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Tanzania Trails: The Day Didn't Go As Planned
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Michael just gave me the title for today’s blog. This day certainly did not go as planned! I had decided today was the day I would sort clothes for the toddlers. Each baby has a drawer under their bed but
when we look for something for one of the babies to put on we cannot find what we want and have to go scavenging in the other drawers. So today was the day I would sort clothes. Two of the big wooden, handmade drawers would not even open. Michael jimmied the drawers around and got them open and soon I had collected a huge mountain of clothes in the middle of the floor.
But before I could get started the nannies came in concerned that Riziki, one of the small babies, was lethargic, vomiting and had diarrhea. Riziki is one of our orphan babies whose mother died giving birth in January and there was no father around. The grandmother comes to visit but she is too old to care for Riziki, so the baby has been at Neema since she was twelve hours old.
We were going to Arusha town later anyway to pick up the keys to the hotel room for Lori and Lita who are coming into the airport at around 3:30 a.m. in the morning so we decided to leave early. We would take Shermain, the volunteer from Dubai who had been holding Riziki all morning, to the hospital with us. When they were finished seeing the doctor, Godlove was to pick them up and bring them home to Neema. Sounded like a good plan.
We had barely made it out of the hospital parking lot dropping off Shermain and the baby when the girls at Neema called and said Immigration was at Neema House. Always a scary thing, for some reason immigration does not like volunteers.
We had picked up Hannah, from New Zealand, at the airport late last night and her Class C visa was to be here today so she could work with the babies. The visa did not come in, but immigration chose this day to come check visas.
If you don’t have the proper visa you cannot pick up a hammer, a nail or even a baby and if you do, immigration can throw you in jail. Hannah had walked to Neema House from the volunteer house and we discussed that she would not work until her visa came in and she could have tea and see the house only. Even though she was not working when immigration people came they wanted to take her downtown to interrogate her. Michael told them she was not working but the officer was adamant that she could not even be there, which is ridiculous since we have drop in visitors all the time. We ended up having to buy her a volunteer visa for $200 even though her Class C visa has been issued and was on the way from Dar.
Then we got a call from Shermain at the hospital and Rizki had been admitted with severe dehydration, so we headed back to the hospital where I would stay with the baby until Michael could bring a nanny back to spend the night with her. I held her hand while she screamed as the nurse moved the needle around in one little hand, then the other, and then one foot then the other, trying to find a tiny vein to put the IV drip into. They finally put it in her head.
Around four p.m. we began to hear explosions, sounding like gunshots or bombs going off. People were scurrying around in the hospital trying to see what was happening. Sometimes the explosions sounded like they were off in the distance and then other times like they were right in the parking lot of the hospital. It turns out that there were riots all
over town because of a recent election. People had been told not to meet, but groups were meeting anyway and so the police were using tear gas to break up the meetings.
I waited a long while in the hospital room for Michael to come pick me up (I didn’t have a phone since being there was not what I had planned) and finally Dr. Matthews came into the room and said it looked like none of us would be going home tonight nor would anyone be able to get in or out of the hospital. The streets were blocked with rioters and police throwing tear gas into the crowds and explosions going off every few minutes. It appeared we were all stuck for the night.
Not exactly what we had planned for the day.
I was down to one pamper left for the baby who had diarrhea and had mentioned that fact to Dr. Matthews when he came to tell us the news of the riots. In just a short while this busy pediatrician returned with a box of pampers, which he had bought at the gift shop, for Riziki. Very nice man! So I settled down with my kindle for what I thought was a long night in the hospital.
Not exactly what I had planned but with my kindle this plan I could handle.
But soon Efracia, one of the Neema nannies, came walking into the room. Godlove, our Neema driver, had been able to make it through the riots and was waiting for me out in the parking lot. Efracia and I changed places and I walked down to find Godlove. But all the doors were blocked by armed guards and no one was being let in or out of the hospital.
Earlier I had met a friendly African man who worked in the hospital when trying to find a coke and he said, "follow me," so we went around to the emergency entrance where we were able to get out the door and into the courtyard. There were probably two or three hundred people standing around outside in the hospital compound. They seemed to be looking for a way to get out and get home while another large group of people were outside the compound gates looking for a way to get in where they might be safe. I heard a shout from outside the gate as I walked around looking for Godlove in the crowd, “Poli Sana Mzungu” (Very sorry white person.) They know tourists are their bread and butter, so were very apologetic about the explosions.
