Busy Times

First we weighed and measured all of the kids at the centre, 4 are cause for concern, 3 of them will gain weight with the good food which they are getting plus we have added peanut butter sandwiches for them to take home, 1 is very underweight and suspected to have anaemia so I took him for a blood test which he certainly didn’t like and his hb is in his boots. Doctor prescribed an iron supplement, fortunately he likes this, and a deworming medication which he hated, we are giving him green veg and extra portions but his little stomach is so small that he gets full very quickly. We will retest in April and weigh him fortnightly. I made peanut biscuits and he loved those, this means baking a batch very week, if this is what it takes to get this little chap healthy, then Sunday is baking day.
Went to visit a potential school for 2 of the Walk in Love boys, very similar to a UK primary school except that it is fee paying, start up costs are high-uniform, admin etc but it may be affordable. They would have to go by dalla dalla every day but this is doable. They need to go to school and the local government ones will not meet their needs.
Finally we went to see Helena who I first cared for at Cradle of Love in Usa River, she has grown so much, looks healthy and happy. She lives with her grandmother, father is close by with his other children, neither have jobs except for unskilled work when they can get it. Aubree, the founder of WiL, is looking at training bibi in tailoring so that she can earn a living, Helena is sponsored so she will be able to go to school so, all in all, the future is bright for this family.
I’m still doing Benny’s dressings every day, he is a friend’s guard who was on a motorcycle taxi when it was hit by a car. 2 weeks in hospital, surgery to put a screw into his big toe to stabilise it and a huge wound from below his knee to his ankle. The dressings are expensive and if he had to pay for some-one to do it then he would be in debt for years to come. Fortunately his employer is paying for the dressings and I’m teaching his sister how to do them just in case I can’t get there one day. The new skin which is coming through is pink so I told him that his leg is mzungu and the rest of him is Tanzanian, he saw the humour but one of his sisters thought that I was serious! He now jokes about his mzungu leg.
All in all it’s pretty busy here in Tanzania, I am fortunate that I have good health, can choose to live where I want to. Life is good.