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Published: August 6th 2007
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Agata
Baby Agata.....
a 2 year old (yes)orphan who is being looked after by the lady who makes the burnt corn at the edge of the field by our house... (I have returned!!!!)
Habari Asubuhi/Alasiri/Jioni (wherever you may be and whatever time of day it is where you are)!
Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote. The blog site has been down. I have also lost almost all of my entries 😞 Mum and dad - I'm wondering if you have by any chance kept copies of the ones you have been printing out??!
I have much to tell you about.
First off, my plans may be changing. I am currently seeing if I can extend my stay in Tanzania an extra month so that I would fly on to Uganda on October 3rd. What can I say? I like it here! I am sure I may feel the same way in Uganda but I feel it's not a good time for me to leave here yet. I think I want to stay partly because I like it here and partly because I am too worried about the project. Again, maybe this will happen in Uganda also....and maybe there will never be a good time to leave.
I am not convinced the project that I am working on is sustainable so I
Drawing hands....
Teacher Nakijwa helping draw some hands...Diana is coloring in pink... am going to stay and try and help them out a bit more. I know some of you have put some things in the mail aswell and I have only just received my first couple of packages so I would like to be here to at least make sure the kids get some of the things. I am gradually finding out a few things about Joakim (the project leader at LETOA) that have led me to not have quite so much trust in him and I really don't want the school to collapse when I leave. As far as sending things to the school goes, when I leave, things will need to be sent to our house here, for fellow volunteers to work with.
Anyway, these problems are quite widespread. We have all had problems with the adults (could go on and on and on about this), the kids are always great. It's really frustrating because we want to concentrate on helping the kids but every day you are asked for money from adults....and often times it turns out to be adults you think would not do this. The carpenter who made the desks for the school stopped me
Faraja
a.k.a. pyjama boy...have never seen him wear anything else in the street to ask if I could help him out with 10,000 shillings (about 10 dollars) to fix his phone, less than a week after me paying him hundreds of shillings for his work, a grandmother & foster mother of some of the school kids asked me for the same amount (right after she gave me a necklace she made and invited me for lunch).... I could go on and on.....
Today I felt threatened for the first time. I was coming home from work and a guy actually grabbed hold of my arm (quite hard) and said 'give me money'. A few people who were standing around a shop across the road came over and pulled him away. It was pretty scary. Shook me up a little because I have been feeling quite comfortable around here lately.
Now the story of little Amitreu....Amitreu is a little kid who goes to the school that Jenny and Sally are working at. They noticed that he had been off for quite some time so went to his house to check on him. They found out that his mum had died the week before and his dad is an alcoholic
Still room....
....still room for more on this dala dala! and was, at the time, not in the least bit interested in taking care of him. He had not eaten for days and was pretty sick. I got home from work to find him in our house, dancing around to the ring tone on someone's phone! They fed him (and he ate A LOT) and took him to the hospital. He had worms and a pretty bad infection in all his toes (lots of flies there). He is a lot better now but they have done some amazing things with him. They bought him new clothes, have bought quite a lot of porridge etc for him (the teacher has agreed to look after him if they provide the food)...they've cleaned his dad's house up, hung mosquito nets etc etc. They will keep sending money to the volunteer house once they have left...apparently people have done this before. Obviously we do not know how things will turn out but at least they have helped him for now.
This all makes me worry about the kids at my school. There are so many of them but I worry about them when they're off for any length of time at all. It's difficult aswell because a lot of them are so little they don't speak much at all....you can tell when they're sick though because their personalities do really change a lot. Some of them more so than others. I'm sure all you parents probably know this already. I did see where some of the kids live the other day too. Pretty much mud huts. It has rained quite heavily the past week and so many have not been at school (I missed a day also), as it's really impossible to get anywhere.
Like I said, the kids are always great. It really was bubble magic the other day. I forgot that Helen Ross had left some blowing bubbles with me and I took them into the school. It was absolute madness. The kids were cheering and chasing the bubbles all over the playground, the neighborhood kids were peering through the gate in absolute amazement and the teacher had seen nothing like it before!
I feel like this has been a bit of a depressing one but guess that's how it's going to be sometimes. I am really looking forward to fellow volunteer Helen coming back for a visit next week!!! I think she misses Africa already! I am also looking forward to a few nights in the hotel she is staying at, hot shower and all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A lot of other things going on but it's been a long day so I'm going to sign off for now. I wonder if I shall talk Swahili in my sleep again tonight as apparently I have been doing......?!!
Hope all is well,
Joanna x
Just updating this to give you my address again - it's a new one but it's just because it's specifically for our volunteer group -
Art in Tanzania
PO Box 16264, MERU
ARUSHA
TANZANIA
EAST AFRICA
Please put attention Corneille, for LETOA day care center on it (or a note inside), incase it gets here after I leave. Thanks!
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Helen Ross
non-member comment
Let's pull together
Hi all Joannna's friends etc, I am returning to Arusha next week with the same concerns about Joanna's and my projects. We will put our heads together and see what we can come up with - my mind is buzzing with possibilities and I would like to suggest that anyone out there who knows anyone who would be prepared to sponsor LETOA/Faraja projects long term shouold make contact with one or other of us before I leave the UK Tuesday 14th. My thinking is that if there was a business - perhaps a travel company or health concern who would be prepared to invest what is actually not a huge amount of money to keep these projects running long term we would administer the money ourselves to ensure that it was used correctly and not mis-spent by the adults on the make. This is a problem throughout East Africa and is hard to stomach sometimes. If we all put our heads together maybe we can sort something out quickly, whilst Joanna is still in the country. I would love to take over the management of both projects as I had considered setting up my own ethically run project in the future - but this could work if we think positively. I can be contacted via email - helen.livingwithloss@ntlworld.com - or on the telephone - 0044 (0)116 2784689 - leave a message if I don't pick up - it's my work phone so can't speak when counselling. I have fingers crossed - dark chocolate, cereal bars, camera charger etc. packed and ready to go. Love Helen