MARCI and LYNN...December 2012

Jambo!! from Marci and Lynn, 3 weeks at Majengo...I'm writing this in January, cold, dark and grey in downtown Toronto, remembering... Marci's first time over, and every once in awhile she might say "well..it's not for everyone!!", rice and beans, rice and beans...sounds healthy and good..but everyday?? lunch and dinner?? But now that she's back......

Our first day, off to Majengo to visit the kids who swarm us as we climb out of the old red truck, so heart warming to see them again...4 years now and how they have grown.


The big girls, not little kids anymore, but young women now, teaching us line dance in the middle of a field with Filippe holding Charles' laptop blasting Itunes - the girls asking for long skirts now and nice shoes.

The boys, well like all boys, a little gawky, not wanting to show a lot of emotion, but its so there.  Our visits twice a year  - we get to follow their lives closely.  When we first met them coming from such unspeakably terrible early years, either on the streets without family, or worse, and then into their first home at Majengo, in March 2009 when we opened with 27 kids living in.  Now, jammed into 3 rented cottages, 4 years later,  bursting with 77 kids and, as of this month, another 60 living out.
 And can you imagine! by April they'll be moved a few miles down the road into their brand new home

So on day one, I couldn't wait to see it! after 8 months of Margie's designs we pile the kids into the back of the truck and pull up to the site, astonishing! Imagine 2 football fields of wide open space under the magnificent rift valley, with 2 houses built up to the roofline..and the 3rd- its footprint started with foundation.


The kids leap out of the truck and scatter....like birds set to flight, I can't begin to imagine how they must feel seeing their future home pop out out the ground, like a miracle...This place will far surpass our current facility, in space...with big airy homes, a room for a mama in each, good open ventilation, and wide open spaces, to run and play, a soccer field, play ground, a big open dining room for 100 kids, kitchen, pre school..and someday, a library with computers and lots of books, and DVDs...a tv for once in awhile watching...chicken coop...goats, cows..a vegetable garden behind every house...and a tree for every child!

We start walking from house to house, from room to room...this one is for the girls, the boys, the mama..here is your bathroom, your bedroom, kitchen, here is where you do your homework!! Can you imagine how this must feel to them!

19 guys are working on the spot, hand mixing cement, and lugging it over to house 3, truckloads of stones dumped into the the foundation, to be broken in small pieces with a sledgehammer, again, all by hand. No electricity. Awesome!

Here is Charles, our build supervisor and engineer and Majengo project coordinator extraordinaire! who is holding it all together on the ground. Over at the site every day, revising plans, enlarging windows, doorways for better ventilation, doing estimates, buying materials, organizing labour, touring us around.....Majengo would not be happening without Charles...

On day one, we're at a meeting with village leaders on site, and tour them around  how could they not be impressed! I report on a project back in Canada called POWER AFRICA...raising money to bring wind and solar into rural Africa, interested in appraising Majengo and the community early in the new year. Free technology and hook-up. Very cheap electricity. I'm meeting with them late January...

The days fly by...everyday we head off to Majengo, to draw with the kids, read stories, just hang out...budgets with Charles, we headed 100 km from Mto Wa Mbu in the old red truck to speak at an international celebration for HIV AIDS day!! to a place called Locksale...way out in the middle of no where, a Masai village bustling with market day, top politicians who had come a long way for the celebration, hundreds of school kid, songs, dance, speeches...

....after a big lunch of rice and beans, jumped back into the truck where it broke down. 3 hours later, as dusk fell they found a village truck to haul us 75 kil over bump and dale to the main road, no bus, no truck, waiting, Marci and I and a delegation of HIV positive people, tired and starving, we rustled up a bit of dinner, in the middle of the night, dark, cold...waiting...and finally finally, finally....home.

Marci was clearly on a work-a-day tour, as opposed to a nice safari, where wheels stay on the trucks, the windows go up and down, and people are on time. Rice and beans, rice and beans, rice and beans....Working at Majengo equals local food at $3 a meal, lodging ($15. a night - private room and bath with hot water!) on a back street, dirt road sort of motel, side by side with women cooking dinner over fires on the side of the road - real Africa...our days filled running after Charles, doing  or waiting for Charles. I have tried to learn patience here. Cause I know when he is an hour or two late it is because he has taken a baby to hospital en route between Majengo and picking us up, or attended a funeral - always a good reason. But communication is a challenge,  and when it happens it is thrilling!

