That was baby number one’s history, a wrist tag that said Tuesday when we were called to pick up four babies at the hospital, three abandoned and one whose mom had died.

Two of our volunteers, Karly Hoggard and Nicky Thomas went with Angel and Hannah to the hospital to pick up the babies. They came home with three little baby boys. We are waiting on number four. Hopefully the mom has come back to find him or maybe Social Welfare has identified the mom and is trying to find another family member or maybe he is just not strong enough to leave the hospital.

Tonight I don’t even know the babies names or what happened to them, where were they found, on the road, in a latrine? Who found them or did their moms just walk out of the hospital? I’m sure we will get the police reports on them, for now we are keeping them warm and fed.

Bekah Johnson weighed the babies and checked them out as they entered Neema Village. One of the babies, the one whose mom died, is very tiny, about 1.9 kilos and is 2 months old. Please say a prayer for this little one tonight. God gives them each a will to live they just have to be strong enough to fight.

A young Maasai man, tall and strong, a defender of his family, able to kill a lion single handedly, headed to the hospital with his excited wife to have their first baby. He went home by himself last night to an empty house. There are no words to describe this kind of sadness.

The fourth baby may still be pending at the hospital but we did have a fourth baby at Neema Village yesterday. This little guy, pictured below, made his sudden appearance to Daisy our milk cow. He has no name yet, but has one eye with long black eyelashes and one eye with long white eyelashes.

As we gathered round to hold these three new babies I was reminded again of David Platt’s statement in his book, “Radical.”

We have not made an official announcement about this program yet but most of you already know, Neema Village under the encouragement of Social Welfare and we believe the continual promptings from a Loving God, is opening the only, one-of-a-kind day care to help moms with special needs babies in the city of Arusha. This center will only accept special needs babies, like Bryson in the picture with Nanny Juliette below.  

Social Welfare tells us no day care will accept these babies. As we worked with the MAP moms this past year, many of whom have handicap babies and were consequentially abandoned by their husbands, we saw how they struggled to survive and work a business while caring for their babies. One of our most successful MAP moms was carrying a seven year old on her back along with her new baby. 

Most of these babies sleep on the floor in a corner in their shops or in a dark room in the back of the house. It breaks our hearts and maybe God’s too.

To help these babies reach their full potential we have hired Penueli, who knows how to train women to work with special needs babies. She will begin this month training the nannies.  

Napendaela who was our teacher at Neema Village will be the new director at the day care center. We just sent her to driving school, so she has her driving license now.  

We have rented a house with easy access to town and have been renovating it, scraping walls, resurfacing, painting, ripping up carpet and putting down tile, etc. It is looking good now. 

 In January we will open and begin taking in babies for the day care. 

The center will have a “sensory room” with games, music, a parrellel bar, colored lights, a bird nest swing, etc., anything we can do to help these little gifts from God to reach their full potential and bring some joy into their lives. The room is empty now but Nicky Thomas and her daughter Abby want to fill it up!

I began the day thinking, well the training bed may not be there, but God will be. When he tells Joshua to not be afraid, he also tells him how, because I will be with you!

Babies were getting their bottles like any other day at our baby home in Arusha, Tanzania.

The big babies were anxiously waiting their turn to eat.

It was bubbles on the big front porch that morning. Little did we know what would happen later!

The new baby who had come in the night was being weighed and washed. She was screaming.  

Her Maasai mother had died, and the baby was starving. At three months old little Joyce weighed only about six pounds, was long and skinny with a mouth almost as big as her head! The nannies had put her in one of Maria’s old jackets and she was sucking both her middle fingers for comfort.

We had planned the day before to take our two volunteers on some MAP runs with Anna our MAP director. MAP is our Mother’s Against Poverty small business program.  Anna is always explaining how God works this program for women.

First on the run we wanted to take Mama Noella twenty of our Rhode Island Red chicks to upgrade her stock. We are so proud of this woman! With a seven-year-old special needs child on her back, a husband who had abandoned her and a new baby on the way we had set her up a year ago in a chicken business.  

Now she has become the chicken entrepreneur and all the neighbors around know to come to her for eggs. Our Julius is helping give her the chickens.

