Check out our building camp taking place this Fall! Thanks to EarthRising of Canada we will soon have a new orphanage to move into. www.earthrisingfoundation.org
Come to Tanzania and get filthy and help us build the orphanage on our farm! A good time will be had by all! We promise!
The newest members of the Baobab family are Debora and Ester. Debora is a 16 year old orphaned girl who has spent more than half of her life on the streets. Ester is her 2 month old daughter. Debora’s mother (also named Ester) died at birth and her father died when she was about 6. She has had to result to some pretty desperate measures to survive. Debora and Ester spent the first two weeks of Ester’s life in a police station because the hotel where Deb had been living was too dangerous ( I saw it and can attest). Debora was offered money to sell Ester but refused. They came to Bagamoyo in the hope of finding Ester’s father, but ran out of the money that a police officer had given them. They were brought to Social Services and the Baobab Home was called in. At first Debora told us that she was in high school but in the first week her real story came out.
Debora has had postpartum uterine bleeding and volunteer Kate of Australia has accompanied her on several doctor trips. We have been reassured that she is now on the mend. Baby Ester is thriving. As soon as Debora settled in, Ester fattened right up. She is a delightful baby and everyone is trying to help Debora to be a good mother. She asked us to help her to respect the Tanzanian traditions of 40 days postpartum confinement, head shaving and kohl make up between the eyes to ward off evil. Debora is an incredibly determined young woman and quite confident. We have a job lined up for her at a new hotel in Bagamoyo. We hope that this will be good training for her. Marit, our volunteer from Norway, taught Debora to make some wonderful bread which Debora now makes for the Baobab family.
Right now we are raising money to find Debora’s extended family in Iringa, Tanzania. She knows the full names of a paternal aunt and uncle and the town where her father is from. We are quite sure that we can connect her to her father’s side and we are hoping that her paternal family can tell us about her mother’s family. If anyone would like to contribute, travel and bus fares are estimated at $100 and food and lodging for the search team (Martha, Mgana, Debora and Ester) is estimated at $65 per day. We expect the search to take about 3 to 4 days. Any contributions gratefully received! Asante!
Muba’s operation was a great success!! Here he is just after surgery and the following day. The surgery took about four hours.
From what I hear, his English is terrific. He loves the computer and all that he’s learned in England. Thank you Facing the World!
Steve Tito has no idea who Harry Potter is, but Steve is also an orphan and just as magical. He spent his 14
years in a punishing environment, but he can still light up a room with his smile. Steve has two “Voldemorts” to fight- AIDS and Cancer. He remembers the time when he was so sick that everyone thought he would die before his father, but his father has now been dead several years. His mother died when he was an infant. He has no memory of her, but says that she comes to him in dreams and even visits when he is sick, like an angel.
He was a favorite at the HIV clinic in the city. When we went to get his records everyone remembered him, but somehow despite his popularity they let his Kaposis Sarcoma (a type of cancer commonly associated with HIV) go undiagnosed for years. The cancer has turned his thighs woody and pock marked. He and his brother Mdoe caught the attention of a senior official at Social Services and it still took her 5 months to get them to us. We got right on it. Money raised by Sts Clare and Francis Church in Missouri enabled Steve to get a biopsy quickly. Money raised by Rose Sevald and Brigitte in Canada enabled Steve to get to his chemotherapy. Asha of Canada paid for Steve and his brother to visit their grandmother in the city. Kristy of England brought Steve life sustaining nutritional supplements while he was in chemo. We are so grateful to all of Steve’s many fans.
Below is a photo of “Team Dawa” or “Medicine Team”. After only 3 months of fighting the system, lost blood tests, and disappearing doctors Steve, George, Terri and Evelyn (and William!!!), managed to get Steve onto a new drug plan. Steve is home with his grandmother now. Although he loves everyone at Baobab and we love him, it is in Steve’s best interest that he stay with his grandmother, who is more like a mother to him. We still oversee his medical care and his brother Mdoe remains with us and will start meds soon. We are confident that the new meds will keep improving Steve’s situation. In April volunteers Matt, Lauren and Kate went with Benedictor and George to do a massive cleanup of Steve’s house. They made a bed for Steve out of old beds laying around. They made a chicken coop so that his grandmother could raise chickens to sell, bought a big bag of rice and beans and got Steve a mosquito net to sleep under. Steve’s grandmother killed a chicken in their honor which everyone ate for lunch. Steve is still very thin, but he’s back in school, which is another victory. Transport is a serious issue though, as his grandmother lives quite far from the school. If anyone would like to send $30 a month, we can make sure that Steve gets to school every day by motorcycle taxi.
Muba is a 14 year old boy from Bagamoyo who was born with a small tumor near his ear. It’s grown steadily over the years and become disfiguring. In 2005 I received an email from Facing the World, www.facetheworld.org a British org that provides free facial reconstruction to children all over the world. I had seen Muba walk by the Baobab Home many times, but didn’t know him. In 2007, a group from Hendrix College in Arkansas arrived www.hendrix.edu. One day they took all the Bongwa kids to visit the crocodiles in our town. Muba was in the group and a head shot was taken. Although I didn’t expect much, I sent it off to Facing the World. Now almost two years to the day later he will be having his surgery this Saturday. Hurrah!!!!! Muba and his mother have been living in London for several months at the expense of this wonderful organization. Muba studies there and is learning English. They were incredibly lucky to find a Tanzanian nurse who hosts them and takes great care of them. Former Baobab volunteers Sarah and Maria have both visited Muba and brought him donated goods from their friends and family.
We can’t wait to unveil his After pics!!
All morning today I thought we had nothing. The glass was half empty (the bank account too)and all I could think was “HOW will we make it? I seemed to be stacking up defeatist arguments in my head like some nutcase hording ammo.
Then it was 5:30pm and a woman hobbled to our back door with her young daughter. Her one leg turned inward and she used a giant stick like a shepard’s staff. She’d heard there was a woman named Teresia who helps people who are handicapped. Could my heart handle this today??? How on earth could I say no to her but I promised the board NO new people. Was I even going to be able to make it through another sad story?
Two years ago, while washing clothes, her legs suddenly shot through with pain. For one year she had to be carried everywhere and could not walk. Her husband left her. About 8 months ago she started to go to the hospital in Dar. Whatever they were doing was helping, but she had no money to keep paying transport. Could I get her to a private hospital? “No. I’m sorry. We just have no money to take on anyone new. It’s a hard year all over the world and donations are down. I want to help you but the last woman we helped who had a situation similar to yours…….it took so much money and we couldn’t get her the right help…………..”
And then I remembered our closet full of baby clothes. She had said that she used to sell perfume before she got sick. Now that the Baobab Home is full, I know what we need and what we can afford to let go of. So I went through a suitcase and made her a pile. This was so easy. What would I put it in? No bags, but then I spotted a large pillow case and I stuffed it. Suddenly, I was someone so different than the woman who woke up on the poor side of the bed. I was abundantly wealthy, swimming in excess and with the toss of a hand I could give someone a new business. So I was about to say goodbye when I remembered that Justis had eaten lunch at school and there were leftovers. Yes, she and her daughter were hungry. I was a millionaire. All those arguments I’d been storing up all morning about lack, lack, and what if? They left in the pillowcase with her.
