“A Snake Under My Bed.”
We have a donated DVD player and TV at Neema House Arusha in the big kid’s room and the Montana women (some pictured below) 
brought “Jungle Book” which the kids love. There is always lots of clapping and jumping up and down when we put on that movie. Their favorite scene in the movie is the elephant walk when Mowgli is trying to march like the elephants.
A few days ago one of the nannies brought little Joycie out to the foyer where I was sitting and feeding one of our little babies. The nanny said, “Joycie wants Babu to check under her bed for a snake.”
“Really,” I said. Joycie with head down looking up through her eyelashes said “Nyoka kitanda.” 
So Babu Michael takes her hand and they walk down the hall to the back bedroom where she points under the bed in the corner. Michael gets on his knees and searches all around saying, “Ona, hakuna Nyoka, Joycie.”(See there is no Snake). Finally Joycie was satisfied and ran off to play. She was sure Mowgli’s snake from the Jungle Book movie was under her bed. Little kids are just the same wherever they live aren’t they.
It was reminiscent of the time back in the 60s when the workers at the Chimala Hospital 
in Southern Tanzania, came to tell Michael there was a snake under the bed, but this time there really was! Michael, then 20 years old, (Yes, that’s him at 20 to the right) flipped out the knife he carried strapped to his ankle, stepped on the cobra and sliced its head off. At which the Africans ran out of the room howling!
in Southern Tanzania, came to tell Michael there was a snake under the bed, but this time there really was! Michael, then 20 years old, (Yes, that’s him at 20 to the right) flipped out the knife he carried strapped to his ankle, stepped on the cobra and sliced its head off. At which the Africans ran out of the room howling!
But alas for those of you worried about encountering wild animals when you come to visit Neema, the goats who walk each morning down the dirt road in front of our house is about all the animals you will see when you come to big city of Arusha.
Colton Carney from Nacogdoches made it to Arusha and is now heading up Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. Make it to the top, Colton!!
Colton will return from the climb next week and then spend 3 weeks volunteering at Neema. He will be here when the group from Pepperdine University gets here. That should be fun! It will be just like old times at the Yellow House in Nacogdoches, having a lot of college kids around!
We have 49 babies at Neema now and 5 of them are teeny tiny little ones like the four pictured to the left. 
One of the little ones is in the hospital in NICU and could use your prayers right now. His name is Imran, pictured below with Bekah. His mom died of AIDs and the doctor put him on the medicine for that which may have been too toxic for him.
One of the little ones is in the hospital in NICU and could use your prayers right now. His name is Imran, pictured below with Bekah. His mom died of AIDs and the doctor put him on the medicine for that which may have been too toxic for him.
Please be praying for this little guy. He is 2 months old and barely weighs five pounds.
And with 49 babies in the house please be praying for all of us!
Blessings,
Dorris
The Neema Nine,our big three and four year olds, had had their baths early and were getting their school clothes on when I stepped outside our bedroom door at 6:30am. My first thought was “I hope The Little Einstein School will be ready for this!!”
They brought Frankie’s triplet sisters, Yacinta and Lucia, to Neema as well so the family has been getting reacquainted. Frankie’s family is Maasai and they are famous for their beautiful jewelry. I was curious to see if they slept in all that sparkling finery and surprise, yes, they do. They were sleeping on mats in the playroom when our little school squealers came running in and woke them up. Both grandmother and mother sat up, earrings dancing, with that “Where am I?” look as the naughty nine tumbled in and began jumping and yelling around their sleeping mats. With the weight of the jewelry Mama Frankie’s ears have fallen so she has taken a slip of skin from her head and wrapped it around her ear to hold it up! Can you see it?
I was asked recently what was one thing I had learned in all this grand experiment called Neema and after thinking a moment I replied, “I have learned that people are basically good, no matter what the daily news would have you believe, most people want to help when they know there is a need.” We are continually blown away by your love and support for this most precious ministry. 
comes to us tonight, he weighs 1.65 kilos, about 3 pounds. His name is Saruni and his mom died at his birth. Please pray with us that God will save this young life and that we will be a blessing to him.
Matt and Kelly Erdman, with their two daughters, Camille and Tabitha, traveled back to the states for their first furlough home since coming to Africa a year ago.
We also drilled a dry hole out at Franki’s Maasai village. Another big disappointment for the women of that village who walk 4 to 5 miles a day for water as well as a disappointment for the kind folks in Colorado Springs and Nacogdoches who gave the money for the Masaai water well. But we have not given up. God is still good and we hope to try again in the future.