Finally I spotted Godlove, our very brave driver. We talked about whether we should try to leave and he listened to the news on his phone to see if we could get the latest information. While waiting we saw a stretcher being wheeled in with a young woman, unconscious, on the gurney. She looked like she had been trampled or run over in a stampede. Then three men came running with an injured young man slung across their shoulders. He was being jostled around like a rag doll as they ran but was not responding. He also looked like he had been trampled. Two more injured people came in while we waited outside the emergency exit; both people were bloodied but were walking.
Finally Godlove asked two soldiers if they thought we could get home to our area of town. The soldier told him to go the back ways and we would be able to make it home. We got to the car, sat down inside and looked at each other. I said, “We’ll be okay, God will be with us,” and Godlove repeated, “God will be with us.” I have to tell you all fear left then and even though the streets were jammed with people and honking cars and there was a tinge of tear gas in the air and the explosions were still going off, we were safe and unafraid in the car, and we pulled into the Neema parking lot a short time later to the surprise of everyone, who thought we were all spending the night at the hospital. Godlove turned off the engine and said, “Thank You God” to which I said, “Amen!”
Just call me naïve but I prefer to think it was that “unexplainable peace” that comes to God’s children when they are held safe in the arms of Jesus.
(There are no pictures to go with this part of the blog as men with guns don’t generally like their pictures taken.)
Please continue to pray for this beautiful scarred land and its beloved people.
Grace,
Dorris Fortson
Michael just gave me the title for today’s blog. This day certainly did not go as planned! I had decided today was the day I would sort clothes for the toddlers. Each baby has a drawer under their bed but
when we look for something for one of the babies to put on we cannot find what we want and have to go scavenging in the other drawers. So today was the day I would sort clothes. Two of the big wooden, handmade drawers would not even open. Michael jimmied the drawers around and got them open and soon I had collected a huge mountain of clothes in the middle of the floor. But before I could get started the nannies came in concerned that Riziki, one of the small babies, was lethargic, vomiting and had diarrhea. Riziki is one of our orphan babies whose mother died giving birth in January and there was no father around. The grandmother comes to visit but she is too old to care for Riziki, so the baby has been at Neema since she was twelve hours old.
We were going to Arusha town later anyway to pick up the keys to the hotel room for Lori and Lita who are coming into the airport at around 3:30 a.m. in the morning so we decided to leave early. We would take Shermain, the volunteer from Dubai who had been holding Riziki all morning, to the hospital with us. When they were finished seeing the doctor, Godlove was to pick them up and bring them home to Neema. Sounded like a good plan.We had barely made it out of the hospital parking lot dropping off Shermain and the baby when the girls at Neema called and said Immigration was at Neema House. Always a scary thing, for some reason immigration does not like volunteers.
We had picked up Hannah, from New Zealand, at the airport late last night and her Class C visa was to be here today so she could work with the babies. The visa did not come in, but immigration chose this day to come check visas. If you don’t have the proper visa you cannot pick up a hammer, a nail or even a baby and if you do, immigration can throw you in jail. Hannah had walked to Neema House from the volunteer house and we discussed that she would not work until her visa came in and she could have tea and see the house only. Even though she was not working when immigration people came they wanted to take her downtown to interrogate her. Michael told them she was not working but the officer was adamant that she could not even be there, which is ridiculous since we have drop in visitors all the time. We ended up having to buy her a volunteer visa for $200 even though her Class C visa has been issued and was on the way from Dar.
Then we got a call from Shermain at the hospital and Rizki had been admitted with severe dehydration, so we headed back to the hospital where I would stay with the baby until Michael could bring a nanny back to spend the night with her. I held her hand while she screamed as the nurse moved the needle around in one little hand, then the other, and then one foot then the other, trying to find a tiny vein to put the IV drip into. They finally put it in her head.
Around four p.m. we began to hear explosions, sounding like gunshots or bombs going off. People were scurrying around in the hospital trying to see what was happening. Sometimes the explosions sounded like they were off in the distance and then other times like they were right in the parking lot of the hospital. It turns out that there were riots all
over town because of a recent election. People had been told not to meet, but groups were meeting anyway and so the police were using tear gas to break up the meetings.I waited a long while in the hospital room for Michael to come pick me up (I didn’t have a phone since being there was not what I had planned) and finally Dr. Matthews came into the room and said it looked like none of us would be going home tonight nor would anyone be able to get in or out of the hospital. The streets were blocked with rioters and police throwing tear gas into the crowds and explosions going off every few minutes. It appeared we were all stuck for the night.
