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| Thanks Beth! |
This past week I am most thankful for all the donors. First off, we had a wonderful celebration of
Pilau thanks to Beth Keen! The children
enjoyed the pilau and we even added a little extra food (a local favorite)
bananas and meat! What was truly special
about these bananas was that they were from our own banana trees planted outside
of our hotel. It made the bananas taste
extra sweet. The children will be
talking about this feast until the next Pilau Day!
Additionally I want to thank Anna Tarkov for her wonderful
article about the children and my role here at the school. It was nice to talk about the children and I
appreciated her very kind article. It is
so inspiring to know that our project is always growing, the children are
receiving more attention and most of all they continue to inspire generosity. I never tire of talking about how they
changed my life and opened up my heart.
I could not love them more and all of you who take so much interest in
helping a small village in Africa.
It started off as an extra special week with one of my best
friends Matt Partain or “Dr. Matt” as the children affectionately refer to him,
visiting our project. He has visited
Tanzania so many times before, but every time is special. He continues to give and serve the children
in every possible way. He makes time for
them during his busy academic schedule by working for them during his Spring
Break. Selfishly, I was just happy to
spend time with one of my buddies, but his research on our children (focusing
on their health and malnourishment) has helped secure a grant for extra Pilau
Days and a more “bean-filled” makande.
Not enough can be said about his commitment to the children. Along with the financial support of Barb and
Ed Walters, I know our children are benefiting greatly from the improved diet.
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| Dr. Matt and I after the accident |
On to my favorite memory from the past week…on Tuesday we
were playing outside at break time like every other day. I was playing catch with the children when a
few ran up to me yelling “Mr. Terry, Regina needs you”. I went over to see her lying face down on the
gravel, I lifted her up and saw blood coming from her mouth. I quickly took her to the bathroom, got her
washed up and examined the damage.
Luckily her beautiful face was fine, but she had chipped one of her two
front teeth in half. I took her to see Dr.
Matt and matron Agness. Agness explained
that these sorts of things happen but most people just live with it, which is
absolutely true. I have seen many
chipped teeth on children as well as adults.
Dental work is a luxury, but Regina is a fragile child, she is small,
shy and doesn’t talk much to most people, which in turn makes me love her
more. I want nothing more than to
protect her and it was heartbreaking to see her hurt and insecure. She was reluctant to even open her
mouth. Nothing is worse than having your
smile stolen from you.
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| Regina with her friends Subira, Diana and Gema |
So I asked Agness call her grandparents to ask them if I could
take her to the hospital the next day. Initially
this met with some objection from our administration “Schools don’t do things
like that.” My response was simple “my
school always will”. That of course
ended the discussion. Knowing her family
situation, I knew that the dental work would be too costly for her family. The next day Regina, Teddy, Innocent and I
traveled to Kibosho Hospital to visit our friend Dr. Alan (insert every positive
adjective to describe the dedication and love Innocent and Teddy, our hotel employees
show our children). We left at 8:00 a.m.
met with Dr. Alan and were directed to the waiting area. The African pace is well recognized to be
slow, and in case you were wondering, African hospitals are also very
slow. We sat together in the waiting
area for about 5 hours before we were seen by the dentist. Truthfully this was probably the most enjoyable
time and experience of all though. After
I got her to giggle a few times and reveal her broken smile Regina finally
relaxed and told me how she had never been in a car except a “dala dala” aka
mini bus. Also she had never even been
to Kibosho before, even though she said she thought her mother was from
Kibosho. Before long the excitement wore
her out and she fell asleep, in my lap, holding my hand. I sat motionless, her head on my leg, hand in
hand and just knew “yup, this is where I should be”.
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| Regina on my left with her smile back |
After
waiting for hours and hours, napping, talking and playing the dentist was
ready. I held her hand as they put a
brand new veneer on her chipped tooth. Even
though the dentist was kind and welcoming, I have never had a little 45 pound
girl hold my hand so tight. After they
finished Regina looked in the mirror, opened her mouth wide to see all her
teeth and stuck her tongue out feeling the new tooth. She gave a nervous giggle, thanked the dentist
and then thanked me. I instinctively picked
her up, gave her a hug, a kiss on the forehead and then thanked her too. I took her home so we could enjoy some nice
beef and rice from the hotel with Mr. Matt.
The next morning when I saw her she smiled, gave me a little hug and she
continued on with her day. I will never
forget the day we shared, but most of all I will never forget her smile. We never really know who we are until we
become truly connected to someone and I think that is why I felt the need to
thank her. Everyday I am blessed to feel
connected to every child and pushed to want to be what they need. Giving a child a reason to smile again is
exactly who I will always strive to be. I
cannot thank you enough for your love and support. Also prayers and thanks are owed to the
wonderful dentists and doctors at Kibosho Hospital for giving a beautiful child
her smile back.
