Jake Lyell, photographer, has written a well illustrated story on his blog.
Click here and scroll down to the article titled Limited Access: healh care in rural Tanzania
While most of our readers prepare for autumn & winter, Tanzania is embracing for the potential effects of El Niño which is said to be potentially hazardous for the East African communities th2 next few months. As we prepare for it, we'll keep you informed through this weblog.
Asante Sana
Paul
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I have recently returned from a 2 weeks stay at Light in Africa Tanzania and mama Lynn strongly suggested that I would write the next update on the blog. And I should add a picture so everyone would be able to 'meet' the LIA webmaster. Well, we'll see about that image, but I thought of starting a dairy and soon found out it would result in a book of events: I wrote 4 pages for the first Monday morning alone! That's not suitable for a weblog; it will have to be more condensed. But so much happens while out there and it has been a joy to participate in the variety of tasks and activities. I now better realize why everyone always remains to excited and attached to LIA after a volunteering experience or visit.
It started with a relaxing day as the children of Maili Sita were treated by a group of volunteers to an outing to Checkireni Springs and a BBQ. Coming from the cold Amsterdam winter weather it was a pleasant change, believe me.
On a sad note: the old babu, who LIA staff cared for during the past 2 years, unfortunately passed away on my day of departure. And while I waited for my plane at the Kilimanjaro airport, I realized that LIA has been babu's executive lounge where he has spent these many months in loving care. How else could have have lived 2 years after hospital doctors had given him only a few months. It must have been the respect for life and age with which he was cared for while he had no-one else to turn to. I am a proud LIA supporter
On a high note: the homes in Tudor village look impressive and I can imagine how the kids will grow up there in a family style housing arrangement; something we take for granted but many of them have never experienced. But the homes were still empty. After a few days of Pilgrim boys staying there, the social services authorities determined that they need to formally approve the site and they haven't done so yet. But mama Lynn is a strong believer as are many of her fans so even while the kids had to move back, we remain all convinced this is a temporary situation, which will be resolved soon. Your moral support will ensure that more positive news will follow soon.
We took one of the children from Malaika to the wheelchair shop as with her spasms she becomes so powerful that more protection and adjustments on her wheelchair are required. While the technical details were discussed, I could keep her busy and relaxed, driving around, singing songs and holding hands. And the return on this investment of time: big, very big smiles. Again, I felt proud seeing such a happy child and specially knowing her history.We spent a day at Mirerani visiting Fleeze house (I think it is a wonderful place and well run, which is probably also the reason for it being at capacity now, so there is a need for more space and staff) and on we went to the food kitchen where the medical outreach was planned. A tornado recently blew the roof off the kitchen so with the rainy season approaching there is a challenge to be met.
But the usual 400+ children were fed as were the HIV/AIDS positive patients and the (voluntarily) hard working doctor saw 160 patients that day. And while mama Lynn and pastor Frank checked social matters, sister Grace and I tended to the pharmacy.
The white person who is taking this picture is I, the webmaster, with my chair to the left of sister Grace’s. Amy on the right is another volunteer from Germany. I am afraid this picture will have to do, I am not good shooting self portraits, sorry. While there is free access to anti-retroviral therapy for HIV positive patients in Tanzania, they are themselves responsible for treatment for any other opportunistic diseases. Thanks to volunteers and donations, they could again get treatment and even some money for the bus ride to hospital for HIV check ups. How could you not care? I am proud to be a LIA supporter.
Good reliable transport is key to all the work of Light in Africa, which covers quite a large area here between the foothills of both Mount Kilimanjaro and the ‘Blue Mountains’. The old Toyota is still hanging in there, but I could not help thinking about the combination of these roads and the rainy season and the horror story last year from mama Lynn. It can be dangerous when the torrent is out there and the car breaks down… You read about, but seeing it is another story.
Back at Maili Sita I get to meet Erasmus who you may still remember from a previous blog. His lower leg had to be amputated, but this many is walking around with his crutches and a big smile. That's how we like to look at the future. He is trying to develop an income generating activity y making paper bags and he does a good job. Having brought some additional tools and eyelets he could now finish the first prototypes. Being a logistician myself, we spend quite some time review the creative process and I think he is now well set for some good production. Although I just learnt that he sold his first bag this past weekend for 1000 Tanzanian shillings, or some $ 0.85, a next volunteer will have to spend some time going over the marketing and the economics: revenue is not profit.
