Update Feb. 5

Just real quick before I forget, you can see team updates for the Tuamken Orphans Project here. I have decided to include in this blog quick notes about personal experiences, even if they are not my thoughts.

If you know me you know I am a pretty high-capacity person who likes to have multiple things going on at once (too bad I’m a pretty weak mult-tasker). I also have lofty expectations, which is definitely a double edged sword. What I mean to say is, despite a few moments when I don’t feel productive… when I reflect on the first couple of days I am blown away by the progress, connections, and guidance from God.

To sum things up, we have connected with the administration on so many levels. We have discovered there needs and desires for the future without swaying their thoughts. This is important because typically, Africans will say the answer they know you want to hear even if it isn’t what they truly think. So I feel we have a good understanding of their unbiased dreams and we will see how we can play into those.

The meals donated by Feed My Starving Children arrived safely! This was expressed as their most urgent and important need, that the kids would have a healthy meal each day. The cook and administrator were nearly in tears when we explained what it was.
We toured a nearby school yesterday to look at the desks they had, and get a quote on prices. Today we are going to meet the Fundi (boss) of a business that makes desks and see what can happen there. We are also in the process of measuring the kids for new uniforms. Today we are getting a sample uniform from a shop within the village, and a price quote. This is great because we can also support the community by buying them right within the village versus from within the city.

Next week we are scouting out plots of land. Without getting ahead of ourselves we want to know what’s out there and begin to determine the feasibility of the long term need. The community dreams of a school that would expand on what they have now, which is pre-primary and standard 1 and 2 (same as preschool through 2nd grade back home). They hope some day for it to be a full primary school through standard 7 (7th grade).

We had lengthy conversations with the orphanage about both sustainability and spirituality. We are on the same page for both. They are hoping for land in which they can farm on. This would allow them to raise their own crops to feed the children, and sell the extras to help support the school. We got as detailed as putting in a chicken coupe to harvest eggs, etc. According to what the administration says, land seems to be the absolute most urgent need. Apparently even more important than new desks. Allegedly this is because land near Arusha is scarce and hard to get, as time goes on there will only be less of it and the price will go up.

I will post price ranges as we learn next week, we are taking it one step at a time and understand that just because the administration thinks the land is the first step… we know we must still do our homework. Be assured we will do all we can to uncover the most God led step to take here.

I was much encouraged by the spiritual goals of the school. I trust it is authentic as I didn’t lead with my opinion but asked first to hear theirs. Their spiritual goals are for it to be a Christian, bible believing school. Mathew (the head of the school) invited me to freely pray with the children and even teach bible stories. I could tell he was genuine, and I don’t think he was just bluffing. They want to be a school that welcomes in muslim orphans, but accepts them with the anticipation that they will be born again. It sounds great to me, but again we are still early on and a lot is yet to be proven.

The last thing to mention is, that for the short term tangible needs (uniforms, desks, school supplies etc.) we are setting up a ‘match’ concept. We are asking the community to make crafts to help fundraise for the needs of the school. We will sell them to organizations that have expressed genuine interest, or else take them home and sell them to you! We plan to pay the fair market value for the crafts, then match that amount with a donation. We will take all that money and use it to fund the needs. The purpose of this is to create pride within the community, the whole point of this is to ‘assist them in supporting themselves’. This way we avoid it being a direct handout and avoid setting up a crutch that they get used to leaning on.

Well. I hope this doesn’t feel like rambling, just a lot going on at once. Please, I welcome your input and suggestions. Feel free to e-mail me thoughts or opinions at Andrew@lavego.org and I assure you my team and I will take them into consideration.
Enough for now, I hope all is well!

Love,
Andrew