She has chickens in various stages of growth stuffed in chicken condominiums all around the yard!

The Rhode Island Reds are supposed to lay about 285 eggs per year, per chicken! A few months after her first chickens started laying, Mariya had gone out to check her books and make sure she was recording everything. Mama Noella pulled out a box from under her bed and said, “What do i do with this?” It was 200,000 shillings! Mariya said “It is Yours!”

We continued on and stopped to check out the new business site for our triplet’s mom and watch her sign the lease. The triplet babies have been at Neema a year and half and the two boys are ready to go home. You can see how much smaller Esther is in the middle, the boys are much bigger.

The triplet boys, Edward and Elesha are double trouble but cute as little buttons. Esther the smallest triplet is not yet stable enough to leave Neema.  Their mom had been living off the street until she became ill with the sickness. She takes her medicine and is much better now so we are setting her up in a vegetable stand business and a used clothing business so she can support the triplets.  She has been learning, too, how very precious she is to God and how much He wants for her to succeed and be a good mother.

After the MAP visits we wanted to drive down into the slum area of Arusha and hand out lollypops. That is what we thought we would do, Little did we know!

As we were driving out of the area, we had not yet found the second mom when we saw a woman hurrying down the dirt road toward our car. She did not have a dress on but had quickly wrapped a kanga around her body and was holding a small baby in front covered with a blanket. It was her eyes that stopped me. Puffy as if she had been crying, she was scared, and looked as if she would panic any moment. 

Since he is the smartest one in his class (not bragging, just sayin’) he got to read a welcome and long introduction to three or four hundred people. He didn’t miss a beat. They have probably never had a kindergarten student do that, so he received a huge applause. A year ago he was reading at a two and half grade level. Can you even imagine how far this young man can go in life?

Julius’s twin, Malikia pictured below, as most of you know is our little song bird at Neema and is in Blind school in Moshi. She will be coming home to Neema for Christmas break!! 

Amazingly Neema Village now has 22 children who will be in schools off campus in 2020,  

Our school on campus is a preschool and Ashley and Napendaella (her name means I love God) have done a fabulous job getting our kids, like Angel and Angelous, ready for primary school. Both are doing very well in their classes at Green Peace School. where Angel was top in her class. 

And our big girl Gloria, below, who was top of her class last year at Tumaini School. Gloria had been abandoned and lived at Neema for 4 years. She returned home to live with her Grandmother and now walks to school every day. Her grandmother is in our MAP program and by God’s Abundant Grace through MAP has started a small successful shop selling rice and beans, soap and cooking oil. She is able to keep Gloria at home now but she can’t afford school fees.

We would love to have a primary school at Neema Village but it is almost impossible to get a new school registered these days. The Tanzanian government wants all kids to go to government schools. Those schools are overcrowded, understaffed and provide little or no teaching aids for teachers. We visited a school that had about 100 kids in one classroom, no posters on the walls and 3 kids to a desk. There was a black board on the wall, but the teacher had no chalk, so he wrote on the board with his finger! Many Maasai kids without help will never get to go to school. Our little boy, Jackson with Neema’s help will be able to go to one of the top schools in his area.

Our children come to Neema as babies, like Joycie pictured below. Her father was too old to keep the little baby after the mother died in childbirth. We fall in love with these babies and want the best for them in life. So we send our kids to good private schools when possible.

Joycie went home to her grandparents farm (pictured below) and lives with her older brother and his wife in a mud hut. Joycie is also at the top of her class in school and by God’s Grace will someday be able to afford a nice home for her family.

As babies we can save their lives, we can teach them about God and we can feed and clothe them but if we don’t go on to give them an education, we have not helped them reach their full potential in life.  An uneducated man can love his family and take good care of his cows and goats but he will do little to change his society.  

Below our kids, Bakari and Sophia, both are doing great in school. Sophia, in the wheel chair, was begging on the street and had never been to school. At fifteen we started her in first grade and in one year she was reading.

Amazingly we now have 22 kids who will be going to school in January! The average amount for school fees at our different schools is $700 per year per student and all the schools expect full payment in January for the coming year.

