Our Africa Experience (Part 2)

 

Below, me with Mukeshimana, the 19 year old we sponsored through Compassion for 10 years.  She "graduated" the program and now works in Kigali. She was able to join us for the day, and even sang a praise song for the children.

Below: People at our events in Orange county bought shirts to donate to kids in Rwanda.  They enclosed them with a note and a photo of themselves.  On stage are Rwandan children wearing their treasured shirts.  They loved leading leading!  

Stadium event in Kigali…over 4000 in attendance…most had walked there!

Our time in Tanzania was incredible as well.  Our friend Melissa has been part of a team to open and run Treasures of Africa orphanage. This place would blow your minds.  It's as clean as a whistle, and filled with love, faith and joy.  The kids go to school, receive needed medicine, good nutrition, Christian teaching, clean clothing and cozy beds (complete with mosquito nets covering them!).  The staff at TOA is amazing-nearly a dozen locals who care for and teach these kids, guard the gate, care for the property, cook, clean, and just love on these precious children.  The country of Tanzania makes it very difficult for outsiders to adopt their children (you have to be a resident for 3 years before they'll even consider you!), which is good, or we would have wanted to pack some of these children up with us!  But actually, they are so happy at TOA, I wouldn't take them away.  And these kids, I am confident, will be amazing leaders for Tanzania some day. 

Melissa with one of her "babies", Rukia

As was typical of most of the African children we met, Antoni (HIV positive, by the way…pray for him) was intrigued with Chandy's long, silky hair. 

Some of the kids in Treasures of Africa orphanage-they LOVE to sing!

On our first full day in Tanzania, we drove around picking up pieces of sound equipment for an outdoor concert.  What a scavenger hunt that was…some speakers from a little church on one side of town, stands from another, while TOA workers rounded up the stage parts from another.  Melissa had used her USA know-how and gumption to hunt down everything we needed. We had a great time stopping to visit with children who instantly gathered everywhere we went. The concert was to be set up in a busy open air market area, but when we got there, it was deserted.  Melissa told me that in Africa communication glitches like this are common (the market is only there on the weekends!).  That didn't stop her…she said, "C'mon, let's go tell the neighbors about the concert!"  So, the girls and I followed her as she knocked on the door of every dwelling around (or rather, called through the sheet that hung as a door to the mud house) and talked to people in Swahili about the concert. 


Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. If you have a gravatar (www.gravatar.com) your avatar will be included with your comment.

HTML will be removed from the comment.

Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin's discretion.
Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.