Not exactly what we had planned for the day.
I was down to one pamper left for the baby who had diarrhea and had mentioned that fact to Dr. Matthews when he came to tell us the news of the riots. In just a short while this busy pediatrician returned with a box of pampers, which he had bought at the gift shop, for Riziki. Very nice man! So I settled down with my kindle for what I thought was a long night in the hospital.
Not exactly what I had planned but with my kindle this plan I could handle.
But soon Efracia, one of the Neema nannies, came walking into the room. Godlove, our Neema driver, had been able to make it through the riots and was waiting for me out in the parking lot. Efracia and I changed places and I walked down to find Godlove. But all the doors were blocked by armed guards and no one was being let in or out of the hospital.
Earlier I had met a friendly African man who worked in the hospital when trying to find a coke and he said, "follow me," so we went around to the emergency entrance where we were able to get out the door and into the courtyard. There were probably two or three hundred people standing around outside in the hospital compound. They seemed to be looking for a way to get out and get home while another large group of people were outside the compound gates looking for a way to get in where they might be safe. I heard a shout from outside the gate as I walked around looking for Godlove in the crowd, “Poli Sana Mzungu” (Very sorry white person.) They know tourists are their bread and butter, so were very apologetic about the explosions.
Finally I spotted Godlove, our very brave driver. We talked about whether we should try to leave and he listened to the news on his phone to see if we could get the latest information. While waiting we saw a stretcher being wheeled in with a young woman, unconscious, on the gurney. She looked like she had been trampled or run over in a stampede. Then three men came running with an injured young man slung across their shoulders. He was being jostled around like a rag doll as they ran but was not responding. He also looked like he had been trampled. Two more injured people came in while we waited outside the emergency exit; both people were bloodied but were walking.
Finally Godlove asked two soldiers if they thought we could get home to our area of town. The soldier told him to go the back ways and we would be able to make it home. We got to the car, sat down inside and looked at each other. I said, “We’ll be okay, God will be with us,” and Godlove repeated, “God will be with us.” I have to tell you all fear left then and even though the streets were jammed with people and honking cars and there was a tinge of tear gas in the air and the explosions were still going off, we were safe and unafraid in the car, and we pulled into the Neema parking lot a short time later to the surprise of everyone, who thought we were all spending the night at the hospital. Godlove turned off the engine and said, “Thank You God” to which I said, “Amen!”
Just call me naïve but I prefer to think it was that “unexplainable peace” that comes to God’s children when they are held safe in the arms of Jesus.
(There are no pictures to go with this part of the blog as men with guns don’t generally like their pictures taken.)
Please continue to pray for this beautiful scarred land and its beloved people.
Grace,
Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: The Poopy Day
We are up early this morning listening to the sounds of Neema House. The babies are stirring, wanting their bottles and the nannies are cooking morning oatmeal for the toddlers. We are trying to decide
which baby to go pick up and bring into our room to play with before the morning rush. It is one of my favorite times of the day. You know that we have finally decided which of the 28 babies is the cutest; it happens to be the one we are holding at the moment! 
With their huge dark eyes, African babies are the cutest babies in the world, oops I hope my grandchildren are not reading this!
Yesterday was quite a day. We took the toddlers for a long walk, maybe a little too long; by the end of it, all thirteen of the babies we had taken with us wanted to be held but there were only five grownups. Some of the strollers had three babies tucked into the space for one baby. But it was fun and is my second favorite time of the day.Late yesterday afternoon I was in the room where the middle size babies play during the day. Anna was lying on her tummy on a play mat and the cover had gotten moved off the plastic mat. Anna decided it was a good time to vomit and before anyone saw it, she was making snow angels in the vomit on the plastic mat. Frida and Debora
decided to join in the fun and had it smeared all over their faces, clothes and hands. I gasped, grabbed Anna and raced her into the bathroom, ran warm water in the round wash tub we use to bath the babies and sat her down for a good scrub, at which point she decided it was a good time to poop in the warm bath water!! I took the little dripping wet Anna out, dumped the water and poured more warm water in, got her bathed, then did the same for the other two little culprits. This was not my favorite time of the day! 
