The Baobab Home

Martin Goes Home

On December 9, 2009 a baby boy was brought to the Baobab Home by the local government hospital. His mother had died during childbirth, could we take him until relatives were found? He was a little scrawny and quickly developed a terrible looking heat rash, but of course we took him in and smothered him with our special brand of Tanzanian/Mzungu baby love.  What to call him? We have always wanted to honor the Martin family for their generosity, but their names Myles, Brad, Brian, all sound a little strange when pronounced by a Tanzanian (Myows, Blad, Blian) and then, a Eureka moment-the baby boy would be called Martin, after all of them!  I had hoped that giving him the name of such a strong family would bring us luck in finding his father, but in truth, it wasn’t just the name that enabled our success in locating Martin’s Dad.  The Martins and all of our donors provide Baobab with the funds not just to give food and shelter to orphaned babies, but to go where Tanzanian social services does not have the money to go-to address the challenging cases-orphaned babies with complicated, but surmountable family problems. That means high phone bills, and multiple bus fares to check leads on the whereabouts of a missing father, or helping to equip a grandmother to take in a grandson whom she loves, or make sure that an abandoned baby really is abandoned by following every last lead.  At Baobab we understand crisis, and helping families recover. Our capacity is low (8-10 little ones) and we are driven by the fact that we do not want a house full of babies who have somewhere else to go.

We found Martin’s Dad and the baby is now called Martin Joseph. He is thriving and happy and walking like a champ. His father likes his son’s name and loves his son. He’s done his best to visit and get to know Martin in the months since we introduced them. On October 28 we will pay bus fare for Martin and his father to travel back to their tribal home of Kigoma where Martin will be raised by his father and his father’s Aunt, a woman who lost her only son several years ago to a tragic accident.  Soon everyone will be where they are supposed to be and a new baby will join the Baobab family-maybe for awhile, maybe forever.  Good luck Martin and Baba Martin!! Thank you to the Martin family and all of our donors who enable us to really love and tend to each child in our care.