The bags are named "ABILITY BAG" and I had a special rubber stamp made so he can clearly mark the bags: "Ability Bag - Made by disabled people from Tanzania".In the same room is Mary, another crafster, sewing various handbags as well as some of the curtains for Tudor village homes. There will be lots of items that future visitors can select from the little store and which helps these two workers on the road towards independence.
I am hoping little Rashid is doing well again after I had to take him to the doctor a few times. So sad to see a sick face between so many cheerful youngsters, early morning at the breakfast table and again from mid afternoon after school to early evening bed time. I must admit, sometimes so many young ones can be overwhelming, especially at bedtime. But then the next day all that is forgotten.
What you will never forget is a visit to the nursery, Tumaini House, also located at the Maili Sita site. They are adorable as little or as handicapped as they are, they all deserve our love and all the care that the staff extends to them day in day out, around the clock. Having heard the history of some of them, it is amazing what you can now hold in your hands, cuddle and play with. All these brightly shining "Lights of Africa". I am so proud of all the staff all around the LIA activities and feel privileged to be part of it all.There is so much more that requires attention: checking on the three children who recently had their legs straightened, they are so impressd with their new, plastered legs, thankful and patient:
And more: new arrivals to LIA: 2 in one week; picking up a new volunteer who says she found so much valuable information on the website (hmm..) and practical matters such as administrative and computer work, rainwater drainage after a first tropical shower, waste water from the kitchen sink, a puncture of the still surviving Toyota 4x4, the blown off roof of the pig shed at the LIA Amani farm and on and on. But two weeks are short and then the end is there. Babu was prepared and at peace for his journey "to the other side" and I realized that I need to do all possible to continue supporting all this good work, together with so many others who hold a special place in their hearts for all those seeking refuge at Light in Africa homes. How could we not support it? I am proud of all those supporters.
Warm regards,
Paul, the webmaster
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Dear All,
If I recall well, Mama Lynn previously mentioned the recent visit of Jake to Light in Africa. Jake is a professional photographer from the US and I am happy to share some of his pictures with you all on the website.
Go to the Pictures page and select Jake's Pics from the menu on the left hand side, wait until the full page has loaded , then doubleclick the first image and browse through the wonderful world of Light in Africa. Enjoy!
Thank you Jake.
Wishing another wonderful week for you all,
Paul
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Hi everyone,
A thought from little Geoff to Gudilla on the arrival of his new baby brother Christian..
"If you say that you are the mummy to Christian, then where did my mummy go to?"
Some good news regarding Doreen our manager for the White House, Mailisita. I visited her on Sunday, and was thrilled that she has now gained some use in her right arm and sufficient in her right leg to now be able to sit up unaided and is slowly walking with a stick.
Bless you and thank you so much for your prayers.
I have just scanned a picture of volunteers sat preparing food for one of our "cook-ins" which would feed over 160 children and mothers.
The team gets down to all the preperation of cooking outdoors on three stones for a cook-in at Lerai, next to the dispensary.
Doreen is pictured standing to the right of the picture.
And this is a picture that Victoria posted to one of our girls,but
it is so nice I thought I would share it with you.
Mama Lynn
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At last, it's arrived here in Arusha!. Couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it, but there it was staring me in the face. A pack of Lurpak Butter, but I'm afraid too costly for me at 7,000tz but we can hope the price will come down eventually, and the first set of traffic lights on the Moshi to Arusha Road, the finer things in life have arrived. Praise God.
This true story will help you to perhaps understand how difficult it is sometimes to work with people who have limited knowledge on how medicines work.....