While we are on the topic of pooping, this morning I was greeted by this happy scene: Toddlers potty training! Never a dull moment at Neema Baby House in Africa.Grace,
Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: Our First Week Back Home in Africa
After a long journey back to Africa, we finally landed at the Mt. Kilimanjaro airport outside Arusha at three am Wednesday morning. We had been in the same clothes since leaving Temple at noon on Monday and had not slept since Sunday night. I always love touching down on African soil and have a certain feeling of coming home. Africa was our first home as a married couple back in 1965 and first homes usually have certain nostalgia especially if it was a good time. We did love those first years in Africa as a young married couple with Ron and Maxine and Bob and Betty and the other missionaries. (The young Fortsons in Tanzania in 1968 below)
In January we will be married 50 years which is an astounding thing to me since as a child growing up in an orphanage, I was from a broken home myself. Thank You God for your Amazing Grace during the last fifty years and thank you to the gentle, mild mannered man that I married all those years ago. I’m a red head myself so I take no credit for the longevity of this marriage.
It took a couple of hours to get through immigration at the airport but Godlove, our driver, was there to meet us. He had slept in the car while waiting for us at the airport since getting through immigration took longer than usual. (Godlove left)At 5am we drove into Neema Baby House and just had to take a peek at all the sleeping babies in their cribs. They are wonderfully beautiful babies and to see how Beola (Bella Bee) has grown was nothing short of a miracle.
(Beola right) We almost lost this baby quite a few times and were not sure she would survive but she is now smiling, active and incredibly cute. Prayer is a powerful thing and I know her sponsors have prayed hard for the life of this little one.
There is a new baby at Neema we had not heard about. Tiny, two week old Byrony came to Neema on Saturday.
(Byrony is the one on the right in the photo to the left) She was left in a latrine and stayed at the hospital a week before they called Neema to come pick her up. She is beautiful with a tiny little face and huge dark eyes. She is our second latrine baby. Thank God someone found her.
Tanzania is a beautiful land, green and lush with exotic flowers and trees and bright blue skies, but underneath the beauty is the sadness of the plight of three million orphans trying to survive. We are just grateful God is allowing us to be part of the solution as we work with the abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies of Neema House.
This ancient land always makes me think of Isaiah 18: 1-2 (RSV) Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. Grace,
Michael and Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: The Old City of Constantinople
May 27, 2013 began our long flight back to Africa by way of Istanbul, Turkey. This was our first time to land in the old city, once known as Constantinople. This is also near the site of Troas (Paul in Acts 16) and the site of ancient Troy, which is full of history mingled with myth. I wanted to catch a glimpse of a face that could launch a thousand ships, but alas while the face may have been there, it was hidden behind the shapeless black garments worn by today’s beautiful Helens of Troy.The first leg of our twenty two hour flight back to Africa and the babies of Neema, began in Houston aboard the large Turkish Airbus filled to the brim with children, babies, burkas and turbans. I think Michael was the only man in the waiting room whose middle name was not Ali or Mohammed. When a mom yelled “Ali” in the departure lounge a hundred little heads turn in response!
Michael and I were seated apart from each other on opposite sides of the plane and I sat by a young woman totally in black from head to foot. She did have beautiful hands and face though but spoke with such a soft, shy voice that all hopes of striking up a long conversation were dashed. She was too afraid to switch seats with Michael on the other side of the plane because, she said she didn’t want to sit by the man next to him. Michael asked his seat partner to switch with me but he said he needed a window seat and was not willing to give it up. I decided his seat mate must have been the sky marshal, since they had boarded him early and he had a good view of the cockpit.
We would not want to mess with a sky marshal so, alas, we slept apart. Oh, did I say slept? Contraire my friend, I did mention the plane was filled with babies and children didn’t I?