The staff number has now reached forty at Neema and at the Christmas Party this year, all our staff received a great Christmas bonus of $100 accompanied with lots of dancing and trilling. We killed and cooked two goats to celebrate plus peeled a couple hundred potatoes for the party. 
ups and downs and the loss of one baby this year we know that God has been Faithful. We continue in the knowledge that this is all His work and we are but His helpers.
(One of my favorite pictures, Camille Erdman, with Rehema’s help feeding one of the Neema babies, left.)
Meet Neema House Arusha’s newest precious little babyHer name is Nengai which means “Of God.” Nengai’s mom died giving birth to her. She is from a Masaai village where there is no refrigeration, no clean water and where many of these little motherless ones will not make it due to unsterile conditions. We are crying with her today. Nengai will stay with us until she is ready to go back home. We are crowded with 45 babies in a home that should have 30 but how could we say no?
As you drive up to the gate leading into Neema we will plant bouganvilla bushes along the fence to the right. We have 24 hour guard service at Neema and the little house beside the gate is where you will check in to volunteer or visit the babies. The guard shack has its own restroom. We have guards not because we are afraid. Michael and I have never been afraid to live in Africa. People are poor and sometimes desperate here, they may want your stuff, but they are not out to hurt you. We tell our volunteers don’t wear expensive jewelry, wear the pretty jewelry the African women make here.
Gabriella above is also new at Neema. She is an abandoned baby. 
We will be so excited to finally unload the container sitting beside the new shop in the picture to the left. The blocks used to build the buildings at Neema weigh 80 pounds each! They carried those heavy blocks up a handmade wooden ladder. The men and women building Neema are the hardest working people I have ever met. They also dug a septic tank hole 25 feet wide and 22 feet deep by hand!
s. I was raised in an orphanage, went when I was four and left when I was 18. It was my giant. I’ve dealt with it but so has my husband of 52 years and our 4 children who were raised by a motherless mother. I have had to apologize for so many decisions I made. By the Grace of God, they have stuck by me.
someday walk, he is struggling to be like his little friends at Neema. He sees what they are learning to do and you can see the hope in his eyes that he can too someday. What this little boy could teach us about courage!
God. That is our faith as we work with these babies, as we try to find water on our land, as we build a home for the babies and widows and disabled children, as we try to keep them fed and healthy and safe and as we work in a land where power is sporadic and the internet is down about as much as it is up, we do battle daily. We thank God for those of you who battle with us with your prayers and support. (To see the cutest video ever of Elesha trying to walk with Sylvia Pape click on the link below!)
bottles, changing dirty diapers, finding enough bibs for breakfast, porridge that can’t be fed fast enough, dirty diapers, checking morning medical charts, notes on the board for who was sick in the night, more dirty diapers, potty chairs, gathering shoes for the morning walk and did I mention dirty diapers! 
The Maasai family and friends of our sweet baby Joshua, who has lived at Neema House Arusha since the day he was born, had arrived early outside the gates of Neema. They began lining up to practice; people, chickens and goat, for a dance into the yard. Joshua, a first baby for his young mom and dad, had lost his mother during the birth and the grief 
stricken father had been at a loss at what to do. The young father has a job that keeps him away from home for weeks and their culture will not let a single man hire a live-in woman to work in his home. The grandmothers could not keep the baby and with formula at twelve to sixteen dollars per can in a country where people make less than a hundred dollars a month, the dad realized the baby would have little chance of survival without help. That is when a friend recommended that he call Neema. 
And that is when the goat decided he needed to see the inside of the house. With a goat running around inside the house with 35 babies and a crew of nannies and cooks, you can imagine what that sounded like! Between the laughing and squealing the goat was finally caught and persuaded that outside was where he belonged. Actually, we soon learned that where he belonged was in the stew pot, and our visitors made short work of putting him there. Soon lunch was bubbling in the big pot outside in the back yard. Poli Sana Mbuzi! (So Sorry, Goat!)
past the first critical months that are the hardest for these babies who lose their moms. Our problem is that he has lived at Neema for over a year and has never had a single sponsor. We never refuse to take a baby in, no matter what shape they are in or whether we have the money to take them, but it does get a little tough at times. 
foundations, and stones are being moved all over this beautiful land. The widow’s home is coming along, one of the homes for the unadoptable babies has a foundation and the baby home is going up and the 22 feet deep septic system is being dug. It is all quite exciting. 
