A mother's love

On Wednesday I accompanied a mother and son (along with a couple other Imara staff) to the hospital. This mother and her three year old son belong to the Maasai tribe, one of the largest and most fierce tribes in East Africa. To this day they still adhere to ancient practices and customs and take great pride in who they are as a people group. One of the customs of this nomadic people group is to literally discard children who are born with a handicap or defect. This mother, for some reason unknown to me yet, chose not to follow the custom (and probably the direction of her local elders) and kept her baby that was born with an enlarged head (hydrocephalus). Over the past three years the child's head has continued to slowly grow larger and at the same time his mother has continued to love and protect him.

He is small for his age and cannot walk but he can stand and hold his head up and is pretty good at "cruising" (moving on his feet as he holds onto something or someone). He always seems to be miliseconds from being off balance because of his large head but I never saw him fall once. Something he loves to do is to dance (sway forward and back like the Maasai traditional dance) as his mother sings. The love and joy was so evident on his face and his mother's that I was almost moved to tears as I watched this happen several times throughout the day.

A few months ago a medical team from the US came to the village near to where they live in northern Tanzania. Although "near" is a relative term, I usually think of distance in terms of how long will it take to drive from point A to point B but to travel the same distance on foot is a different story. So this mother walked for hours to bring her child to where she heard the doctors would be. The Americans decided they would definitely help the child but he would need to be seen at the hospital. So this past week everything was arranged for him to be taken to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, one of the biggest hospitals in the country. By next week a decision will be made by the doctors at KCMC if surgery is even appropriate for this child and if it can be done there or in Dar Es Salam. Please pray for this child, his mother, and for the doctors. Obviously I want to see him have the opportunity to grow up as a healthy and fully functioning child but also a successful surgery will be such a testimony to the rest of his Maasai community. Pray that God would be given glory whatever the outcome.

auto mechanics 101

Who knew that by moving to Tanzania I would become more familiar with what's under the hood of a car. The car that I share with my friend Meagan had some major engine work done this past week. Our mechanic, who also maintains all the vehicles owned by Imara, loves to explain everything he is doing, and wants to show us the different parts and tell us exactly why they need to be replaced. I've had several "lessons" each day this week. While I really appreciate his enthusiasm and honesty in all of this, a lot of the information unfortunately goes right over my head. However, I can now say that I know what the inside of the driveshaft looks like (as well as a plethora of other parts I didn't even know I needed).

So can you tell me what's wrong with this picture?

for more, click on my photos

So how do I put my first month in Tanzania into words?

It seems as though I constantly have a zillion thoughts running through my mind. Leaving a comfortable, familiar life and moving to Africa will do that to you. The things I have seen and experienced in the last month have sent me on quite a roller coaster ride. There have been times of joy, peace, frustration, excitement, being humbled, feeling overwhelmed, feeling homesick . . . the list could go on and on. It is nearly impossible to put all of what I am experiencing into words simply because I often don't know how to sort it out in my own head.
How do I express the feelings I had when I met a widow who is the same age as I am, lives in a mud house, has three young children and is HIV positive?
How can I describe the fun it is to sit and laugh with a group of children as they touch my skin and my hair because it looks so different than theirs?
How do I express how much I feel like a wimp when I see women sit in the hot sun all day and break rocks to earn a few pennies, or see children carrying heavy loads of water, wood, produce, or any number of other items on top of their heads?
How can I possibly tell you how cool it was when I saw my first glimpse of Mt Kilimanjaro since arriving? (OK, so I can tell you the best part about it was the fact that it was a clear cloudless night and the moon was so bright it was reflecting light off the snow and ice on the top of the mountain)
I really do want to share my time here with you and will hopefully make posts more frequently. Now that I have settled into some sort of routine I think I'll do a better job.
I have found that I express myself better with the help of photographs. I have now linked my online albums to this blog (look on the left side of this page). So far I only have a few, but trust me, there will be many more to come!

Enjoy!