Tumaini

Tuesday 7 July – A Scare

Many of you may have read Rob's blog already. If not you can read about the scare Tumaini had last night here.

I was very thankful that after I got out to Tumaini this morning and spoke with Ferdinand concerning the events of the previous night, that no one was harmed at Tumaini and the children were all safe. In fact, none of the children in the house were even aware of what was going on at all. They were surprised to hear of it this morning. No one needs to have an experience like that, but least of all children who have had parents die, have been abandoned or lost. They've experienced enough tragedy in their short lives! I was especially thankful that Ferdinand's family was kept safe since the terror they were probably experiencing could have been experienced by all the children. We praise the Lord for His loving-kindness and protection. Whenever I'm fearful at night I think of this verse: "In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8 It seems an especially appropriate verse considering what happened last night.

Saturday 4 July – Dividers and Nets

We hired a worker, Mabula, to come and help Craig with some of the work that was started this week. Mabula started yesterday and will work through today. One of the projects that Mabula is helping with is making dividers for the shelves in each of the children's rooms. In lieu of having boxes for all the children to keep their clothes and belongings in, we are making dividers for each shelf and then will assign a cubby for each child that sleeps in that room. This will really help us to keep track of the clothing that we've 'assigned' to each child.

Mabula also helped to hang the mosquito net frames for the new beds and then to rearrange the other net frames for the old beds in their new locations. Once he got the frames hung, Rebekah and I went behind and hung the new nets up. The children were pretty excited about that as well. Juma especially enjoyed hanging out beneath his newly hung net. Just chattering away to himself.

Friday 3 July – New Clothes

Rebekah was able to join me at Tumaini today to work on getting all of the new clothes organized and put away. When Rob had returned from Nairobi last week, he had brought several containers of clothes and shoes for the orphanage. Inter-City Baptist School had done a clothing drive a couple of years ago and because of the larger groups coming to visit this summer, we were able to have the clothes sent to us. I rejoiced to see all the shorts and pants for the boys! Thank you ICBS for your labor of love.

P.S. We asked Happyness to take the picture for us. That's why it's a bit crooked.

Thursday 2 July – Payday and Report Cards

Today was another busy day with administering payroll. While everyone was picking up the paychecks, I started looking through a stack of report cards and papers from the children's school. They are all still on vacation and will return to school on July 13. Most of the report cards did not reflect good grades, though perhaps their grades are better than their other peers in the class. I was still disappointed as I looked through the papers. I asked Ferdinand what he thought about some of the papers, and he said that many of the poor grades could be due to being fearful about taking exams. Too bad my mom can't come and teach a study skills course! Perhaps that could be a possibility for someone to do at some point in the future. There was one bright spot. Ester Godfrey has continued to be at the head of her class and has maintained very good grades. It will be exciting to see what these children will be able to achieve in the future.

Wednesday 1 July – Rahma is returned

Social Services called yesterday to have us return Rahma to town but since we just brought her out to Tumaini on Monday, Rob suggested they send the parents to us. The parents showed up and Rahma, after recognizing them, ran into the house to hide. We came to find out the 'rest of the story', they said she was living with an uncle and she was sent to the market to purchase some items. She purchased the items and then had lost the change. She had the items sent back to the uncle's house but then ran away because she thought she would be in trouble over the missing change. We are thankful that Rahma's parents were able to locate her and return her home. It was such a fast turn-around that I didn't even get a picture of Rahma!

Tuesday 30 June – Rahma and Anuel

Rahma was sent to the market by her uncle and wasn't able to find her way home. Anuel lived with a relative and she beat him so he ran away. These are the stories I was able to get from Ferdinand when I was at Tumaini today. I met the two children and they both seem to be fitting into life at the orphanage so far.

Anuel is pictured above.

Monday 29 June – Two New Orphans

Rob returned from Nairobi on Saturday and arrived with another guest, Bo Beck. Sunday was a busy day and so I offered to help do the grocery shopping on Monday. Rebekah, Bo and I ventured into the market and got the needed fruits and vegetables for the week. We proceeded to our local grocery store and got the items needed there. Then I dropped Bo off to finish up some town business with Rob, Rebekah and I returned to Sweya. Later, in the afternoon I got a message from Rob that we had two more children from Social Services. Since he and Bo were already in town, they went to pick the children up and took them out to Tumaini. These two children bring our total to 50.

Friday 26 June – Plumbing

Simon Bomba, our plumbing worker, finished the job today. He had been hard at work yesterday trying to complete the plumbing work in the showers but still had some work to complete. Now at least the showers are fixed and can be used to their full potential with the hot water. We are all very excited that this is working!

Thursday 25 June – Dentist and Doctor Visit

We had the blessing today of having Dr. Steve and Bridget Ko come to our orphanage. Dr. Steve is from the US and was working at Bugando, a hospital in Mwanza, for the month of June. His wife and her parents had come to spend some time with him at the end of his month of duties at Bugando. Bridget had contacted me several months ago about coming to Tumaini and doing some dental screenings while they were in TZ visiting. We arranged for them to come today.

We set Bridget and her father up in the nurse's station, her father is also a dentist. Then Dr. Steve did a general physical exam of all the children in my office. Their friend Ariadne had also come along to help. Ari and Bridget's mom took pictures and entertained the children while they waited. Nurse Odilia and I stood outside the nurse's station and took the children's weight and height measurements. Then we sent them into the dental screening. The doctor/dentist team had also brought little trinket toys with them and let the kids pick one when they were finished with the dental screening. The kids REALLY enjoyed that. Then they went from the dental screening to the physical exam. I was amazed at how quickly we were able to move all the children through the process. We started at 10 am and got everything finished by close to 4 pm. Then Dr. Steve talked to Ferdinand, Odilia and me about the results of the dental screening and physical exam. It was very helpful to have this information and to know some areas for particular children that we need to keep an eye on.

Wednesday 24 June – Clinic Trip/Nairobi technician arrives

So far this has been a busy week and there is more to come! I made a trip out to the orphanage for the monthly clinic visit. Craig and family stayed in Sweya to continue making repairs/changes to the towel rod brackets. Ferdinand came with me on the clinic trip because we were also scheduled to pick up a technician coming from Nairobi. I was very thankful for how these events all coordinated so that no extra trips into town had to be made. God is good in all things.

The technician was coming because our solar hot water tank on the house needed to be fixed. I had been working since February through a solar businessman in town to find a solution to our problem but to no avail. Then in April, when I was in Nairobi visiting my friends, the Weavers, I saw that they had several solar hot water tanks on their camp property. Joel was able to do some advocacy on Tumaini's behalf and started communicating with the company to send a technician down to Mwanza so the tank could be fixed. Since April, we've been waiting for the technician to come! I was overjoyed to see him with the hopes that our hot water tank would finally work. We picked up the clinic people and headed back to Tumaini. The technician got to work right away and was able to fix the problem almost immediately. Now we just need to get a plumber out to the orphanage to fix several plumbing problems so we can use the hot water in the showers. Pretty much right away we were able to feel the water turning warm/hot. Everyone at Tumaini was very excited by this! Another plus to having the hot water tank fixed is that we can (hopefully) save some money on cooking fuel since the cooks won't need to heat water for baths anymore.