News from Mama!!

June wishes from Mama with special thanks to Dada Tine for, among so many other things, providing most of these photos. Originally from Belgium, Dada Tine has been subbing in for me these past three months at Tumaini and I couldn’t be more grateful! Asante sana mtoto wangu!

Happy June birthday wishes to Jenny (6th), Pendo and Rukaiya (10th), and Canadian volunteer Megan! Rashid’s is our only July birthday (7)! And so, the good news is I am nicely settled under my net at Tumaini house writing this . . . most everything is wonderful here, the children, staff, Oddo and there is MUCH to be accomplished this visit.

The bad news is that our website has been hacked and I (just the day before I left Canada) and has been down but incredible thanks go out to Robert McCoy of Delta Decisions in Simcoe for working so hard to repair the damage. Delta Decisions Global Website Management! Before “coming home” to Tumaini, I was fortunate enough to share Amanda’s (my and Steve’s daughter) birthday celebration in Paris, France!

 

Baba Kaka and Mama Jenny (Belgian Tumaini volunteers who have visited us in Canada) were kind enough to join us from their holiday in the south of France for a couple of days and we had a wonderful time! Amanda and I both feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to share our Paris experience and thank you Tumaini friends and family for all of the well wishes you sent us! It was a whirlwind journey as I turned around on the following Thursday and returned to our Tumaini family here in Tanzania!

Part of my excitement in returning is, of course, my first opportunity to meet my new granddaughter Nicole! Our own Mary and Baba Frank delivered a beautifully healthy little girl on Mother’s Day and I look so very much forward to holding our newest addition to the Tumaini family! More good news! Raymond is in the midst of writing his final exams in these next two weeks and will return to Tumaini in early July, graduating with his undergrad degree in Public Administration. Considering where Raymond began, (feelings of hopelessness at the end of his primary education about the possibility of ever attending secondary school for lack of support), BUT then, meeting first Oddo, who pulled one of his miracles and got him enrolled without the need for tuition for the first year, then, joining our Tumaini family and, capitalizing on the opportunities presented him, performed to the best of his ability, completed his ordinary levels, then advanced levels in secondary school and now will graduate university and join us at Tumaini, training to take some of the pressures off Oddo and I!

Nelson too, will be home for his summer break having completed his FIRST year in university and  . . .brother Reward is growing his new safari business “Watoto wa Bingwa Safaris and Tours” Bingwa Safaris and Tours  – before he died, their father drove for a beer company called “Bingwa” and he acquired the nickname – “watoto” means children! (Are these the ramblings of a very proud Mama?) And Vitalis (younger brother to our beloved Lohai) is home on break along with other secondary students and has brought us one of the very best report cards I have ever seen!

There has been a “bug” travelling through Tumaini and it has taken down its share of children and adults, (fever, lethargy). Only time, liquids and meds for the high fevers seem to do anything and so we wait for it to travel through the family . . . unfortunately that can take a long time in some cases. Thank you again Dada Tine for providing loving care to our little ones!! THANK YOU!!! To Debra Mather, General Manager and Scotiabank Simcoe, Ontario for honoring Tumaini yet again with being our Title Sponsor for the 4th Annual Tumaini Tournament of Hope, Sunday September 13th and thank you (again and always) to Bonnie Wardell, committee head and golf guru who has added some new and exciting curves for this year!

John, Lisa, Charlene, Bonnie or myself will be contacting last year’s sponsors/golfers to invite your preregistration and newbies are invited to contact Bonnie Wardell (bonniewardell@hotmail.com) for registration information! AND MORE THANKS go out to Mrs. Hammond’s 11th grade (Delhi District Secondary School) family studies class for inviting me back again this year to tell our Tumaini story and collect some much needed blankets for our little ones, and to the United Steel Workers Retirees Association for YOUR invitation to share our tale! Asante sana!

Most of you know that a large percentage of the support Tumaini receives comes from sponsorships and I would like to thank new sponsors, Amy, Gleason family, and Bobbi Jo and friends for making a commitment to help us help our little ones . . . I go on and on about this but when Oddo and I began Tumaini we took on the responsibility of providing care, safety, and a healthy future to twenty four children. That number has grown to closer to one hundred people if we include our outreach families and it would be impossible (and I lose sleep over this) to provide that continued quality care if YOU didn’t reach into your pockets and help us and I regularly pause to thank the BIG GUY for giving you the hearts you have. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have previously mentioned that we began a milk program at Tumaini in order to ensure our children get enough and that program provides two glasses of milk to each member of our Tumaini family daily. We need 18 liters daily and that costs about $275.00 monthly. We are still looking for sponsorship to support this . . . can you help? And American Tumaini Friends . . . Did You Know? That with our recently acquired American charitable status we are able to issue you a tax receipt for your one time donation or sponsorship contribution? Did you know that should you wish to organize a fundraiser benefitting Tumaini that tax receipts are available? Please visit us at Tumaini Children’s Foundation USA! and thank you!!

And so, should you like to send a letter to your sponsored child or organize a skype visit please let me know via email and we’ll make it happen and on behalf of Oddo and myself (and my “other” daughter Tine who has so wonderfully helped out at Tumaini these past few months) we’d like to say thank you and God Bless!