Even though no sleep was on the horizon, the food was excellent. Prepared by two chefs all in white wearing the typical tall chef hats; they came around with baskets of hot rolls during the meal. We had
real silverware, no plastic, and cloth napkins. The three course meal was beautifully presented, and I wish I could tell you what it all was... a lot of white goat cheese, tangy brown olives, dill shrimp, smoked salmon, chicken pilaf and lovely canopies with toppings of who knows what and of course incredible Turkish coffee. I’m sure people fly Turkish Air just for the food.After the long thirteen hour night flight from Houston, we finally came in over the sprawling jum
ble of mile upon mile of tenant housing that make up the huge city of Istanbul, with a great view of the Bosphorus.The Bosphorus, a natural water channel between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, forms the boundary between Europe and Asia. I noticed the young woman in black setting next to me snapping pictures out the window and with misty eyes she turned and said “Home.” I guess no matter what language you speak “home” always feels the same.
We met up with Katie and Caroline in the Istanbul airport and we will all be home in Arusha with the babies after one more long night flight. Along with the 9 hours we lost somewhere over the Atlantic and Europe, I have also lost track of how many meals they have fed us today; I think four. They have just brought around Turkish Delights so along with Edward of the Chronicles of Narnia we may be in trouble if we don’t make it home soon!Grace,
Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: Meet Carolina Rose
Carolina Rose came to Neema Baby Home on Saturday May 4th 2013. She was about 2 to 3 weeks old at the time and was left on the roadside. We think she is our third roadside baby. We leave for Africa on May 27 and cannot wait to meet this little baby girl and check up on the other 27 babies at Neema, to see how they have grown in the last couple of months since we left Africa in March.You ask, “What makes a woman abandon a newborn baby?” And the answer is, “We don’t know.” We are trying to live the answer not the question. We are also trying not to judge. We cannot imagine the dire circumstances that would make a mother put her baby down by the road and walk away. The sign we want to put over the door at Neema is, “A Place of Forgiveness and Hope.” Forgiveness for the mothers and Hope for the babies.
Thank you for helping us care for little Carolina Rose.
Esther (Photo to the right) was three lbs. when she came to Neema. This baby girl says Thank You, too!
This is a photo of Praygod (left). We usually just call him "Pray." His mother died in childbirth and his family is incapable of taking care of him. When is is older, he will probably get to go home.
If you are new to our blog you might be interested in our mission statement for Neema House.
“The mission of Neema House Arusha is to rescue abandoned, orphaned and at-risk babies. With a large staff of nannies and other care givers we provide around the clock care, food and shelter for newborns and infants up to age three. Our first goal is that the babies be reunited with their extended family before age three if possible or adopted by Tanzanian couples. We provide training and support for those families. Failing all else, we will continue to provide for the children until adulthood. We also seek to educate, motivate and assist young women, mothers and widows with life skills, parenting skills and micro-business opportunities. We have a special emphasis on AIDS widows, a much neglected group in African society.”
Neema House’s main goal is to glorify God through service. We now have 28 babies living at Neema. Two others have returned home, another is in the hospital in Dar es Salem, awaiting heart surgery in India, and we lost one little angel when baby Joshua died last year. They tell us to expect such losses when dealing with abandoned and orphaned babies but it is still painful to lose one. We have a staff of 32 full time employees, nannies, guards, cooks, drivers and managers. June 1, 2013 will complete one full year of operation for Neema House Arusha. We are a 501c3 in the U.S. as a project under Doulos International and a registered NGO (non profit) in Tanzania with Calvin Groen who has Neema House in Geita. Neema means Grace in Swahili and is a common name for hospitals, schools, and churches, as well as baby girls and orphanages. To find our Neema House, be sure to type in www.tanzaniaorphanhelp.com
Dorris is combing Helena's hair in this photo to the right. Little girls every where love to have their hair fixed. Helena, our oldest baby, is two years old.
May we say a great big THANK YOU to all of you who have helped Neema House Arusha during our first year of operation. It has truly been a God Thing!
Grace,
Michael and Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: We're Not There Yet
This is a picture of the land we have begun negotiations for in Tanzania East Africa. Michael is off in the distance measuring the land with a long tape measure. Money is set aside and the lawyer is interviewing everyone in the village. Since there has never been a title to the land recorded in an office anywhere, we must go through the village council and they have to certify that everyone that might have an interest in the land is agreeable to the sale. There is no deed office where we can go and research the title like we have in the States. 
The land has a great view of Mt Meru, an active volcano and the 5th tallest mountain in Africa. Black, rich soil fed by eons of years of animals, it appears to grow most anything you can plant. It is currently a corn field. Ugali, a corn meal mush, is the staple diet of most Tananians, so corn is a popular crop to plant.We are almost to capacity at Neema House and our plans have been to stop renting the house we are in and buy property to build “Neema Village” with a newborn center and a women’s center along with a larger baby home. With a new baby coming in today we are close to reaching capacity and the prospect of having to say no to a desperate call is looming in our near future.
