk up to me and was blow away that I was writing with my left hand. Being left handed is simply not an option here.
8. Jason goes "mosquito hunting" every night before bed. He takes his flashlight and all I see are flashes of lights and lots of clapping.
9. Security guards also wash and detail cars, and thats anyones cars that are on the compound.
10. This is the story of where I got the title of this blog from. I was on my way home for the orphanage with baby throw up all over and down my shirt, thanks to baby Frankie, when the dalla dalla pulled over. The conductor ran to the duke (very small convenient store) and left the door open. Well I was sitting right next to the door. A man that just happened to be walking by decided to come and shake my hand and talk to me. Then another man came up, and then another, in total 5 men where all trying to shake my hand. All because I white. It's weird but you get used to it, I guess.

Walk In Love updates

I have met a very nice man named Micheal that is building a baby orphanage in Arusha. Claire, the assistant director at Cradle will be the director at the new orphanage, Neema House. Neema House, an NGO, is possibly interested in being an umbrella for WIL. I have discussed this at lengths with Claire and we think we are a great fit! I will need a daycare and orphanage and she will need an outreach program. I have a formal meeting with Micheal in the next couple of weeks to see if he agrees. For all my friends and family that are praying for me please add this to your list. This could be the best opportunity to get WIL up and going as soon as possible!

I would like to introduce you to Noel (photo below). Noel came to Cradle of Love after being abandoned on the side of the road. After three months and police could not find any of his family and because it was December they gave him the name Noel. He was relatively healthy and it is believed that his family did take care of him until they realized that something was different about Noel, he has down syndrome. Unfortunately in Tanzania there is no place for children or adults with special needs in there society. Many parents are ashamed that there child is different which results in killings and abandoning there babies. Noels age has been approximated at 18 months, but I think that he is at least 24-26 months. He doesn't walk and he doesn't talk but this is not abnormal for babies of this age with Down Syndrome. My fear is that if he continues to a big kid orphanage he never will. Noel is getting too old and too big to stay at Cradle and there are no orphanages set up for children with special needs. If Noel goes on to another orphanage his future is very bleak. He will most likely be put in a corner and never learn to walk or talk, never go to school or be encouraged to do anything but sit there and be quiet. When I met Noel and learned what will become of him I decided that I would do everything that I could to help Noel get off that path. I have been working with the assistant director of Cradle, Claire, to come up with a good option for Noel. Claire has offered to have Noel come and live with her and her children, but she cannot do this without support. She already has 3 young children and a very small income. We are hoping to get a group of people together to sponsor Noel. It will cost $300 per month to give Noel a life where he will live with a family, go to school, go to good doctors and specialist, encouraged to be like every other child, he will be happy. Without this support his future is a sad one.

If your church group, sports team, etc, is interested in changing Noels future please email me at walkinlovetanzania@gmail.com

I will give you more information about Noel and a money breakdown.

Thanks for your support,

Aubree Packard

Walk In Love

Our week in Review

The long rains are here! More like monsoon season, but thankfully they decided to wait until the day we got our car. Well, Jason did have to walk in this crazy monsoon to get our car but at least we know that is the first and last time. I guess we will be using the backs of our dinning room chairs to dry our clothes for the next month.

Jason and the boys cleaned the car up really nice before taking pictures!

This is Njiro center. It has a lot of really good places to eat, a cinema, great supermarket and lots of little shops. We come here every Sunday because they also have the fastest wireless connection so we usually have our Sunday dinner and I write my blog.

Jason holds Kidogo so often that Kidogo now follows Jason around. Yesturday he tried to follow Jason out of the gate while he was on his motorcycle.

Jason with Claires children at the going away party. Claire is at the acting director of Cradle but will be leaving this week to start up her own baby orphanage. I am hoping that she and I can work together! Her baby orphanage and my outreach program.

This is my sweet boy, Noel.

Me and the babies! The little boy I am holding and the little girl in the seat were adopted this week! I am so happy for them!

Veggies for the week, not bad for $7!

Hope you all are enjoying the blog! Questions and comments are welcome!

Aubree and Jason