Wow!! Right this very minute, as i am writing today, I got skyped by Charles with all the great kids at a good bye party for the first Give Get Go Majengo build tour!! they have had a fabulous time over the last two weeks...every day out there in the hot sun lugging rocks, building walls, on safari to the Ngora Crater, visiting Masai markets, and biking through banana plantations. Monika, who has worked on 5-6 Habitat for Humanity builds wrote that this far surpasses anything she has EVER done!!! wow!!! Check out Give Get Go for their next trips (February!!). It was so much fun seeing the kids...I miss them so!!

We took the little kids into Arusha to a great playground for the first time, all 40 of them, and then of to the NgoraNgora Crater with the big kids...37 of them...what a fiasco, waited a couple of hours for very late vans to arrive, drive up to the crater their very first time! Kids were crazy with excitement, they'd been talking about this all week...

Got into the park...a few hours late to meet the big old bus that was certified to take all of us down into the crater. Well he got tired of waiting for us, and took a group of Asian people down, driving around looking at lions until Charles hit the roof...! we were up on the rim waiting with all these kids, eating lunch in the van, pouring rain outside when the poor guy pulled up the crater, we loaded in and got on our way. Well we were only down there for 15 minutes when the back left tire burst. All the guys poured out, and took awhile to fix it, all the while i had diah. and had to be escorted out to the back to do my business a little worried about lions and tigers and bears...the kids, once i was done, followed suit. Finally we were on our way.

Zebras...wildebeasts! lions..male and female, leopards lurking through tall grasses, elephants and even a rhino, we saw them all in a few hours..back up before 6pm closing time..Marci and i headed out on our trek...back into the red truck, pouring rain, and searching for the park ranger with a gun, all the way over gutted wet muddy roads slipping and skidding to Nanokanoka...we found the ranger, headed out to his cashe to pick up the gun, when after a big fight with our tour director Frederick with cook Mohammed, took off, the gun flopping up and down on his back. What!! we had paid for him, but not enough, or he didn't have the money but all we knew was that we didn't have a ranger with a gun. In the middle of no where out there, with said lions and hyhenas...and whatever else, we called him back. And paid. Double. but we had a guy and a gun.
An hour later, rambling driving in the dark, pelting rain...arrived on the ridge of the Embarkai crater, too dark to see anything, but squeezed into our pjs in the dark while those guys set up our tent, and theirs, canvas to canvas, side by side,  a few inches away. As we crawled in wondering whether this was a big mistake, their last words to us were to stay in our tent, and to call our them when we needed to pee.  The Masai warrior who had walked 20 miles over with 4 donkeys had given up waiting, turned around and headed home..another 20 K - we dined en tent a la spagetti with carrot/tomato sauce, tent leaking, tired, disgruntled, sort of,  and off to bed, chuckling. Sort of.

The next day dawned bright and beautiful. Hamidu and I did a bit of a workout on the road...Mohammed made a great breakfast, Frederick took down the tents and the park ranger watched it all. He'd had a bit of a tough night, with both Marci and I getting up twice each, fending off mosquitoes and wart hogs and what not...down into the crater we trotted in a line...me, Marci, Frederick and the ranger with the gun. Through glorious rain forest and dew, bits of sunshine seeping through high entwining vines and mist, awesome. Flamingos pink and white basked at the bottom around a vast lake, the mist lifting...smoke from a hidden Masai camp pretzled up in soft swirling circles, up the other side, no path, rock, hard...the warriors in hiding, hunkering in there to regain their strength, a donkey tied to a tree nearby.
The trip up was not terrifically to my liking. I am strong, thankfully but i don't like up. Marci was fine. I was not, counting my steps, swearing under my breathe enough already.

