Neema Deo Kiwia

I am sorry that these blogs have turned into a once a week thing instead of every day or every other day-- but I guess its a good thing because I have been too busy with the children to be able to sit on the computer.. plus, this is the first time I have had electricity all week haha but still, I have definitely been busy.

Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.
This week, the children all went back to school-- they have been on holiday for the past month or so. I decided to start going to school with Mama to teach-- she works at a government primary school called Mrapanga.  we have about 13 kids from Tuleeni who go to school here. It was awesome seeing their faces light up when they saw me at their school. The first day I taught there, Mama told the class that they needed to behave  because I was her daughter and they needed to listen to me. I only taught for about 30 minutes the first day. I spent the rest of that day grading papers. Yesterday morning, I woke up early as always, walked over to Tuleeni to pick up the children, and then we all walked to school together-- the kids took me on this shortcut path, which was still a 30 minute walk, but it was beautiful-- through the trees and the corn stalks and dirt paths. I was in heaven. When we arrived at school, there was a teacher hitting a whole line of students with a stick, one by one. I ran over and interfered, which wasn't very professional, but I DONT deal with hitting children very well, ESPECIALLY in a school setting-- If you beat children at school, they will be scared to go to school and will not want to learn. I pulled the teacher away from the children and started speaking very sternly to her in swahili. she was STUNNED that an American could speak swahili. I went to the principal's office and told her what this teacher had done and how I had previously been told that Mrapanga DID NOT hit children. The principal called the teacher into the office and yelled at her and explained why hitting was not allowed and how it is only detrimental to the children's development. I was pleased with how the talk went and felt t better about the situation. I then got to have my OWN class to teach for the day. I taught english to class 5 students, which is like 5th grade. I taught ALL day-- It is so cool to me that I can be in a classroom of swahili speaking students and TEACH. you cannot teach english if you don't know swahili. I was shocked at how much I actually knew and I had NO problem teaching these students.  I think I was supposed to teach all subjects but the kids really wanted to learn english so we carried on with it. After a few hours, I wanted to get to know the children a little more while we were still learning. We started talking about all the different types of work and jobs people can do. After we listed them all on the board in swahili and english, I went around the room and asked each and every child what he or she wanted to be when they grew up. They answered with teacher, doctor, pilot, soldier, priest, cook, banker, carpenter, nurse, and my favorite one, president. I loved hearing all their dreams. After they all told me their dreams, I gave them a lecture that i doubt they have ever heard before. Some things in swahili are EXTREMELY hard to say because the swahili dictionary is 1/100th of the size of the english dictionary. So I tried my best to get my point across and I know they understood me because smiles appeared on their faces as I was talking. I told them "listen to me. to every word i am saying. now you have told me your dreams. and they are all wonderful dreams and you will be great at whatever you choose to do.. and you are NEVER allowed to give up on your dreams… especially not because someone else tells you that you can't do it. you are smart. you are wise. you have the power to be whatever you want to be in this world. If someone tells you that you can't do it, you look them in the eye and say 'Yes I can' and if anyone, and i mean anyone, whether it is your friend, your parents, or even a teacher tells you that you are stupid, you look at them and say 'no i am not, i am smart' i know that talking back to someone can be scary and or disrespectful but YOU ARE NOT STUPID and don't you ever let someone make you think otherwise. When I was a little girl, I said that I wanted to make a difference in this world and that I wanted to go and help people who were in need of love and support-- as I grew up, there were many people who laughed at me and who thought that my dream was unachievable and that I was foolish for thinking that one person can make a difference." A little boy raised his hand as I was saying that last part about people doubting me, he said " but wait, Teacher Neema, aren't you doing what you said you wanted to do when you were little? you are here in Africa helping us.." my eyes definitely watered up, I thanked him for his kind words, and we moved on to the next subject because after that, there was nothing else that needed to be said. I ended the class period before lunch saying, "please don't ever forget what I just told you... I don't mind if you forget everything else we have learned today, just please don't forget what I just told you."


Never get tired of doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts. 
the other night, the stars were shining SO bright-- and as you now know, the kids and I have a special bond through the moon the sun and the stars, but especially the stars. We brought a blanket outside that night, laid it down on the dirt, and then bundled up together on it. It started with just me, little hellen, Lucky, and Jonas. But then little Neema, Joyce, Vanessa, and the baby twins came and joined us. everything was quiet expect the typical animal and bug noises you can hear at night. I put on some music for all of us-- we listened to my "change the world" playlist-- starting with the song "My Wish" I told the kids they had to listen to the words and know that I mean each and every one of them… we stayed outside for a while looking at constellations and shooting stars, which they called "walking stars" it was really cute. They asked me what a star was. I told them that some of them are actually planets. They didn't believe me until I showed them this picture I found online of earth as imaged from the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it exited the solar system in 1990. In the picture, earth is nearly 4 billion miles away. in the picture, it is a tiny little dot. The picture I showed them had a quote on it by Carl Sagan talking about this little dot, which is actually Earth. "Look at that dot. thats here. thats home. thats us. on it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you have ever heard of, every human bend who ever was, lived out there lives right there. the aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines. every hunter and roger, every hero and coward. ever creator and destroyer of civilization, ever king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "super star", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." Lucky and Jonas couldn't believe that this little speck of dust in the picture was earth. I started telling them that everything in life is all about the way that you look at things. about perspective. and that some people look at Africa and feel bad for those living in poverty. but when they look at poverty, they feel heart ache instead of the desire to make a change. Jonas looked at me and said, "you mean, people like you.. you see things different" I told him that my favorite thing about myself is my eyes… not for the way they look but for the way they see.. because I have seen things in my life that lit a fire inside of me and gave me this desire to go make a change. and no matter how many people say I can't or the world is too big to make a change, I look at that picture of the little speck of dust and the world doesn't feel so big anymore. I am unstoppable.  the most powerful force of nature is the human soul set on fire.

