'Street boys united'

Kudra is still on the street, care has officially been transferred back to her mother, but she is not living at home. I talked to Sarah's nephews this week and they said she just needs time. Not being either male, Tanzanian or having lived on the street, I can't really understand, so I am keen to hear what they think. Nelson and Philip both said that now they would be ashamed to go back on the street but it takes time to work it out of your system. They said Kudra might have to come and go a few times before she really stops running away.They are properly right, but I am not sure what the school will say.

I have taken on another boy called Selemen. He is 15. His mother has a problem with her eyes and both of them beg on the street to survive. He was going to school, but now he has no shoes and his uniform has fallen apart. He was crying because he wants to go to school to badly. (yes I know he could have been putting it on, but sometimes you have to trust people) For now I said I will pay for him to go to the government school. The school is free but he has to pay for uniform and books etc.. He was almost top of his class of 100 children and his plan is to be a car mechanic. I also plan to send his mother to a hospital called Mvumi to have her eyes checked out. Maybe there is something we can do to improve her eyesight.

The other boys are doing well and are happy in school. I have also arranged two new projects for them. It is the time of year when Tanzanians prepare their farms for planting, so I now have a team of street boys who are going to work first on Elizabeti's farm and then on Sarah's. I will pay for the labour so everyone wins. The boys get an income and Sarah and Elizabeti get free labour and the work done on their shambas in record time.

I am also going to sponsor a football team. Partly because I want to and the boys love football, (You should have seen their eyes light up when I suggested it) but also because it is school holidays now and I want something that can fill their time and direct their energies. When I asked them what they needed, they said they need a ball!! - duh silly question. My only condition is that all the boys I sponsor have to be in the team. It is thrilling to see their delight in such a project. When we have got a ball we will get strips, boots, socks and gloves for the goalie. Now all we need is a name for a team-any ideas?

Our compound is in absolute chaos at the moment as they cut trees down. The method here is to did a huge hole around the roots, cut half the branches off and then wait for the tree to fall. We now have one huge tree lying across the compound and a huge hole. The wafanyakazi (the workers) have now started on another tree. Apparently the first one is finished. We asked them to cut the tree down and they have !!!!! Soon we will have two trees lying across the compound and two huge holes. Then I guess they will start on the third tree!

Tomorrow I am having a coffee morning so that one of the Tanzanian ladies I know can sell her crafts. She has the things to sell and I have the contacts, so I hope it will work. I have no idea where we will sit though as the compound is covered in trees and holes!!!

We seem to have got out of the habit of writing the blog so regularly, I almost forgot this week. We have just returned from Joshua’s teacher’s house . She invited us over for dinner and I am now feeling very full. I definitely over ate, which is not something I do very often here. But she served delicious pizza and chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce and chocolate ice cream so can you blame me? Oh the hard missionary life and you thought we were eating rice and beans everyday! It’s very different from how school was for me, but I quite like the fact that we know the teachers so well and socialise with them. The expatriate Christian community is quite close here, teachers included.

Today was also a holiday from school. It is a mini mid term break. The children spent the first half of the morning sitting in baskets (we have big woven baskets here used for shopping) reading books and colouring. Things were all going so well until they got bored of that and decided to make mud pies instead. It kept them quiet but it was very messy.

There seem to be more mosquitoes in the house again. I bought a big bottle of bug spray to spray the house and in the evenings I wear long trousers, long sleeved tops and socks. None of us are taking anti-malarial prophylactics any more so I am extra vigilant. Last night we bought some Malarone (anti-malarial tablet) on line, because we were advised to take them when we go to the coast, but even at the reduced rate we get it is ridiculously expensive. Almost £2 per tablet and you need to take them every day. Splat……just killed a mosquito-I’m on a crusade. If feels like you need to double your budget for the trip to pay for the tablets. I can’t decide whether we should just pay the money or risk it. Neither way seems right. I’m sure if Tanzania were richer this problem could be eradicated. There used to be malaria in the USA and even in Sweden until they drained the swamps and got rid of all the mosquitoes.

Kudra, the little street girl has run away for the first time this week. She has been fine for the last 4 months since we took her in, but on Monday she ran back to town. Somehow we need to get her back and convince her that she’s better off going to school. Not that I have a lot of experience in this area, but I assume maybe the honeymoon period wore off, that it became boring living at Sarah’s and going to school and she wanted to try the streets again. The problem is she wants etc money and Sarah doesn’t have any to give her. However she knows she can get it on the streets. Please pray that she will come back and we will be able to persuade her to stay. All the five street children are coming round next week for me to have a chat with them. Sarah wants me to ‘read them the riot act’, so they don’t mess about. I was kind of expecting this to happen. I think it is often not happy ever after in these situations and there are lots of twists and turns in the road. Children who have experienced the freedom of the street often seem to find it difficult to adjust to normal rules and routines and I’m sure some never do.