Here is a full list of our 22 Neema Village children who will have school fees due in January.

He was found in the road by children on their way to school early one morning. We do not know how long he had been there. He was cold and crying when the children found him. One of the neighbors kept him for about a week hoping someone would come back for him. They finally called Social Welfare who picked him up and brought him to Neema.

This spunky, determined little guy would not let me help him up the rope climb and when he got to the top he was so proud of himself.  

Baraka has a new family now, his father is a doctor in Moshi and he will never be abandoned again. Praise God!

She was probably over two but was so little she looked like a one year old. She had been abandoned by her mother who left her with a neighbor. 

When the mother did not return the neighbor tried to take the child to her grandmother who said if you leave her with me I will kill her. So sad! Now this beautiful child has a new family. Her new mom is a nurse in Arusha. Once again what evil meant for death, God meant for life!

And finally, the twins pictured below, Mary and Mercy were adopted on Friday. Their mother had died in childbirth and the father was unknown. There were other relatives but none of them would take the little twins so they have been with us since their birth.

They are identical and when they were little the nannies put nail polish on one baby to tell them apart. I called them both MerMar when I could not tell them apart.

I loved this little picture of one of the twins praying.  

This makes 42 adoptions from Neema Village! It is what we pray for, good homes for our babies. No baby belongs in an orphanage has been our goal from the beginning, not that we are an orphanage. We are a rescue center.  

We could not do this work of saving babies in Tanzania East Africa without you and our all powerful, all knowing, all loving Father God.

Recently Neema Village volunteers went with Hannah Patterson, our volunteer coordinator pictured above, to a Maasai village where our baby Neema Grace’s family lives. It was our first trip to this village. Below is Neema Grace. You know that Neema means Grace so she is really Grace Grace!

Below is what Neema Grace looked like when Bekah picked her up at the hospital. She is a year and half old now. She was born in the hospital in Arusha. Her mother had died in childbirth which is so common for these slender Maasai women. The father was unknown. Neema Grace was premature and very small about 2 lbs.  No one came to see the baby in the hospital for two months so Social Welfare called Neema Village to come pick her up.  

Now Neema Grace is a beautiful little girl and it was time for her to meet her family.  Her mother’s brother had been located and has been coming quite often to Neema Village to see her. He had arranged the long trip out to see the family. Neema Grace was a bit tired by the time they got to the village and fell asleep in her grandmother’s lap.

As the cars got near the village the women began running and trilling to meet the car.  They had never seen Neema Grace so were anxious to meet this little relative.

She got to meet the Bibi’s, (her grandmothers, most older Maasai men have multiple wives and they are all called Bibi) and she met her grandfather and all the cousins and children of the village.

Her Babu (Grandfather) is pictured below and other relatives from the village.

At dinner last night the volunteers talked about how hospitable the Maasai people are. They invited them into their homes even though they are very poor and have very little. The village looked desolate and uninhabitable from their pictures.

But we never fail to see that the Maasai are very happy, giving people. They sang and danced for the Wazungu and our volunteers sang a song for them led by Judy Pankow from Buena Vista, Colorado. Neema’s family had cooked a goat and bought soft drinks for the visitor’s lunch.  It is almost too precious to drink when you see how poor they are.

Dr. Vanisha Chaugh, a neurologist volunteering from the UK, got in a little dance with the Maasai women too.

At the end of the day the volunteers had to say goodbye to the cousins and all the family and make the long drive home. I suspect a good day was had by all!

Neema Grace’s uncle has agreed that we can put her in a good school in Arusha. She will be in boarding school and be able to come to Neema Village on school holidays and we will take her out to see her Maasai family again.    

Tessa’s mother was a young girl in school in Mwanza and her grandmother was paying her tuition. The mother was too young to take care of such a preemie baby and she was scared her grandmother would cut off her education if she found out. 

Social Welfare was called and agreed to help by letting Neema Village keep the baby until she was out of danger and had put on some weight. The mom was also able to finish her classes.

