Our last day of the year 2019 at Neema Village was a typical wild ride of emotions which looked nothing like I had planned in the morning. The day ended with these little characters wishing you a Happy New Year!
It looks like Linda Johnson had too much fun in The Walmart After Halloween sale!
Dorcas in the little elephant costume above.
Yohanna was Superman!
Linda with Babe Ruth in the bunny costume. There were about 17 more little cuties but don’t want to bore you.
Well just one more! Hosianna as Minnie Mouse.
We had begun the morning with a “cow meeting” in French translated into Swahili and then into English. Not that we or our cows speak French but Jean Yves, our volunteer from France who is a cow expert, does. He has been observing our milking process and had some suggestions for Yohanna (pictured below).
After a quick lunch we headed out with Anna on MAP (Mothers Against Poverty) runs. We first visited the home of Sara who has a successful sheep head soup business.
Yes, I did say sheep head soup.
Complete with liver, heart, head and maybe a couple of eyeballs and cooked with bananas it is supposed to be a powerful energizer. It was for me as I was powerfully energized to get back in the car!
Sara is another one of the “Lion Hearted Women” of Africa that we talk about. Her husband had a stroke and is paralyzed on one side, so she supports him and her four children with her sheep head soup business.
Her last baby is downs syndrome so we can help her by putting him in the new Neema Village Day Care for Handicap Babies. She said it was hard every morning to go out to buy the sheep head and carry it and the baby back home. I can only imagine.
After visiting in her home we drove her over to the day care and as usual were so touched by how precious the nannies are as they sing and work with the babies.
On our first day of operation for the Neema Village Day Care for Handicap Babies nine babies came for care. Our nannies were in training for a month before we opened this week. These babies and their mothers were abandoned by their fathers. Many babies like this are left in dark rooms, some are fed very little, most are neglected. Here at Neema they are touched, massaged, given good food and given a specialized schedule of training so they can reach their full potential in life. I think this must make God so happy! It does me!
After visiting the day care, we drove to one of the local government hospitals downtown. We had gone at the request of Social Welfare to help a mother with her new baby. We first prayed with a woman in painful labor in the back of the room.
The woman we went to help had a baby a week ago and has nowhere to go so she is still in the hospital. She is homeless, mentally challenged, her sole possessions were the clothes she had on and she has no one to help her. The hospital does not have food service (relatives are expected to feed the patients) so the staff has been sharing their lunches with her. We had taken her clean clothes and clothes for the baby a few days ago. As we tried to talk with her, she would not look up and had to be prompted to feed the baby when he cried. She said she would give the baby to anyone.
What a day! From one mother who will do anything, including getting out early mornings to bring home a sheep head so she can support her handicap baby to one who barely knows she has a baby, we ran the gamut of emotions today.
Another “atypical” day at Neema Village which is pretty typical.
In a country where there is very little government resources to help the helpless and homeless it is God’s people who step in. Bless you dear hearts who care enough to stand in the gap with us.
