The Montana women who are volunteering at Neema traveled with Michael out to a remote Masaai village on Saturday. One of our babies, Joshua, whose mom had died in childbirth three years ago has been able to return home. That is Joshua with his Masaai grandmother in the picture below.
Our daughter Kim and her Montana group wanted to go out to the village to see him. They took food, blankets, clothing and of course Carol Wald’s soccer balls. I had made the trip a couple of weeks ago so I was excited for them to see Joshua and his home.They told us, it was a hot, dusty trip through rocky gullies and they were not sure the big van would make it. They did make it but had to walk in to the village the last part of the way when the van could not go any further.
It is very dry and there is no grass for the cattle out in Masaai land. Even though Joshua’s home is made of mud, his grandmother had decorated the walls outside with broken pieces of mirror and pretty mud flowers, as well as a large “Y” for Yahweh and the name of Jesus in a heart. Women are the same everywhere and we all love to have a pretty home. It was also spick and span clean!
The people are so very poor out there and since the short rains did not come this year, food is scarce and they have lost many of their cattle. The people seem very thin to me and I am not sure if this is normal build for Masaai or if they just do not get enough to eat. I think you can see how thin the two men in the picture below are. We saw no crops in the fields and no water anywhere close.
The Masaai love their cattle, they live off their cattle and count their wealth by how many cows they have. The Masaai are famous warriors of the old days of Tanganyika and claim to have never lost a battle. They are very tall people and would raid other tribes and capture their tall women. For hundreds of years their young men had to kill a lion single handed to become a man. Of course, since there are very few lions left outside the game parks now, they have stopped that ritual. But it is interesting that they still bring their cattle into the middle of the village at night into a boma, a thorn fence, to keep out the lions.
And they still do their traditional Masaai dance which tells their stories of killing lions, their battles of conquests and how they bargain their cows for a new bride.
The story/dance is punctuated by one of the warriors dancing out to the middle and doing their famous high jump from a standing position. It is quite amazing how high they can jump. Of course some of our group had to get in on the dance.
Joshua came to Neema when he was just a few days old. His father is now concerned that his son will not be able to go to a good school. They start children in school at age three here but many Masaai, especially the girls do not go to school at all. Even government schools are few and far between out there. Joshua’s cousin has a school sponsor but Joshua does not have a sponsor. Joshua actually lived at Neema over two years and never had a sponsor. Below is Joshua with his cousin, grandmother and father.
We are trying to find a school sponsor for Joshua so if you have always wanted to help a very poor African child be able to go to school but were not sure it would actually go to the school here is a good chance for you to do that. This is truly a worthy family, his dad works with Masaai men trying to train them in better ways to care for their cattle. Maybe you and a friend could share the cost and each pay $30 a month. Just a dollar a day and you can change the life of a this little boy and maybe his whole village. Please pray about that.
Even though Joshua lived at Neema over two years, we could see that he is now happy back at home with his very loving Masaai family. We have had 23 of our Neema babies whose moms died in childbirth that have now been able to return home.
Angel is our social worker and part of her job is to check on our babies who have returned home. We do take trips out to see them ourselves too and are always so excited to see how well they are doing.
As Joshua’s dad talked with our group while the village women served tea, he told how we are all now bound together because Neema saved Joshua’s life. He said, “When my wife died it was very bad for us because we had no way to take care of him and no way to pay for his care. But you took him in and now he is a big strong boy. That is Joshua’s dad standing by Michael and talking to the Montana group in the picture below. He said, “We see Neema House as our family and Babu Michael and Bibi Dorris as our grandparents because they did a great thing which we could not repay. My father, (picture below) says thank you, thank you a lot and your family is now our family.”
Then the head momma spoke and said, “Neema House was an angel of Joshua. We are one big family now and today our tummies will be full of food because you brought gifts to us. Many people are getting a blessing today because of Joshua. Now let God go with you. Our gate is always open for you.”
Then they wanted to pray for Michael and our group of women and had them face in all four directions while they circled the group and prayed for them. To have a group of people who are surely some of the poorest people on earth pray for you is quite a moving experience. Kim said there were no dry eyes in our group that day.
Michael and I thank God every day that He is letting us share this beautiful land and these precious people of Africa with so many friends and volunteers who come to help at Neema. Africa captured our hearts over 50 years ago and we tell our volunteers as they go home, “You can leave Africa but Africa never leaves you.”
Just like Joshua’s home our gate is always open for you.
(The gate into Joshua’s village.) If you would like to see Carol Wald’s sweet video of the trip out to the village click on the link below.
Our daughter Kim and her Montana group wanted to go out to the village to see him. They took food, blankets, clothing and of course Carol Wald’s soccer balls. I had made the trip a couple of weeks ago so I was excited for them to see Joshua and his home.They told us, it was a hot, dusty trip through rocky gullies and they were not sure the big van would make it. They did make it but had to walk in to the village the last part of the way when the van could not go any further.
The Masaai love their cattle, they live off their cattle and count their wealth by how many cows they have. The Masaai are famous warriors of the old days of Tanganyika and claim to have never lost a battle. They are very tall people and would raid other tribes and capture their tall women. For hundreds of years their young men had to kill a lion single handed to become a man. Of course, since there are very few lions left outside the game parks now, they have stopped that ritual. But it is interesting that they still bring their cattle into the middle of the village at night into a boma, a thorn fence, to keep out the lions.
And they still do their traditional Masaai dance which tells their stories of killing lions, their battles of conquests and how they bargain their cows for a new bride.
Angel is our social worker and part of her job is to check on our babies who have returned home. We do take trips out to see them ourselves too and are always so excited to see how well they are doing.
he told how we are all now bound together because Neema saved Joshua’s life. He said, “When my wife died it was very bad for us because we had no way to take care of him and no way to pay for his care. But you took him in and now he is a big strong boy. That is Joshua’s dad standing by Michael and talking to the Montana group in the picture below.
He said, “We see Neema House as our family and Babu Michael and Bibi Dorris as our grandparents because they did a great thing which we could not repay. My father, (picture below) says thank you, thank you a lot and your family is now our family.”
Then the head momma spoke and said, “Neema House was an angel of Joshua. We are one big family now and today our tummies will be full of food because you brought gifts to us. Many people are getting a blessing today because of Joshua. Now let God go with you. Our gate is always open for you.”