Another baby left Neema yesterday, too

When we recieve a baby Angel, our social worker, begins a plan on how they will return to their family if possible and if not can they be adopted. We are always happy when a grandmother or aunt steps in to take the baby. That is what happened for Ivan yesterday.

Ivan’s Auntie has agreed to keep him and Ivan seems quite comfortable with that. from looking at the picture below! 

We fall in love with these babies and it is hard to let them go.  It was another bittersweet day when these two flew the nest at Neema. But it is what Neema Village does best, putting families back together.

Neema bought juice boxes, apples and cookies for gift bags for the students and our kids had a lot of fun packing the bags to give out to the students at Shabani’s school. It is an extremely poor school with no government help so we take big bags of rice and beans when we go to visit.

Our Buena Vista, Colorado volunteers, Judy Pankow, Ron and Carol Flowers and Kim Meyers got in on the fun. Below Judy is helping our kids pack the bags with juice boxes and candy for the 39 students at the school.  

They took our bean bag toss game, parachute game with big smiley yellow balls and egg games all of which turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids.

Maeve Lee from South Carolina and Kim Meyers helped with the parachute game above. Emily taught the bible lesson and Ashley Berlin led the songs pictured below.

It was a good lesson on sharing for our big kids to hand out the gift bags to the students.  There were extra neighbor kids so our children did not get a bag but not a one fussed about that.

Shabani was one of our abandoned babies who went home to his grandmother a few years ago and we are helping with his schooling. His grandmother lives in a very poor village far away where the elephants from the game parks still come through and raid her corn.  The village school where Shabani had been going was closed by the government so all 39 of the village children had been brought in to a school in Arusha. Shabani and his friends were sleeping on the floor in a local church in order to go to the school.  (Pictured below Kim and Maria with Shabani.)

Shabani’s grandmother had told us that since Shabani had been raised Christian at Neema Village for the first four years of his life she would let him continue to be raised Christian. She changed his name from Shabani to Jackson, a Christian name. We are grateful for her decision, but it will be hard for us to not remember this sweet baby as Shabani.

If you remember baby Shabani was the impetus for us starting the MAP program. Six years ago when Michael received a call from the police that an abandoned baby had been found, he went out to find the young mother had been identified by the neighbors and she was being dragged off to jail wailing and crying.  Our hearts knew this young mother did not belong in jail and we needed to do something to help these moms who abandon their babies.

Peace’s mother died shortly after his birth and the grandmother made the long trip to town to see the little baby left alone in the hospital. She named him Peace Joy but was unable to care for the baby so Social Welfare contacted Neema Village.  After two years at Neema Village, Peace has wiggled his little smiley face into our hearts. We will miss PJ, but we know being in a home with a family is the best solution for him. Our motto from the beginning has been, “No baby belongs in an orphanage.”

A few weeks ago, Anna, our MAP director, had told us about a mom with three boys who had been abandoned by her husband and was ready to give up on life. Seven years ago, her husband had left home one day and never returned. They did not know if he was alive or dead.

She had been begging for work from neighbors, washing their clothes and working in the fields. She told us there were many nights that her three boys went to school and then to bed without having had any food for the day. They were all skinny when we met them. Eventually the family became homeless and one evening they came begging at the door of a kind lady who gave them a small room to sleep in. The boys had a foam mattress on the floor, but mom was sleeping on rags.  One of our volunteers went out the next day and bought her a mattress.  

Anna and Elidaima, the mom whose name means God Forever, decided a milk cow would be a good business for her and the boys. Yesterday we drove to Usa River to find a cow. Jack Pape, who knows cows, checked her out and pronounced her fit. Did you know cows do not have upper teeth, just the bottom! I didn’t know that.

We loaded the cow into a little white pickup and drove slowly back to town. The cow is six and a half months pregnant and giving 12 liters a day in milk from her last calf.  

We told Elidaima to give the boys 2 liters of milk to drink every day and sell 10 liters. At 1,400 shillings per liter it just might be a good business for her.

 Elidaima was so excited. It is always amazing to see what a little hope can do.

Last week, Linda, Karly and Anna drove out to interview another woman with four children who was trying to abandon her six weeks old baby.