Saved by our driver Hamidu, jumped on his back piggyback style to the top..and on to the masai village to pick up the warrior with our four donkeys...a circle of women on the ground now, more and more coming as they see a chance to sell the lovely beaded necklaces, bracelets they wove...we choose a few from each one. When you visit me, at one of our next Majengo fundraisers I will show you them..We take off after a few hours...the Masai with the four  donkeys burdens of beast now laden with all our kitchen, bedding, food, and whater...rushing alongside a herd of cows...

one like Jonathon Livingston Segal rushing out from the group towards me!I am running along, and he is running along beside me, a big black cow of some sort, but with ill intentions, he is almost alongside when Frederick, who is also in orange, batts him off, not once but twice, this guy is persistant. And on we go, rushing, power walking ...the entire Masai village running along at our heels hoping to sell us of more beads, followed by four donkeys, the herdsman, the cows....a procession.  We hit nightfall at dusk. A tranquil rural setting amongst hills and valleys...cows mooing....they unpack, unleash the donkeys and set up tent as Marce and I head downhill to lie on old burlap sacks...cover our heads from the late afternoon sun and rest ourselves.
...a boy of about 8 is hiding behind a tree drapped in dark brown rags...the shepherd of 17 cows loitering below and proceeding steadfastly in our direction, a flotila of flies and flees and flying things carving the way. There is no rest. The boy is fascinated by us, i give him water. He doesn't go away. His cows attuned now to the seeming attentiveness we have shown to him, draw closer. Covered in flies we scramble up and back toward our tents, where just behind a line of Masai women wait patiently, for us to get up in notice of them....and their beads.

Then, suddenly, out of the jungle, Masai warriors appear, dancing, jumping high, wailing with aborigional sounds just like the warriors I once knew in the American Indian Movement in the Black Hills of the Dakotas ... we amalgamate, the men, women and us..in celebration. And later, deep into the silence of night, cries of  whooping, laughing and joy. 

The next day is beyond anything i have experienced. We walked, hiked, hung on to each other, well here is where for some reason i could dance and sing and hike 8 miles down a series of blackened volcanic ash mountains to our old red truck at the bottom...My dear friend Marce who forgot her hat, improvised swirling her Tilley blouse round and round leaving the collar tilted high as a sun vise....a Masai stick in her right hand and Frederick on her left, she was like her mom, with vertigo, and a lovely man aside. African men, are real men. They haven't been liberized to the point where they are unsure of how to be, who to be. They get out there and do their job, the guy stuff...and let the ladies lie in rest in the sun. They laugh, their camaradarie is infectious...lovely...

We treked across rift and mountain, valley, alongside the sacred Mountain of God...forever...in land untouched and unseen by fellow man, at least for that day, we were alone on the planet. The last bit across acrid plain. Hot, dry....with Hamidu's red truck in the distance. Lake Natron. We visited Chief of the Engaruga tribe on our way home, love to his family and the 27 goats i now own...next stop a quick visit on our way home,

with Tatu, one of the 24 Masai girls supported through Majengo's Masai Girls Education Fund, sponsored by Marion and Peg with artist friends, at their annual Art Show. Tatu, four years of secondary, now married with baby Lynn running her very own successful shop, with help from Matt, in the village of Selela...

The next day, back to Mto Wa Mbu to interview another young girl just starting out thanks to the Education fund. Here she is with her family, her mom age 32, raped by an employer, (her father) now wracked with the HIV AIDS virus her little sister at her side, her gramma and uncle behind. She is going into 2nd year, like Tatu, her life will change dramatically over the next few years.

Ah...and Baby Anna..everyone asks about her, the little 9 month old brought to us by police a few years ago, emaciated, dying, with a day or two left to live. Hadija, our cook, took her home...and here she is today....bravo!!

Back to Majengo for our going away party, so hard to leave, but so good to know that soon i will return.

House three is built all the way upn to the roof!! Here Charles is inspecting every room, window, wall and foundation carefully. Next, the roof and the insides...
We hope it will be finished by March or April to move the kids in!
And for Marci and I, home...a six hour bus ride to Nairobi, catch a flight to Paris, smoked salmon with little toast pieces and chardonay at 10am..on a plane with a guy whose passion is to grow big vegetables...so you fill up a rain barrel with water and sink into it a burlap bag of cow or chicken manuere...let it mull about and water your veggies every few days and stand back andf watch them explode! or..if you like long straight carrots..get a 28 inch long, 2" inch wide circular plastic pipe...the ones they use for plumbing..sink it 10 inches into the ground, with 18 inches above. Fill it up with good soil and plant three carrot seeds at the top, watered with the manuered water. One week later, snip off the two little plants leaving the best one to grow, water every three days. Wow! one big 18 inch long straight yummy carrot delicious he tells me. Yum.

Next trip over...Give Get Go!! watch for it on our updates, home page!

MARCI and LYNN, on our way!!!

ON OUR WAY!!!!

