The sign outside of the orphanage
Pastor Tukai
Dada Ana lives at the orphanage and is a nursery school teacher. After hand washing clothing, she hangs it out to dry in the courtyard.
Biana smiles with her big eyes, excited to receive a new sweatshirt.
The younger kids pose for a picture with me in their new Kimberton Whole Foods sweatshirts. (Left to right: Biana, Calvin, Melik, Usufu, Nema, Patrick, Flora, Mary, Deo, Norbati, James, Michael, me)
A boy in town fixes the brakes on the Pajero.
I saw this Land Rover in Moshi at the mechanic's “shop.” It easily could be the original model.
Trucks like this rumble down the roads transporting bricks, sand, stone or other building materials. Sometimes I feel like I am in Castro's Cuba with the state of Tanzanian vehicals. Most cars and trucks are over twenty years old and mechanics constantly fix them with used parts.
These are the men and the tractor driven machine that we hired work hard to grind the corn. They get a huge kick out of having me work beside them. I don't think Africans are used to seeing white people work hard.
This is one of the pigs at the farm in the current "barn." The new barn will be made of concrete blocks and will be both more secure and longer lasting than the current one.
Two of the nineteen piglets
We hired three men who work with a machine to build bricks for the pig barn. Two of them joke together while they work.
This machine presses a mixture of sand, cement, lime, and water together into a 18” x 9” x 5” block.
Farmers and laborers work barefoot or in sandals. They laugh at my hiking boots.
Pastor Amasawe, a friend of Pastor Tukai, works with me to build the foundation for the pig barn. He and I dig through the rocky, dry soil, place stones and pour concrete.
Pastor Amasawe and I smooth out concrete over stones that will support the corner bricks of the foundation.
Five Irish girls, including the one that origionally helped set up the orphanage, are staying in Boma for two weeks and helping out with the kids. They conduct fundraisers in Ireland and raise the majority of the money that sustains the orphanage. Yesterday, we took all of the children to a park in Moshi to play games and run around using a small amount of the money that they raised. The children wear Irish “football” jerseys that a donor contributed. Days like this are a real treat for the children.
Hawa smiles as she takes a break from running around. Both she and her younger sister live at the orphanage. She is a great young girl, but there is a sadness in her eyes. Prior to coming to the orphanage she and her sister lived with their father in a house that was no bigger than the bathroom at the orphanage. A mama intervened and helped the girls find their way to the orphanage. The father was crazy and unfit to raise children.
Norbati laughs as he tries to jump his way across the field during a sack race.
Hawa and Makulata, two ten year old girls, jump their way across the field laughing.
Norbati is tiny for six years old. He put on my backpack and told us that he was going to climb Kilimanjaro.