I am quite hopefull about next year. A German lady is coming to Dodoma to work with street children. She works with Africa Inland Mission and I think is interested in setting up a centre for street children. I am praying that there will be an opportunity for us to work together. I feel that I am not ready to launch into something too huge because my own children are still so small and need me to be there, physically and emotionally, but it would be great just to be able to help in a small way. Anyway enough for now. I will attempt to post this.

Some photos

Just a few photos from near our house. The red tree the Tanzanians call a Christmas tree!

Currently (Libby)

Currently enjoying:

The rain. Yes the rainy season started on Monday. Suddenly after over 6 months of not even a drop, it started to rain. It’s quite an exciting event. The children went outside whooping with joy and scrambling for umbrellas. The temperature, which was getting quite high, has fallen and I even wore socks yesterday evening, something that I rarely do here. In spite of the rain we still went swimming. I thought maybe it was only the English who were mad enough to do this until our Dutch neighbours turned up too.

In spite of the dust and dryness of the last few weeks, Dodoma is blooming. The bougainvillea provide beautiful splashes of pinks, purples and reds and the trees are blazing red against the dusty landscape. It's a Tanzanian version of spring.

A new ladies meeting we have started on our compound. The four ladies on this compound are now meeting every Wednesday morning to pray and share.

Currently not enjoying:

The fact that Daniel has gone to Dar and I am by myself. It does have it pluses though, we get invited out to dinner a lot more and I get to use the computer.

Currently praying for:

The MAF team in Chad. There is unrest in Chad at the moment as a result of the alleged kidnapping of Chadian children by a French NGO. There were riots in the street this afternoon.

The safety of our pilots flying in the rain.

Currently working on projects:

A this is your life book for a family that is leaving
Writing Christmas cards-very African ones, some of which have been made backwards and definitely have never seen a ruler! You’ll see what I mean when you receive your card. Some lucky people will get both these authentic features on their cards.

Currently watching:

Friends season 10. We don’t get any TV here so sometimes it’s nice just to laugh for half an hour and not watch a whole DVD

Currently Reading:

The Innocent Man, by John Grisham (Libby)
The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden (Daniel)
Reading books from school (Joshua and Bethany)-Bethany is very excited about the fact that she has started bringing home reading books like Joshua.

Currently preferred food:

Watermelon and mangoes. It’s mango season again. I wish I could say that the trees in our back garden are loaded down with mangoes, but they aren’t, however if you look closely there are definitely a few. Anyway they are selling them everywhere.

Currently wishing for:

A hair cut; nicely packaged chicken breast; pickle, more books to read.

'Let there be light'

 

A photo of the kids having great fun on a sand pile on a building site in the hills above Dodoma. Who needs bouncy castles and soft play!!! Health and safety would have had a fit to see them roaming around this building site jumping in and out of ditches and drinking water from a hose pipe.

As we (Libby, Joshua, Bethany and Caleb) swam in the cool blue pool this afternoon(well it was nice and blue once I'd cleaned all the bugs out)I was wondering what we would have done on a November afternoon in the UK. I'm thinking cold, raining, grey and probably inside!!

It's getting quite hot here. We would be using the fan by now if it hadn't broken, along with the video player, the DVD player, and the camera!! It is dry and dusty as we await the rainy season. The last rain was around April or it might have been February. Still we had enough rain in the UK to remember what's like!! The grass in the compound has withered to almost nothing and the whole place is one big sand pit.

Th latest craze is climbing trees, Joshua, Bethany and Caleb have discovered how fun this is. I am not so crazy about this especially when they are all pushing each other and Caleb already had one fall last week.

It was Bethany's birthday party last Saturday, a pink princess party. All the little girls came dressed as princesses and we made tiaras and ate pink food. It was also the day she decided to cut her own hair-again! She seems to be back at the stage where Bethany playing quietly in her room is not so good. Now however she is older and 'wiser' so her misdemeanors have gone up a notch!! Still according to her teacher she is well behaved at school, so that's a start.

Other big news in Dodoma is that the first street lights went up in the main street and they actually work. Dodoma is slowly beginning to feel like a proper place. There is also a lot of digging going on, not sure what for, but still it adds to the feeling that Dodoma might slowly be making it's way into the 21st century.

If you remember the street boys that are now being sponsored, you might remember that they had a blind grandmother. Well this week we have found out that she owns a few hectares of 'good' arable land. However, because she is blind she has been unable to farm it. Together with Sarah (my house lady) we are planning to grow crops on this land and if the rains come, the land will provide enough food for Sarah and the blind lady's family to live off for the next year!! It also turns out that there is another family member living on this land who has 4 small children who are all sick and malnourished, and the baby has scabies. Another whole family to try and help, it never ends. Anyway please pray that the rain will come soon, it really can make a difference between life and death here.

One last thing that made me laugh that was written on a wedding invitation we got last week, "Children are loved but not allowed"!!