Leaving Friday for Majengo!!! With great friend Marci Lipman, her first time. Haven't been over since January, so very exciting. Can't wait to see the kids especially...Tatu speaking English!!!! This is just astounding...she came to us from one of the 'bad' orphanages set up on the safari route to lure in tourists, until the govt shut them down and brought 67 new kids to us, back in Dec 2010. Total mahem, but today, they have amalgamated into one huge happy family with 77 kids living in and another 35 or so, living out.
So she came from one of those places, abused, hurt, sullen, angy...she barely looked at me the first time I met her. Held back. Distrustful. Angry.
8 months later, on my next visit she had settled in, had confidence in Majengo, it was a good place, she was getting three meals a day, and cared for by some pretty wonderful people. She loved looking after the little ones. That second visit, she started hanging out with me, a little.
But watched a lot.
Four or five visits later. I am her mama.

Last January we registered 14 of our brightest kids into Mama Anna's English Primary, based on marks. We told the other kids: if you do well, we will do our best to get you into Mama Anna's (it is not govt, private i guess you would say, teaching everything in English and the best thing going education wise in the entire area, but $420 per child per year).

Our criteria back then, was marks.
She hung her head.
She'd been held back with little opportunity to excel, at the other orphanage.  She knew she would never make the grade. But she was huge in her enthusiasm, her love of life, her love of helping the other kids at Majengo. She bursts with happiness when she sees you.
She tries real hard.
WE said, ok, she's going. No matter what.
And here we are 8 months later, her marks catapulted...her confidence blossomed. And she is now speaking English!! Bilingual!!

Me...i am put to shame. I have been going over for 6 years now, and can't speak Swahili. So this year, my Majengo partner Matt informed me that not only had HE learned Swahili last spring, but so had his 12  year old daughter who he just took over! Yikes! I bought PimLeurs Swahili and did my best to learn. In the car, at the counter over coffee...not easy! but between my trainer and swahili, i am challenging myself big time this year...not there yet...but hopefully this time over it will be a bit better!

Last night Joan Vanduzer of the Harbinger Foundation called with a great idea of starting a sewing component at Majengo...teaching our kids how to sew, so that they can make their own clothes, uniforms, and someday maybe get out there and start their own business! To top it off, Joan donated our first sewing machine which i am going to pick up in Arusha soon as we arrive.

And huge thanks to my great friend Rick Hart for coming up with the idea of people donating to Majengo by SELLING STOCKS....especially at this time of year. They would get a full tax receipt for the amount of the stock, and would not be charged capital gains as it would be going to a registered charity. Great!!! Email Rick at MacDougal, MacDougal MacTier: 514-394-3000, rhart@3macs.com. if you are interested:

Power for Majengo. In the process of building our brand new own  facility for our kids... Today, I met with a woman from Kenya, who is working with Power Africa, a group here in Canada who are getting grants to provide Canadian wind and solar technology and hook ups/maintenance to help whole communities in rural Africa, grow! Why not..very exciting...checking with Charles, our project coordinator at Majengo and an engineer...everyday, something coming together...

Marci and i went to the Goodwill yesterday, crawled out with $500 worth of clothes for the kids, piled high on my table, along with 80 plush toys for Christmas, balloons, tennis balls, skipping ropes, felt drawing pens...
More tomorrow!

All set to go, bags packed...

Charles house flooded; children trapped inside. Halloween update...

Breaking news! Charles' house flooded; children trapped inside:

Dear Lynn and Matt! "I am still in Nepal.  the global conference has just ended today, tomorrow we will be traveling to a town called Nagarkot for ICA gathering, for two days and then home.
It rained a lot yesterday night in Arusha and my house was flooded, some of neighbors houses went down in the street am living, it was sad that my wife was in Dar and my little cute kids were with their aunt and a house maid when water came into my house and flooded, neighbors jumped into my gate and rescued my children, most of properties, food and clothes have been damaged. Grace flied to Arusha from Dar and now they are cleaning the house which is full of mud
Thank you God my kids are all ok, although they suffered to be in water for some hours inside the house without knowing where to go at night".