We don’t see a fully lighted path in front of us but it appears God is lighting only one step at a time. This is definitely a faith walk for us. Neema means Grace and it is totally by the Grace of God that abandoned and orphaned babies are being rescued and saved and formula is bought and nannies are paid and the lights are on. Money has been set aside for property and we are praying that all will go through for this land and that it will be suitable for building. We are asking that you pray with us about that.
Our son Rob is growing a beard which he does not intend to cut until we have the land! So unless we want a “Duck Dynasty” clone in the family we have to get this done!!
We have looked at many pieces of property around Arusha which would be close enough to get the babies in to the hospital quickly. As the main tourist area for the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Big Game parks and Mt. Kilimanjaro, it is all very expensive land. This land is the best, closest and cheapest we could find. We have 60,000 dollars raised for land in the bank waiting to be used but we are about 25,000 dollars short. Michael negotiated the land down to $78,000 and with lawyer and the real estate agent’s fees (yes the buyer pays the agent) it will be almost $85,000. So we are beginning a campaign to raise that extra money. If God has blessed you with extra this year, please consider helping. Check our web site if you need more details about Neema’s mission and goals. www.tanzaniaorphanhelp.com Also, see if your company does matching gifts for contributions made by employees to nonprofits. Remember we are a 501c3 and no administrative salaries are paid from donations to Neema House.
Help us save these babies!
Grace,
Michael and Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: Look Who's Going to Africa!
On May 27, Katie OHara and Caroline Nikolaus, on each side of Dorris in the middle, will be winging their way to Tanzania, East Africa to volunteer for eight weeks at Neema House. Yeah girls! They will be helping with the 26 babies who live at Neema and hopefully working to get the adoption campaign going.
Caroline and Katie are both students at Abilene Christian University. We are excited for them as well as other volunteers who will be coming to help out at Neema this summer. They are in for one of the most exciting times of their lives!
Michael went to Africa in 1963 as a college student from Abilene Christian as well. He and eleven other boys lived in tents for six months and shaved every morning with water from a stream in a tin pan on a stick tripod.
(The picture is a little grainy but what can you expect from a fifty year old photo!)
He fell in love with the people and the country and after he came home, we were married and went back to Africa with a three month old baby. How his mother ever let us do that, as a grandma myself now, I will never know! We lived there for six years. In those days we shot all our meat, grew our own vegetables, had no electricity, ate things like wart hog, eland and fried termites and fell in love with Africa. We also met a lot of wonderful people whom we were able to tell the story of a God who loves them so much he sent his son for them.
Africa certainly changed our lives. We suspect Katie and Caroline are in for a life changer as well!
It is encouraging to see young people like this who are willing to give up a summer at the mall or the beach and come over to hold, feed and change diapers for these incredible little ones who have had such a rough start for their lives. In case you are new to the blog, Neema House is a home for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa. You too could be a volunteer at Neema House! Check it out at www.tanzaniaorphanhelp.com
This nanny could certainly use an extra pair of hands! That’s Michael in the back ground.
Grace,
Michael and Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: Three New Babies
Three new babies have come to live at Neema in the last few weeks. It is always sad that their lives have come to this, but we are so thankful we are there for them.
On March 22, Peter was abandoned on the street and taken to the police station. The police took him to the hospital who called us to come pick him up. We think he is about twelve months old, it is always hard to assess a baby when we have no past history, birth date or medical records. Since he is older he spent the first few days crying for his mother. We try not to judge these mothers. Neema House is a place of forgiveness and hope. Forgiveness for the mothers and Hope for the babies.
Joyce came to Neema on March 15th and she is almost two months old. She was born Jan 25th and her mother died in March of TB. She is very small even for a two month old but appears to be healthy otherwise. She has five siblings and the father cannot care for this beautiful, new infant. Hopefully Joyce will be one of the babies we will be able to place back into the family unit before the age of three. which is our goal at Neema. Since most Tanzanian families live on less than a hundred dollars a month and formula is too expensive to buy, Neema will love and care for this little one until she is able to get off the bottle and go home.