Sister Grace and I where manning two seperate out-reach dispensary tables at a big maasai celebration meeting, and after the initial rush of patients, I settled myself down to watch some 400 maasai morans start their amazing jumping techniques. After a while, a maasai came over to my table and picked up the water jug and a throw-a-way cup. Still intent on watching this spectacle, I just happened to turn around just in time to see a handful of tablets been placed in this guys mouth and swilled down with water......'Sister Grace', I shouted, 'what tablets have you given this man'? 'Why', she said, 'Because I think I've seen him swallow a full course of tablets in one go'. 'What?!' she asked incredulously. She waltzed over to him, took the plastic bag from his hand, and laid into him about what had she just explained to him about taking the medicine........?? 'What is he saying Grace', I said, breaking into the conversation, "He says; that he didn't want to wait 5 days to get better, so he thought he would take all the tablets in one go and get better quicker, he's just said, "Why would I ask such a 'silly' question?
mama lynn
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I'm taking a short break before I go back into the fray with a visit to see my mother who is a 'sprightly' 98 year old.
(I just think that if I live to be my mums age, I have nearly another 40 years service ahead of me, what a sobering thought).
A lot of changes are ahead of us in the mission of Light in Africa, the first one being that my daughter Laura - otherwise known as mama gemma - and her children are leaving the mission after 6 years of service, to start a new life in our home town.
It is Laura's ideal to open up and make available for school children, or children with 'special needs' or other's with teenage problems to come over to Light in Africa and have the 'real' experience of helping other's with different projects.
We have already had a great response from a school in Kent who came over and tented and made a wonderful difference with our baby unit by building a fence around our outdoor area of the nursery, and painted some parts of our gallery. For some students it was their first time to hold a baby, or play with a toddler. They finished their working holiday with a safari tour to see all our wonderful wildlife, already some of the students are returning at Christmas.....
Laura has decided to call this new venture Nations Together which aptly sums up what we are....
My oldest grandchild Gemma has gained a place in a local University and is going to train as a teacher, Sophie is coming over to complete her education as is Jarrod. But I think it is not going to be without its problems, as anyone who knows them will understand, as they always speak in Kiswhahili to each other, not in English.....they even dream in swahili... so a big change for them, but we have been so blessed with all the imput they have all put in over the years, and they will all be greatly missed.
After my last update, regarding the amazing blessing we had received with the food delivery, I went to meet the 4 chairmans of the respective villages. After the uproar had subsided with the news of the food being delivered we got down to business with how it was going to be distributed. We now have the premises which is at present being improved and we have the previous experience of feeding many children, but how many orphans did each village chairman have in their
village. The first chairman spoke on behalf of the others and wished for me to pass on their heartfelt thanks to the providers of the food, and then he shocked me by saying in his village alone their were over 400 orphans...... wow......
We had documented 511 at a dispensary that we had held, but 400 in the fist village alone. The numbers as each man spoke grew to a huge number. In the end the agreement is that each chairman would supply me with the names of 100 of the most needy, malnourished orphans in their village making a total of 400 orphans per day, 6 days per week to feed and that is the number where we would start the food kitchen with of which I am hoping to start sometime next month.....
We also welcome for the very first time this year the medical students from the University of Sheffield: Karibu !! We believe you will have a life-changing experience....
see you soon.
mama Lynn
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Karibu Sana!
During the past several months we have received regular requests about the donations page on the Light in Africa website. We are happy to inform that the original page is fully functioning again incl. the Paypal donation button.
Asante Sana!
LIA Webmaster
Paul
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Today Mama Lynn sent following message to the webmaster:
First I give you the update Paul on what is happening in LIA.
Yesterday, we opened our 4th children's home in Mirerani, the mining area, where all the dastardly bad things are happening to the orphans there.
We have been warmly welcomed by the village leaders, and have already documented 511 orphans, without mother - without father - and without food!!!!!!
So we really have a massive commitment in this area.
All my family will be in the UK this christmas time, so that will be a little strange, it will be just like 'old times' with just me........
We now have 152 children who are coming in to our care, so the job just gets bigger every day.......
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Hello dearest family friends and supporters of our mission.
I am sorry that at present we are unable to place pictures on the website, and even some information has not been placed on, this is beyond our control.
Firstly, thank you for all your wonderful responses to the two updates that I placed on regarding Flora and Godson. I can tell you that Flora is making good progress, her leg is being bathed with honey each day and when we have sufficient funding, she will be able to have her skin grafts.