Oh Charles...thank God the kids are safe and no one was hurt. We wish you well...be safe and love to Grace and your kids. I will see you in a few weeks...! xxLynn

 I just got this email while finishing my Halloween update...
 Halloween 2012...update on Majengo, and thanks to all your support and interest we are flourishing! I'm usually over there at this time, but this year am on dinner, baths and overnight with Lindsey's two little ones - Jim away filming, but back over Nov 23rd-Dec 14th with Marci Lipman this time, who is planning to climb Kili! Very exciting! More about that from Africa, when we land in a few weeks!

So much to say since i last wrote this blog in Feb!!, been consumed with revamping our website with web-wizard Cassie Barker, holding two big Majengo parties, one in Toronto and one up at my Creativity Art Retreat which were so much fun, and great to catch up with so many friends, plus running last summer's art retreat in Dunedin (www.lynnconnellart.com) which was a big success - ook for our new lineup for Spring/summer 2013!  Huge thanks to all who came to support Majengo, to all who helped out, and to Margie Zeidler and her staff who gave us her perfectly fabulous roof-top garden at 401 Richmond to hold that awesome springtime party, with singer songwriter Mary Margaret O'hara and Rusty McCarthy on guitar, the parties raising over $23,000, thanks Majengo Canada!!! And to Judy Steed for getting an article in the Toronto Star.

So here we are! catapulting into our 4th year at Majengo: 114 kids, safe and really happy after so many of them rescued in 2010 from abuse and corruption along the safari route...settling into their huge bubbling happy home, swarming with kids age 2 to 14, 75 bunking onsite into three small cottages, cramped but clean, desperately in need of more space and more mamas to provide emotional and individual attention.

Our rental contracts expire in 2013. This year,  we vowed to build them a new home. I bumped into Canadian designer Margie Zeidler last December pulling out of my back yard parking into the laneway behind her house. Upon hearing what we were doing and having worked in Africa a few years back, she jumped at the opportunity to go over, and donate her services, first with me last January and again in April to complete our conceptual drawings. She working hand-in-hand with Charles and the staff at Majengo, visited other established orphanages, with months of drawing, materials and space. Ultimately we've decided on 6 houses for the kids, each with a room for volunteers and a mama; a pre-school, library, computer room, infirmary, arts and craft centre, soccer field and playground,  and outdoor kitchens and dining for over 100 people.  Our current dining room's thatched roof collapsed a couple of weeks ago, lying now in a heap on the ground! Luckily no one was hurt! They quickly set up eating operations inside the three small cottages - a huge crisis,  but soon to be solved!

In June, the government granted us 10 acres of land 3 miles down the road from our current facility.  A huge plot, a stones-throw from the soaring local water tower amidst acres of small farms spotted along the road - a wind swept, wide-open palatte on which we hope to paint a wonderful new life for these children. Matt went over to finalize the legals with Tanzanian and US lawyers to ensure North American donors ultimate control over the usage of the buildings and land for as long as Majengo is in operation.

We expect that to be a very long time!  Our goal is to support these children through primary, secondary, trade schools, even on to university, whatever is needed to provide them a great start in life, to create a safe, healthy, permanent home for them for as long as they need - an opportunity to flourish.

Between Warren Majengo and Majengo Canada, we raised about $115,000 by August, enough to start Phase One of the build, with another $175,000 to go! Plus, we have to keep up with our $90,000 annual operating expenses covering medical, accommodation, food, staff, eduction - life. Our situation is always 'fly by the seat of our pants', and miraculously to all of us, it continues to keep working! But only because of the hundreds of people generously donating time, energy and money here and in the States. Someone asked me recently, how do i keep the energy going, it has been over 6 years now...and the answer is simply, we have 114 little lives out there that we are responsible for, and there is no way we can stop. So. Anything we can do to help you help us, please let us know!  I'm totally open to visiting homes and friends with a slideshow, speaking at local events - whatever it takes. For those of us who have been lucky enough to visit these Majengo children, experience their shining happy faces, the progress of their lives, embrace intimately this African culture, you will see, we get so much more than we could ever give. Welcome aboard!

I'm thinking now of Baby Anna, who was dropped off to us a year ago by the local police, a 9 month baby with the body of 3 months, emaciated, starving, with, they said, a few days more to live. Our cook Adhija took her home by night, and by day she flourished at the orphanage, with staff and children alike making it their purpose to keep her alive. Today she races around, healthy, exuberent and full of life - abundantly loved by everyone.