Top left: Amani being a good big brother and feeding baby Hilda

Bottom left: Me and sweet Derricki

Right: Dominique playing with Ismaeli

Beautiful little Celestine

Left: Mama and Me

Right: Hellen kati kati and me! Hellen came into town this week for a check up doctor appointment from her stomach ulcers and malaria. It was so good to see her feeling better and smiling again

Sabina is a girl who I met last summer when I first came here. She was only 17 and has three kids. She had a sad life growing up, which isn't my story to tell on the internet-- she comes from a village where child marriages occur and women and young girls are not treated well at all-- but last summer, Mama had rescued her from her home village and brought her here with two of her three sons. For one reason or another, the third son stayed in the village. One day this summer, Sabina just disappeared and took her youngest child, Alan, who is photographed in all these pictures, and left her middle son Samson here with us. She went back to get her first born son, Edward. Last week, she randomly showed back up in Rau with all three of her children by her side. WE WERE THRILLED to see her and to know she made it back safely. I hadn't gotten to see little Alan since Christmas and I was so happy to get to hug him. I also got to meet little Edward who is 6 years old. Edward only speaks his mother's native language and doesn't speak swahili, so it has definitely been a rough adjustment for him. but he is warming up to people now which is good. All three of her kids have been raised in Sabina's home village and have seen far more terrible things than a child ever should have seen. Not to mention, their mother was a child when she gave birth to them so they have had little to not educational attention or discipline. We are working hard to help Sabina and her three little ones get back to a loving family here at Tuleeni and to start the next chapter of their lives. 

Beautiful Alan

Samson, who is Sabina's middle child, is 4 years old-- here are him and Alan playing together and doing headstands 

Alan chased Pendo around ALL day one day last week-- he finally caught her and the pictures are precious

me and my little peanut 

me and the kids showing off our AMERICA PRIDE tattoos on the 4th of July 

Above and below are pictures from our uncle Rogatus' padri sherehe-- He just became a priest officially on Thursday and these are pictures from the ceremony, the mamas cooking food for the party, and Jonas, Lucky and me all dressed up for the ceremony/party. When we were at the party, I was sitting with Mama and Baba and was telling them this story about the other day when I was in town-- apparently, there is a no littering policy in Moshi which I was unaware of-- I was eating some corn that I bought on the street and I threw a piece of the cob on the floor like we do in Rau all the time. This police man stopped me and asked me to come with him to his office. I met with the head of their department and talked to him about me littering. THANK GOODNESS I knew swahili because it gave me major brownie points here-- there is a 50,000 shilling fine for littering-- this is about $30. I looked at him and told him i refused to pay that much-- I know from stories mama has told me that the police here aren't like the police in america and you can always barter your way out of things. I remembered this as I was sitting there and I looked at the cop and said, yet again in swahili which made it even better, "Excuse me sir, I live here and I rarely come into town. I only came here to buy vegetables to make dinner. I have an orphanage I work at here and have to pay for schooling and food for 50 children!" He was so impressed that I lived here and that I spoke swahili and that I was working with an orphanage and helping out the people here-- He said "okay fine, only give me 25000 shillings, I will cut the fine in half for you since you are doing so much work here" he asked me for my name to write on the receipt for the payment and i said, "Neema..." he said "Neema who" I didn't want to say Neema Stein because that is clearly not African so I responded with "Neema Deo" He wrote it down on the paper and let me go on my way. "Deo Kiwia" is Baba's last name but he uses "Deo" for short. As I told Mama and Baba this story, they were rolling on the floor laughing and so proud of me for getting myself out of 50,000 shillings. They then told me that from now on, my name would be "Neema Deo Kiwia" and that I was officially their daughter. Baba looked at me and said, "you know, now your boyfriend or future husband has to ask my permission and offer a gift in exchange for your hand in marriage" He smiled at me because this was a common Chaga ritual which I was aware of. Chaga is the name of the tribe that Mama, Baba, and all their family is a part of. there were 250+ people at this party for Uncle Rogatus-- he is Baba's little brother-- Baba is one of 14 kids and so there were so many families and friends there to celebrate with us. It was such a cool experience. 

A great picture I took of Mt. Kilimanjaro the other day

Me and some of the kids playing around last night--- lucky's face is priceless