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THE WHACKY WORLD OF ELIA

Our Elia aged 11 is definitely the comedian in Usalama House.  Catherine calls him her “lotion” because he soothes her troubled brow and makes her laugh regardless of how batty his antics become.

He is eccentric in the extreme - he insists on wearing odd coloured socks to school but cannot explain why this should be.

Moderation for Elia does not exist - all our children were originally given their own tubes of toothpaste - this has now stopped.  Elia’s tooth paste magically started to pour from the bottom of the tube - Elia seemed to have no knowledge of how the bottom had opened up (with the use of magical scissors).  When given his own pot of skin oil (like a vaseline moisturiser) he appeared early one morning covered head to toe in the greasy mess.  It took the women hours to wash it off both him and his clothes.  A small dab is definitely not a concept that Elia is familiar with.

Catherine mislaid her white trainer shoes one day - Elia returned from school and explained to her that they had started out as black so he thought they were his but they somehow turned white during the day.  Very strange.

Up at the waterfall on a wet and cold day, Elia without warning stripped down to his underpants and started splashing about in the freezing cold mountain water.  He announced to everyone that it was so great up there that he thought he would have to go and live there one day.

He is the most loving and sweet boy with the concentration of a goldfish and yet his attainment at school is increasing rapidly and his English is probably the best of all the kids.  He is so grateful for everything we do and is a good companion to us all.  He thinks he would like to be a pastor when he grows up and is liberal with his “God bless you” s.

WHAT A BOY!

Thank you Emma for sponsoring him - he will do you proud!

 And here is the news............

THE CHILDREN

We have a really bright set of youngsters at Usalama House.

They are all doing brilliantly at school and have just brought home excellent school reports.

David and Elia have both moved up their class positions to 4th and 7th respectively.  David is also now swimming without aids and is very proud of himself.  Elia’s  spoken English has come on enormously since we were last there.  He is still an inquisitive child - he felt it necessary to finally destroy the house radio by opening it up to investigate where the voices were coming from!

Joram is really enjoying life at school and his English has improved no end. He delights in teaching me words in Swahili and is very patient as a teacher.  He is so much more confident and our fears about him in terms of coping with the distance were proved to be unfounded.

Joram is second from the right

November 2011

Mercy and Goodluck are first and third in their class and prize winners for last term.

Aron and Dominic were also 1st and 2nd in their class and prize winners.  They are both being moved up to the next class next week.  Johanes is now showing improvement and has moved up to 7th in his class.  So we are all very proud of our children.

Our last one at home, Jordan, misses his playmates during the day.  He won’t start school until January 2013.  He is as enchanting as ever and winds everyone he comes into contact with round his little finger.  His language development is coming on nicely - we think that he probably had not been exposed to Swahili at all before he came to us and his mother is deaf/mute so it is not surprising he is a little behind with his speech.  He certainly can say “NO” very clearly.

What is the problem with water?

When we rented Usalama house the landlord had put in running water.  Subsequently it transpired that this was illegal in our village.  No one is permitted to have running water unless very wealthy or prepared to bribe. We were assured by the street chairman that it would not be a problem but during our October visit the village chiefs appeared at the house uninvited and are now causing all sorts of problems regarding water supply.  The fact that we are caring for 10 children is irrelevant to them and they are threatening to cut off the water.  Our lovely Social Welfare Officer will muscle in if needs be but it is causing a huge amount of anxiety to us all.  Villagers have to collect water in buckets from several village taps - imagine carrying water for 12 people!!  Whilst we were there all the water supplies disappeared for five days due to a problem high up on Mount Meru where the water comes from.  Fortunately our rich neighbours collected water for us in their safari vehicles from a couple of miles away.

We take so much for granted here in the UK - clean and regular water supplies are taken as read.  Watching poor people collecting filthy water from ditches is distressing and unpleasant - wake up and smell the coffee Tanzanian Government!

LAND MATTERS

The search for suitable land for building the new Usalama House is well and truly on now.  We need to secure the future for the family in the long term and owning our own property is really the only solution.  We would also like to be in the position of starting a second house to take more children.  We guesstimate that the whole project will cost between £25-£30,000.  If we move further away from Arusha, land becomes cheaper but we have to consider access to shops, medical facilities and schools etc.  It is a lot of money to raise so if anyone can help with this please, please come forward. I am getting even more grey hairs worrying about this issue - thank goodness for hair colouring dyes!!  

Please visit the LINKS page for access to my diary for June 2011 and

past issues

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DON’T FORGET

The Faraja Support/ Bassett Centre Quiz takes place on November 25th 2011 - follow the LINK for more info