In September, Jamie Bees and her husband Larry from Warren organized a group of ten Ist Presbyterian church members to begin the build. I drove down to Warren with new Canadian board member Brian Metcalfe who has fabulously taken over the job of Majengo N.A. treasurer - a great friend and accountant for 30 years. He was greatly inspired by the dinner Matt and Kym threw with Jamie and her crew openly sharing their excitement and fears a few days before they took off. Their trip was a huge success. Especially as they were the first group to go over to help build, with no idea what to expect. They broke into three groups: one working alongside local labourers on site, hauling bricks, digging trenches and foundations, and cement-mixing under the hot African sun, astonishing local workers who saw a different side of us North Americans not only sending over money, but getting down deep and dirty to actually help make this dream come true. At this writing, they've dug foundations for three houses and created a series of outdoor toilets and showers. 

The second group spent time with the kids at Majengo, teaching art, English, chopping and cooking, washing clothes and cabins and kids.

The third teaching English over at Mama Anna's English school where  16 lucky Majengo kids have been attending since January 2012, chosen by teacher Grayson based on marks and how hard they are trying.  I met Mama Anna last October and was instantly drawn to her. After putting her own three children through university, she started her own school with 4-5 kids in her kitchen, which, in 3 years has erupted into a substantial facility with 300 kids and 16 qualified teachers. Since January all 16 of our kids are bilingual according to Margie Zeidler who visited 4 months into their enrolement.   My goal is ultimately to be able to afford to enrol all 114 Majengo kids into her school - at a further $420 each a year.

In Tanzania, public school is basically free, from age 7 to 14, but taught totally in Swahili, which i am trying to learn, after Matt disclosed that after working with Primleur for three months last year he can get by in that language!" Yikes! And me, over there for 6 years with a vocabulary of Jambo! Hi, how are you? It is not easy. Anyway, for those who can afford the annual fee of $650 for Secondary school, they stumble, as it is taught totally in English, almost impossible to transfer from Swahili to English without lessons, and with teachers struggling themselves to learn English. So you can see why our goal of getting all our kids into Mama Anna's will give them a huge advantage down the road.

Back to Jamie's group. At lunchtime everyone congregated over a 7 course delicious African lunch of goat, ugali, rice, beans, bananas, avacado, catered by the popular Double M bar/restaurant in the centre of town, culminating with a fabulous going away party with children and staff - acrobatics, songs and dancing with the kids, local government and neighbours all giving a hand - it doesn't get better than that!

You too can be part of the build!
Give Get Go (http://givegetgo.ca/who-we-are.html) came on board this year in the form of three wonderful women who have worked on over 20 Habitat for Humanity builds around the world, Laurie, Michelle and Kim, now creating their own company to bring groups over to help build Majengo, go on safari and visit Zanzibar, starting in January!! Check them out! A great way to get the experience of a lifetime for themselves and give back - all in one fell swoop!

So many great people to thank this year!!!

Bravo to Peg Graham and Marion Burnett who raised $5,000 at their annual May ART SHOW....and to the artists who donated a portion of their sales to send 16 more Masai Girls to secondary school...I'll be creating a Masai Girls Education fund page on our website for details...this program is a part of Majengo Canada's charitable foundation projects. 

And to Mike Donovan and his Lion Dog African Safari whose clients are visiting Majengo with donations and books to read to the children. I've been back and forth on visitors to the orphanage, worried that the children will soon feel like fish in bowls, or worse, begin to change their behaviour to favour western tourists. Consulted with Charles, our Majengo project coordinator, who advised visitors to do something with the children while they are there, rather than just taking their pictures. So Mike and I, and everyone else who wishes to visit, worked out a program, where visitors are asked to donate $100 for the priviledge of spending time at Majengo, sign our Visitor regulation sheet, and spend their time there reading English books which they have brought, playing soccer, or games, teaching the kids English or art. Because we don't yet have a volunteer coordinator, this process seems to be working well. A win win for both visitors and the children! Also...no candies, money, or favouring individual kids, please..

Lots and lots more..it has been way too long!
again all the best Charles to you and your family...the wild flooding, hurricanes, Sandy, winds, rains, fires and devastating drought this year gives thought toward so many on this planet suffering...who says there is no global warming? And on that note....

JANUARY 2012 visit to Tanzania...accomplished!!
Jambo!! Before our January trip, joint meeting in Buffalo with friends in Warren, Pennsylvania and Majengo Canada. We created a long list of things we hoped the team from Canada could accomplish to move us forward....

