JAMBO...our very last day in Tanzania, we have been racing to tie up the loose ends, as i sit here at the internet cafe to write for the last time in Africa i am so so happy...things are spectacular...i feel like i am jumping off this page, and have no idea how i am going to settle down in Toronto come this weekend. Beware!!

Yesterday we had a final staff, village leaders, ICA meeting at MAJENGO to pull things together with everyone, to discover openly how we are all feeling, how our work was going, to discuss any problems, anything lacking before i take off for Canada tomorrow..kesho. We sat around three long tables in the big front room of the orphanage, the afternoon sun pouring in, bright, clean and beautiful..the children peacefully sleeping in the back four bedrooms after a great lunch of ugali, greens and bananas for desert. It was idyllic. A huge world map which Seanna brough a couple of weeks ago tacked up on one wall, numbers and alphabet letters dancing across the yellow walls...and on another main wall, Seanna organized \Miko,a local painter to create a beautiful ASENTE from MAJENGO canvass, a thank you from Majengo, with a big beautiful elephant painted on the middle, flowers, grasses, leaves, and the names of over 200 people, locally: village leaders, workers, staff and well wishers, and friends and acquaintances, even people i don't know! from Canada, United States, Sweden, Australia...mentioning everyone we know who has contributed anything to this wonderful project..the names beautifully written TIKO TIKO style, a little misspelt, but beautifully done - a big thank you to everyone out there who has given so much..thank you!!!
I opened the meeting as representative of the donors from everywhere - occuring to me that we are all one big huge family coming together specifically to support and love these forty children, not just for now, but for many years to come as they make their way through pre school, primary, secondary, high school and university if they choose.....and hopefully, as these kids move along, we will grow and expand to bring more children along - there are hundreds, thousands out there needing help, and with MAJENGO..it is a wonderful beginning.

WE spoke of the need of everyone there, the cooks, cleaners, the two main leaders of the staff Martha and Killo..the two wonderful teachers,Glory and Grayson, all of us, the village leaders, ICA and the donors,our responsibility to work as hard as we can together to share in the upbringing of these kids...what a special opportunity we have, with each portion of the pie valuable to the next, we are all equal, without each other we have nothing...

Each person spoke one by one thanking the donors, thanking each other for this opportunity to work in this place. I think they really feel how special this is. A few said, when they started back at the original HURUMA setting jammed into the mud floored foyer, that they thought the whole thing was a joke, but now how they marvel at what they all have achieved.

We encouraged each person to come forth with anything they might need to make this place better; everyone was silent until KILLO spoke..They had one bike, his, he had to ride back and forth ten times a day for shopping, answering questions,etc...
Well, the bike i bought seven weeks ago was for MAJENGO....problem solved, along with my cell phone which has lost its light for some reason...tomorrow it will be installed permanently at MAJENGO with a well guarded stash of phone cards for emergencies, nightime sickness, trips to the hospital. Communication.
We have done our best to combat this problem...and to the best of my ability, we have worked things out. Elias from the orphanage PAMBAZUKO will work part time with KILLO and Martha, shopping, budgets, accounting, transfering information to Charles at ICA, bi monthly to me via email and skype. ICA is in charge of all the monies coming in from abroad to our head office in MOSHE...then transferred to a special account in MTO WA MBU for the orphanage, administered by either Charles or Sabina, both highly experienced in these matters, receipts, accounting books, monitoring systems, each person responsible for the next.

I am confident fully in these people, in this system, and in the attitude they all have today, hopefully tomorrow and through the years to come. Corruption was a big issue yesterday. We left without any doubt that anyone caught stealing from the children would be fired, zero tolerance. WE have seen enough, case closed.

So basically i am thrilled. I spent the morning going over the budgets again and again and again, adding the cost of someone to repair the water system, we have outdoor access, but still a dribble inside.....uniforms for the ten primary kids, two each, plus uniforms for the pre schoolers' all 30 of them, day care and live ins...shoes, twice a year for everyone, all 40 of them. Staff medical insurance. We got permission from Father Paul who runs the big Catholic missionary next door with a hospital attached to allow our kids access day and night for a nominal fee; it couldn't be better. Money for transportation, staffing, foods in bulk and daily runs, medical first aid...the list goes on and on, but today, i can safely say, for me, the detailing is over....

Tonight, we are invited to a final celebration fairwell at Pambazuka...the other orphanage where fourteen other kids have been relocated from the very first 'bad' one on the safari route a year ago. We work with them beautifully, sharing information, books, clothing and experience.

Binti wangu and je kuchu..Seanna and Sierra have been teaching beautiful art projects at MAJENGO every morning for a couple of hours to the preschoolers, then on to PAMBAZUKO every afternoon when the primary kids get home from school. IN between they go swimming, walking around town...yesterday they took little street boy Johnny to the NGORA crater for his first safari...he speaks English beautifully at age 14 and was great company for Sierra...his mom showed up at breakfast to thank Seanna for this chance of a lifetime, but for us it was a pleasure to meet this woman raising three kids on her own, a farmer from nearby Kiratu, age 54...

The days race into night....around each corner an adventure,impossible to describe and i wonder how it is that i have fallen into this dusty little place, with all these wonderful people, so deeply at this time of my life.

Charles especially, Elias, Peter...Miriam who runs our favourite MI CASA restaurant a block away, Hamidu the driver who doesn't speak English but with a heart as big as his body...Sabina, beautiful calm, the social worker at ICA who i count on for so many things....Glory, Grayson, the teachers at Majengo...today Grayson stood against the wall while i drew with black marker the outline of his body, labelling each part in Swahili and then English..so outgoing, so caring of those kids..saying goodbye to them today so difficult, Glory running away as we both broke down and cried.

Little Pendo the youngest at age 2 or less, wrapping herself in my arms...in another year she will be so much older....Peter found her dirty and dusty hiding behind a wall at her grandmother's home, the poor woman left with two kids to support without means and desperate for help, he brought both of them to MAJENGo....it is impossible to describle the difference in these children in just a few weeks...bright, shiny, laughing....they come together now as one big family, brothers and sisters under one roof..it is a miracle.

Speaking of which...and i have never asked his permission as to whether i may write about this...but remember weeks ago, the one week visit i wrote about with MATT...IAN and BILL, coming all the way over here from a small town in Pennsylvania...?? They came, these three great guys, met the children and everyone connected with this project, asked questions, took notes, and went on safari..they came back and made a film with the children, each one singing Twinkle twinkle little star....
They fell in love.
On April 09 I have been invited to visit their town to do a presentation on MAJENGO with Matt...his family and friends will be there, it seems, with open hearts, a group of people in one small town who has decided to take on this project, not just for a year but for many..making possible this dream to become a concrete reality.

No wonder i am happy...

MUCH love to you all..i promise when i get home, to fill this blog with pictures brightening up an already stunning world..thank you so much!! Hoping to keep up with the writing, a little different in a world of cool and grey....
See you on the weekend!!!

xxxxxme!!