There are 48 babies and 2 mommas living at Neema House Arusha now. It gives new meaning to the term “Controlled Chaos.” Actually Kelly has revised schedules, bath times, and reorganized age groups, added more structured play times and changed rooms all in an effort to bring the noise level down.  Below is a beautiful picture of our new baby home going up out at Neema Village! 

We are in a holding pattern until the new building pictured above is finished and we can move out to Neema Village where we will have lots of room. You can still buy a brick too, just go to the web site www.neemavillage.org

The roof is going on at the Montana House (above). This home will be full the day we open.

Three little preemies came to Neema during January, all of them under five pounds or 2.3 KG. Saruni, Loitapuaki, and Osiligi. Lets see who can say that three times!  Loi actually came back to Neema after a three week stay in intensive care at the hospital in December. All three are Masai babies whose moms died during or soon after childbirth. We lose so many of these moms out in the Masai villages.

They still practice female circumcision when the girls are eight or nine years old and the resulting scarring causes trouble during childbirth. Without a clean blood supply and no medical attention, they just bleed to death. This hurts my heart.

But all three preemie babies are doing well and will go back home after they are stronger.

Our newest baby, Russell or Rusty (below with volunteer Connie), was abandoned at the hospital and came to Neema last week. The hospital called and asked us to come pick him up. He is a little sweetheart and we will begin trying to find a new family for him as soon as possible.

I went to the Masai market with some of our volunteers the other day and the family that had adopted our Christopher was there. It is the cutest family, they have two little blond headed girls of their own and now two little Tanzanian boys they have adopted. Christopher was running all over the place in the market. His mom said, “We just love him.” If you remember Chris had been abandoned on the side of the road and was covered with black dirt. Praise God this little boy will never be abandoned again.  I’m sure the people in the market were wondering why the Mzungu woman was walking around crying in the market. This heals my broken heart!

One of our other adopted babies, Freda came back for a visit with her mom this month.  She is holding Nuriath one of our new babies in the picture to the right.  Freda had been left on the road and the woman who found her ended up adopting her.
 
We have adopted out a number of babies by taking them to church, just like these four great volunteers, Jennifer, Connie, Connie and Nyx who were taking Pascal, Nengai, Benson and Zawadi to church.

The wind generator is up at Neema Village! Thank you Touching Hearts! It was a bit scary trying to get everyone pulling the eight cable wires in the right directions and set up the forty foot pole with the 150 pound generator on top without dropping it. It is not producing electricity yet but will be as soon as we move out to the village.

Wayne and Connie Burleson have been teaching sustainable farming techniques this month at Neema.  Below are a couple of pictures of our first women’s seminar “Growing Food God’s Way.”  Such fun, Thanks Wayne and Connie.  The class was taught at the beautiful, new “David and Lyndy Edwards and George and Dorothy Dawson” home out at Neema Village.

If you have not seen the video of Malikia dancing in the rain, you really must. It will make your day. Mali is blind and when it started to rain one day she decided to stay outside in the rain. Can you imagine how that must have felt for her to feel rain for the first time?

Click on the link below to see the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OgDB33CmU&feature=youtu.be

May you find true joy in the simple things just like Mali dancing in the rain.

Dorris