Godson is now back walking on his two legs, and we thank God and everyone who prayed for their recovery. At present our concern is with little Papa King. Through our out-reach program we had been monitoring this little down syndrome Massai boys progress. Sister Grace was proving a high protein diet for him each week, as he wasn't thriving, but we then found out that his mother was not feeding it to him but was giving it to her other children., You see, in the eyes of the tribe, Papa king will never make a Moran warrior, so it was considered to be justified for him to be starved. In February, I saw this child on his mothers back, and he was emaciated, with matchstick legs and arms, I realized he would not make it unless, I took him their and then.
Since February he has been living with me at the White House, where he has been receiving a lot of attention from all our wonderful volunteers. They have bathed him and dressed him, had him sleep in their bedrooms, and quite rightly, pampered him immensely, it was our great joy to see him rock back and forth on a rocking horse that was brought in the containers by Allison.
On Sunday, he became really sick, as he has a very large heart, so it was a quick rush, once again for special treatment, Dr, Casey is now caring for him, so we ask for your prayers for this very special little child who presents as a baby but is actually two years of age.
I would now like to personally thank the team members of Accelerated Christian Education at South Africa, who has been so wonderfully kind in welcoming my daughter to their conference, she was very touched by the warmth and kindness that was shown to her. Particularly, I thank Peter Keller who came over to Tanzania to visit with us and made such a moving power point presentation, I cried all the way through it Peter.
Our thanks also go to Lorraine Conn, Lyndsey Prentice, and Judy Brown, all from Canada, who visited with us last year and blessed us by buying a generator among other things, not to forget the cookies that Lorraines friend made especially for me, I understand another batch is on the way, I'm drooling already. We bless you and thank you for your continuing support to our children.
I am also deeply indebted to the medical students from the UK this year, who are sponsoring the salary for Dr. Casey to join us full time. We desperately didn't want to lose him, last week on out-reach he treat 175 patients in one day, and is doing amazing work among our children. Bless you all ... Mungu Akurberiki, Mama Lynn
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Dear Friends, to continue with the news update, the mama we traveled to see on the streets, was indeed in a very sad situation, she is clearly very, very poorly, we took our medical sister grace with us, and all the help that we could give has been given. Only prayers can help now. On one of our mountain outreaches, Sister Grace and Anthony, found a young boy, starving, he was 5 years of age and living with aged grandparents, both parents already passed away with the HIV/AIDS virus. They brought him to me at the 'White House'. I had not seen a child in this condition before. His little face was blown up like a football and he could only see through slits of his eyes, his shoulders were that of a skeleton, but then he had a large tummy, and tree trunk arms and legs. Two paediatricians, confirmed the condition of Kosha Koo - severe malnutrician due to lack of protein. - and he died in his sleep after 6 days...... This is the first child to die at the White House.... I am so thankful that he came to us for his last days. We showered him with all the love he had never known and he died without pain.
Five years ago, when I had made the decision to follow the call on my life, I also brought to Tanza with me, a young 10 year old boy, of whom I had cared for from the age of 3 years. Everyone who visits us soon has a relationship with TOM. After a bad start in life, he has adjusted to life in Africa extremely well, he has many gifts, including being able to speak fluent Kiswahili after 5 months...and is a master with a screwdriver. and he adapted to life here so much, that I actually had to stop him going into Maasailand on our outreach programs, because he would disappear with the young maasai boys and return carrying jars of scorpions, he is fearless with snakes, and can quite easily pick up a panga and chop their heads off when they come into our compounds.... AHHHHHl On Saturday, along with our two volunteers, and some of our children from the home, they visited a swimming pool. Tom, whilst swimming, saw a young boy at the bottom of the pool, drowning, he dived down and rescued the boy.. He then preceeded to place the child in the recovery position, and the child recovered. Praise God. Whilst in the UK, I took Tom to a Red Cross, resucitation lesson program never thinking that a nine year old child would remember such things, but he did, and it saved a young african boys life... Mungu Akurberiki
Mama Lynn
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