Asante sana... (plus LOTS of photos)

That means, "Thank you very much". I want to thank you for wanting to hear what happened over the past couple of days when I was out in Mairowa.

I must give you fair warning though. I don't necessarily blog for other people. I consider this my online journal, so I am blogging more for my memory than anything else. With this said, these posts are going to be long. That is because I am not going to be able to make an entry every day. Please bear with me.

I wrote this first part last night when I woke up in the middle of the night. (I'm still trying to get over jet lag.)

It’s about 1 in the morning on my second night out in Mairowa. It’s quiet. It sounds like back home. The only sound is the chirping of the crickets; Nothing to exciting here. Last night was another story. The dogs were barking; they were barking a lot!

The people in Mairowa don’t have dogs as pets; they are working animals, prepared to give their lives for their owners. If the dogs are barking, you know there is a good chance there are lions in the area.


One of Dr. Mvunta's dogs.

So tonight, it’s only the crickets. As least for now.

Today was a full day of taking photos of the smallest of our sponsored children. It is really quite an undertaking. We have a little over 350 children in Mairowa and I don’t think we got updated photos on more than 80 today. I have so much to do and so little time.

One of the highlights of my day was having Lengai find me. He’s not my sponsored child; I’m more of a surrogate for his real sponsors, Don and Susan Baltzers’ small group.

I was filming the new playground equipment when Laveena called to me saying Lengai was here. When he came over to me, I asked him, via Anna, if he had played on the playground equipment yet. He said no.

Lengai is one of our children who has special medical needs. He is legally blind, but can now move about on his own thanks to eye surgery.

I asked him if he would like to swing and he said yes. So we walked over and I guided him onto the swing, showing him where to hold on and I gently pushed him. I could not see the tremendous smile on his face, but I could as he laughed with delight. No one had ever done this with him and he reveled in it. I did get this on film and look forward to seeing his expression.

The next stop was the monkey bars. I guided his steps as his climbed up and when he approached the top, I gently tapped on the wooded platform so he could hear that he was reaching solid ground. Next came another triumph for him, sliding down the fireman’s pole.

I guided him to reach his arms out and wrap them around the pole. I had shown him that there was a gap between the platform and the pole by taking his foot and tapping the edge of the platform. I was so honored that this little guy trusted me enough to then allow me lift up one of his feet and wrap it around the pole. He was the true picture of stepping out in faith. Even more so when, I took all his weight in my hands by lifting up the foot remaining on the platform and wrapping it around the pole. He held on very tightly and dangled there for a couple of seconds before Anna told him to slide down. I carried most of his weight that first time down, but once he reached solid ground again he was wearing a grin that spread from ear to ear. He could not wait to do it again.

This afternoon he played on the swings, slide down a fireman’s pole, walked across a swinging bridge, climbed up three sets of monkey bars and hopefully felt like “just one of the kids” for the first time in his life.

So, about the picture taking today. It was quite a fiasco. I tried to simplify things from how we did it last year. I had printed off all the children’s names, numbered them to correspond with last years photo and put them all in order. YIKES!! TIA (This is Africa). Nothing is ever that simple here.

There are still some names that are not listed properly. Several times the guys helping me got “stuck” as they tried to discover the identity of the child standing before them. Most of the time when the child was asked for their name, the reply, if they did respond, was so quiet you could no decipher what was being said.

I had a great bunch of men, yes, all men, helping me. Elisha, from Imara, my trusty driver-translator-photo finder-and all around tremendous help, Dr. Mvunta, one of the teachers and the school principle, Daniel, all pitched in today. What a team!!!

We then headed to the well for me to get some photos and video of that event. WOW, was that place a mad house!!! There must have been about 100 people there frantic to get water before it was turned off. The well is only 'open' from 6am to 6pm and not open on Sunday. This being Saturday, they all wanted to make sure they had enough water to last them till Monday.

Dr. Mvunta and Daniel, the headmaster of the school went before me and made an announcement that I would be filming there. That made things a little bit easier for me. The mama's who did not want their photos taken simply stepped out of the 'line of fire'.

I enjoy staying out here at night. As the sun goes down it is a memory in the making as I watch the shepherds bring in their animals from the days grazing. The dominant animals have large bells on and they resonate throughout the valley. With this and the sounds of the hooves hitting the ground and people talking to each other as they pass, a person could mistake the sounds to be that of a sporting event with the crowd clanging cow bells and cheering for their team. I know that sounds like an odd reference, but the more I listened that is exactly what it sounded like.

So, after we finished at the school, we had a make a stop at the Mairowa communication center. Mind you, we are very close to the Kenya border, but the closest town of any size is Longido and that is a one-hour drive. The cell phone coverage does not quite make it out to Mairowa. The one exception to that is the communication center. I have enclosed a photo for you to see this establishment.


Mairowa communication center


Mairowa communication center

Yes, it is in the middle of a small hill that for some reason gets the signal from a cell tower somewhere in the unseen distance; quite a funny site. However, I must say, I saw a similar site in Sweden as my friend John literally hung out of a second story window trying to get phone reception.

As I am typing this, the dogs in the village have started to go a bit crazy. If you think about it, this is a role reversal. Instead of the lions being in a cage at a zoo, I am the one in a cage. Are they coming to take a look at the funny people like we do when we go see them in the zoo?
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This morning we head back to Arusha. It was a wonderful morning. Laveena and Anna had breakfast for me and Elisha. Homemade chapatis with chai and peanuts. Both of them conveyed to me just how much they appreciated me coming out there to stay with them. They told me that they are all by themselves and usually don't have much to do. They enjoyed the opportunity to entertain guests.

I have to say, I used to think that it was much more of a blessing for me to stay out there. This conversation changed the perception. Anytime I come over, I want to stay with these two wonderful women who are making great sacrifices to serve the community of Mairowa.

Anna is married with two small children. Her husband and 4-year and 2-year old children live in Arusha where her husband is a business man. I cannot imagine the difficulties they have. She loves what she does and gets to see her family once a month when she goes into town to turn in the reports. That is unless there is a ride she can catch with a team that comes out. Such is the case today. She joined us on the return trip just to spend one 'special' night with her family. She will return to Mairowa early tomorrow morning.


Anna

Laveena is a widow with four children. Her's are not small. The two oldest children were her husbands'. They are 27 and 28. Her two children are 19 and 20 and both are in college and university.


Laveena

I enjoyed my time with them and look forward to returning in a couple of days.

This morning as we were preparing to leave, about 20 Masai men gathered in the middle of the road not far from our guest house and began to dance. Laveena told me I should get my camera, but I knew that they would not allow me to film this event. As I walked out of the gate with both my video camera and stills camera, some Masai men standing close told me no.

I was fine with that, but Jofa was walking past and tried to talk them into letting me film the event. Jofa leads the beading co-op. She is another amazing woman.

Elisha jokes with me by telling me I should just take the photos. I strongly disagree with that. If they do not want me to take their photo, I am not going to press the issue. I see it as a trust building issue. Perhaps 5-years from now they will begin to open up to me and allow me to get the more difficult shots. I don't want to come across as the rude American who disrespects them. I get some wonderful shots now so I look forward to a door opening up in the future.

Here are some of the shots I took over the past couple of days. Enjoy!








At Dr. Mvunta's house.


One of the local pastors and his trusty "steed".


Three of our girls outside the school grounds.


Zakayo, our fearless security guard at the school. He is a very sweet man.




At the well.


At the well.


At the well.


SBC is building Jacob a new house. He is blind.


The builder building Jacob his new home.


Guest house owners children.


At the well.






Dr. Mvunta