On March 23rd, thirteen month old Gilbert came to live at Neema. His mother is mentally unstable so the police picked up this sweet baby and brought him to us. Like Peter he is old enough to miss his mother so he has had a hard time settling in at Neema House. No matter what treatment and care a baby had, it seems they always miss their mother.
We had a great surprise Friday when former Yellow House students, Daniel and Lacy Hobbs, from Ennis, Texas, brought a check for $1,000 to buy a big dryer for Neema House!! They sponsor some groups at the High School where they teach, and their students had worked to raise money for a new dryer for Neema House. With 26 babies now living at Neema and only 96 diapers (not disposable) it takes a lot of washing and drying of dirty diapers. We think every diaper is washed two to three times a day!! So a big Thank You to students of Ennis High School! It is always fun to involve young people in this incredible work of caring for the Neema Babies.We fly back to Tanzania and Neema House on May 27, and that is fast approaching! We want to make the most of every day and so we would love to tell the Neema House story to individuals and churches every day we can. We schedule breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, and weekend meetings. We are scheduled to speak at Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Bible Classes, Life Groups, and churches. We would love to get together with you. Give us a call at 254 541-4869. Have truck. Will travel.
Grace,
Michael and Dorris Fortson
Tanzania Trails: Radical
If you have seen our brochure for Neema House, our home for abandoned and orphaned babies in Africa, you know that we quote David Platt from his book “Radical” when he wrote, “Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.”
David goes on to say, “So when you and I hear the staggering numbers and statistics about the poor and needy around the world, we have a choice. We can switch channels and let these numbers remain cold, distant and almost imaginary or we can open our eyes and consider the faces that are represented by these numbers.”
Just for your consideration, here are some of the very real faces of Neema babies who still need sponsors.
Bahati mother died
Ibrahim mother died
Zawadi, abandoned at the bus station.
Sorry the pictures are
so big, but I wanted you to see their faces up close. I wanted you to see that they are real and that they are looking to
you and me for their next bottle. If you
are not already sponsoring a child at Neema please consider doing that
now. They need you.
Grace,
Michael and Dorris
Tanzania Trails: Hangin' Around at Neema
Now that we are home I thought I would share some of pictures of daily life at Neema. One of our volunteers brought three swings in her suitcase when she came to work at Neema House.
The babies get tired of laying around so here are three babies just "hangin’ around." They have a good time in the swings and it gets them up off the pads and moving their little bodies as if they needed help doing that! The three little munchkins in the swings are Anna, Elliott and Frida. Anna is one of the triplet girls and weighed about three pounds when she came to Neema. Her mother comes to visit and will take the three girls home when they are stronger and off the bottles possibly around the age of two.
Malin is a really sweet volunteer from Switzerland. She has been coming early, around 7am to help with the morning rush of bottles and diapers. She decided "layin’around" with the babies could be fun at Neema, too.
You may have noticed that we have three sets of twins now and two sets of triplets. These are the three Neema twins.
Mothers out in the villages would not be able to afford formula since the average Tanzanian family lives on less than a hundred dollars a
month and with poor nutrition they would not have enough breast milk to feed the babies. So they come to Neema. The triplet sisters are doing great as you can tell."Sittin’ around" and folding diapers is an everyday job which sometimes turns into a good time, especially when we can get
Martin, one of our Tanzanian volunteers from a local church, to fold diapers (not normally a man’s job in Africa.) MaMa Musa is in the middle and Malin on the floor with the babies.
Two of our nannies are changing diapers at the changing tables Michael had built last summer. We have four teams of nannies who work three shifts and then are off one shift. We also have one young girl who washes diapers and dirty clothes for the babies all day long. Pampers are too expensive so we use a Velcro diaper with an insert. The pile of dirty diapers never ends and the washing machine goes even at night.
PrayGod is a sweet hunk of a baby boy whose mother died and the dad is not able to care for him. Pray at eight months is about twice the size of Frankie who is now 16 months old. Frankie is the boss and can bully PrayGod into giving up his toys.
If you have wondered how the baby who was found in the pit latrine and had magots removed from his ear is doing, here he is! Pretty cute, huh! Innocent whom Claire calls Jack, is now healthy and happy.
So whether we are hangin’ around, sittin’ around or layin’ around it’s all about the babies at Neema House. You can come join the fun anytime! Email us at ml.fortson@yahoo.com
Grace,
Michael and Dorris
