Last day

As I write this, I regret to say that this will be my last posting. :(

This past week has been maybe the most incredibly eye-opening week of my life. LIA has just opened a new children's home in a place called "mererani". Ask any Tanzanian about mererani, and they will say that it's a bad place. I've learned that it is the most destitute place in all of Tanzania. Mererani is located right in front of the Tanzanite mines, the only known place in the world where Tanzanite can be found. There are currently, Mama Lynn says, about 3,000 underaged children illegally working in the mines at this very minute. Most of them have been kidnapped.

At Mererani, myself and some of the other volunteers painted a few of the rooms that the boys will be living in. The children's home will hopefully be completed in September. There is also "Fleeze House" that houses all of the children they can hold at the moment. This is such a reprieve for the children that have been abandoned in this area. I met a little boy named Nasora, who I instantly fell in love with. He is 10 years old and has been at Fleeze house since it opened. Mama Lynn said that his mother brought him there because he was being "eyed" for the mines because of his small body. Had fleeze house not been there, he may have ended up being kidnapped into that terrible world.

We also worked at the food kitchen in mererani one day. Mama Lynn gave us 2 huge boxes of head cream and we washed about 50 or more childrens' heads. A lot of them have white patches on their head, which is actually fungus. The lack of water there was unbelievable. Lack of clean water, I should say. There has been no significant rain in Mererani for 3 years.

Mama Lynn also sais that she is going to start a maternity center. Brace yourselves for this figure:

6 in 10 women who give birth in Mererani, die.

I have decided to put half of my project money into the title deed for the maternity center, which buys the land.

I also decided to pay for one year of secondary school for a boy named Samuel who has been asking Mama for help for weeks and weeks. He is 17 years old and just finished primary school. he is the only child in his family, so his education will definitely be vital for him to take care of his parents. Together, all of us managed to pay for all 4 years of his secondary school.

I spent more money on one month's surgery bill for the local doctor in mererani. Then the last of my money I spent on food for the town.

We visited a maasai school where the teacher had told Mama lynn that the children were starving. She was right. We visited the school, and the children were just skin and bone. There is no way that they can learn anything without food in their stomach. We brought a HUGE pot of vitamin-enriched rice from Kids Against Hunger and fed the class that day. The need here is so great.

I don't even have any pictures of the actual town, it is a very dangerous place. Light In Africa will literally be the saving Grace for so many here. I can't wait to return.

My flight leaves tomorrow night and then I'm back in the states on monday Afternoon. I intend to return to Tanzania as soon as I can. This place has my heart.

Thanks for all the prayers and messages that I've received. It meant so much!

Katherine

I'm running out of titles!

LIA has been such an eye-opening experience this past week, I don't even know where to begin.

This weekend Kate, Dana and I spent time at Tudor village, Pilgrim house, and the nursery.

Tudor village is about a 25 minute dala-dala ride (in a bus filled with about 60 people when Im pretty sure it was meant for 30. Only 40 cents though- and lots of laughter at how ridiculous us white people look!)

The village is currently in the process of being built solely from donations from volunteers. There are 2 completed houses right there, and it's LIA's goal to move all of the children in their care to this village. I've spent a lot of time in the toddler house this week. Only about 3 caretakers for maybe 20 3 year olds! They are so cute- and the second I walk up to the door they all come screaming out and begging you to to hold them. They'll take any affection that they can get. Maybe about 1/3 of the toddlers in the house have HIV- but they are lucky to get proper medication and care.


I, personally, fell in love with "pilgrim house" this week. This is a house for boys about 20 minute walk from tudor village. I've gone there each day when the older boys are at school and played with the others until they return.Yesterday, Kate, Dana and Myselft took 3 boys out to lunch in Boma- maybe a 50 minute walk. But they so rarely get out. One of them was "felixi" who has Downes Syndrome and hadn't been out to lunch in months. He waved at every single person he saw and was so happy the whole time.

There is one boy, Alfani, who arrived from the coal-mining village called Meriani about 4 days ago. I've grown quite close to him. He's about 7 years old. I dont know his background story- but Meriani is a place of extreme, extreme poverty. They told me at pilgrim that he's having a really hard time adapting to the boys home and cries almost every night before he goes to bed. I'm thinking I'll put some of my donation money into paying for his schooling. He has the cutest smile and is SO ticklish!

Yesterday the 3 of us spent our time in Moshi and went to an outdoorsy bar called Glacier. There were some really big performers there and we had a blast! We met up with our guides from Kilimanjaro and danced the night away :)

Today, we're going to Arusha, which is a bigger city about an hour away. The headmaster from the Obrien school invited us out to stay at his Aunt's house and get a pretty authentic homestay experience!

Back to LIA on Sunday night and I leave monday morning fo Meriani. This is the coal-mining village that we'll be working at for a week. They feed 400 people a DAY six days a week. We will also be working at a dispensary and the orphanage there. We're not even allowed to be outside after dark and there is an armed gaurd that has to escort us in the evening. It is a pretty dangerous place, but the volunteers from LIA will be completely safe. We all stay in a hotel at night. No worries!

Next and final blog will probably be next weekend sometime. Hope these aren't too boring :) There are so many random quirky tanzanian things i see everyday, but whenever I sit down to write this, I completely forget them. I'll keep a running list and next weekend the blog will be a litte more light-hearted!

-oh! thought of one. Yesterday we had to stop in the car for a cow crossing. there were about 70 cows crossing the road.
-Instead of parking your car in front of the store, these people here park their donkies and goats in front of the stores.
-lots more,but I'm out of minutes on the computer. Love to all!