Her husband had contracted AIDs but didn’t tell her, so she is now sick and worried that her newborn is sick as well. Her husband then left the family. She has been so depressed that she did not want to take the medicine which would probably mean a death sentence for her. 

Anna brought the mother and baby to Neema and our nannies have been taking good care of them. She is back on the medicine and now has a smile. We are hoping we can help her find a way to make a living for her 4 children. If we can stop just one mother from abandoning her baby, we will have been successful.

We can give out cows and sewing machines all day but the best thing we can give these women is hope for “Hope does not disappoint us.” 

We took Jackson home yesterday.  What was supposed to be a short trip to Ngaramtoni just on the other side of Arusha turned out to be a long, harrowing trip into dry, desolate, thorn country.

We left Arusha and traveled all the way to Joshua’s village and up into the mountains on the far side of Mt. Meru. I thought we would break an axle or pop a tire on the sharp rocks. We kept asking the dad and granddad who were guiding us, “Are you sure cars travel this road?” When we came to a make shift bridge Kim’s comment was,” We’re done, nope not doing that.”  

With Granddad assuring her it could be done she decided to try it. She wanted everyone out of the cars while Emily directed the two cars across.

After what seemed like hours we arrived at Jackson’s new house where his new mom was waiting.

Kim is entering the house in the picture below.

Jackson’s dad had remarried after the death of his wife and was ready to take Jackson home. He had been talking with Angel our Social Worker and the Social Welfare Department and they finally decided it was time.

Jackson was shy about meeting his new mom.

Just to tell you again how bad the road was when we finally arrived and stopped the car, the grandfather who had been riding with us said, “Let’s pray and thank God for our safe arrival.” This is the same grandfather who has three wives and 32 children and obviously like lollypops!

They had roasted a goat in appreciation of our keeping Jackson at Neema Village. We had to eat fast in order to make it back down the treacherous road before dark. Kim made quick work of that goat leg!

We had taken some new volunteers with us, Beth and Karly, (pictured above) with Emily and also Ashley and Hannah pictured below.

We were able to talk with his dad about schooling for Jackson. We told him Jackson is very smart and could be a doctor someday, but you must keep him in school.  Many Maasai boys spend their lives gaurding the family goats and never go to school. That is Napendaella, one of our teachers, talking with the Dad and Grandad about school.

Jackson cried when we left and so did we.

Jackson’s new home is a mud house as are most Maasai homes. We know the Maasai are on the whole happy people and a child who feels loved can certainly be happy in a mud hut. Social Welfare tells us you cannot keep a child from his family just because they are poor.

Anna finally found the young mother and today Mary Fernandes, Tammy and Denise Burns, Kim White and I went to her home to see how we could help.  Margaret is her name and she is holding her little boy in the photo below.

To have food for the family she has to dig through the dump and people’s trash cans to collect an enormous bag of dirty, plastic bottles every day and bring them to a processing plant, which sounds and looks like Dante’s Inferno! For the bag she receives 250 shillings or about .10 cents a bag!

We were shocked at the continual, horrifically grating, shrill of the grinding machine and appalled that women sit there all-day dumping dirt and other unmentionables out of the plastic bottles before sending them through to the “screeching demon ” bottle crusher.  It was simply horrifying and these women do this from sunup to sundown six days a week.  We never saw Margaret smile.

She and her baby live with grandma in a room with one bed. They were unsure of why we were there since they h ad not asked for us to come.  The other women at the dump had asked if there was a way to help this young mother and so we came. 

Margaret is somewhat mentally handicapped although she made it through 7^th grade and I thought she looked more shell shocked than handicap. She never smiled while we sat and talked in their small one room home.  Grandma did all the talking while Margaret and the baby both licked a lollypop Tammy Burns had brought. I must tell you I have not been able to get the image of her eyes out of my head.

Margaret and her husband had lived in Tanga on the coast and after the baby was born, he beat her and kicked her out of the house, so she came home with her child to grandma in Arusha.  

Her little boy was sweet with eyes too big for his face, thin arms, big head and small body, a sure sign of malnutrition. He loved the lollypop, probably his first. His mother’s eyes were lifeless even with a lollypop.