Huge thanks this time to Canadian team of Seanna and Sierra Connell-Snell, Susan Lee, Simon Lee Hamilton, Margie Zeidler...to Charles Luoga, our on ground project coordinator and our wonderful staff at ICA and Majengo!!!! A whirlwind three weeks...with everyone back home now, jet lagged, exhausted, and missing those kids at Majengo, terribly. Ah...but the memories..

Briefly....impossible to sumerize....but here i go!!
• Team thought kids are in really good shape....happy and settled in one huge Majengo family, staff too. It's been a year since 67 kids arrived at Majengo en masse, a year of huge adjustment for kids and staff plus a major budget explosion for ongoing costs here in North America. Well done to everyone out there who has been helping, both in Tanzania and on the ground here in Canada and the US. WE are in this for life!!! With 114 kids depending on us...what a challenge. And what a feat!! thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

•Majengo Canada got our official charitable status from the Canadian government.... transitioning now into a legal and substantially verifiable organization, responsible for tax receipts, financial accountability and Board approval both here in Canada and in Tanzania. It has been a huge feat! And again i thank everyone on our board in both countries bearing with me especially ....I called it the Founder's Dilemna back in the spring, adjusting from the sponteneity of creative spirit toward growing a grounded, ongoing and successful organization.
A challenge, and I thank everyone for bearing with me through this process!!

JANUARY trip highlights and accomplishments:
•MAJENGO STAFF: Hired Spora Waziri: a nurse/matron with 40 years of government hospital experience in charge of the emotional/physical needs of the kids, diets, monthly reports, education. Welcome aboard! WE now have a staff of 16 local people overseen by Charles Luoga from local agent ICA Tanzania and local village leaders: Mayunga and Raymond, as follows:
-Killo and Martha, sec and treasurer who oversee daily operations, buying food, maintenance, bookeeping, health and well being of the children and staff...
-Grayson our fabulous pre school on site teacher assisted by
-Matilda and Eve, two Masai girls who we supported through 5 years of secondary school and Montessori teacher's college;
-Nuruana, Mariamu and Sauma: three cooks who manage to serve up over one hundred meals, three times a day, over an open fire within a small outdoor kitchen:
-Janet, Hildegarde, Hadija, Felister and Ameni: 5 cleaners who not only shower and keep 77 kids clean everyday, and wash hundreds of items of clothing everyday, but also keeping our three cottages clean and maintained.
-Maulid and Mhina, two watchmen, equipped with bows and arrows to protect the kids night and day...
- beginning the process of finding a great English teacher.
- updated staff salaries, reviewed and approved budget
- assisted 5 staff members with interest free loans to support their own children through secondary school.
-great visit with India and Peter, co-founders of Rift Valley Children's home ourside Kiratu, to research their children's home, for design ideas towards our new Majengo facility, which we hope to begin building this summer....pending on raising capital funding.
-Canadian architect Margie Zeidler volunteering her expertise with photos, sketches and great ideas, in the process of creating initial conceptual drawings for our new Majengo facility, collaborating with staff, ICA, local leaders and children.
- approval from Monduli District Council (like our provincial or state governmental body), of local Majengo government gift to Majengo of a 6+ acres of wide open windswept plot of land, 3 miles away from Majengo, for our new facility.
- Susan Lee and Charles interviewing local lawyers to draft contracts re ownership of buildings, land.
-initial discussions with Charles re ground supervisors and builders for new facility.
-took Majengo kids and staff on safari in nearby Manyara national park: delighted by giraffe, lions hanging and hissing overhead in a tree, zebra, flamingo, ostrich, wildebeast, buffalo, gizelle, elephants!!! all there, 15 minutes from Majengo! 3 vans filled with kids, one getting hugely stuck in three feet of sinking mud and water....
-trips to Kiratu for older and younger kids to playground, swings, slides, climbing walls....blast!
-daily English, jewellery making, craft and art classes...with Simone, Susan, Seanna and Sierra.
--organized and Olympic field meet, with three legged races, running, jumping games.
- Sponsorship Program: 11 children to date
- registered 26 kids (age 1-7), into Majengo pre school, 88 (age 7-14) into primary school, and 2 into secondary school,
-17 kids into nearby Mama Annas English Medium School, big thanks to sponsors Joseph Slepertas (England), Susan Lee, Ralph Hicks, Peg and Marion's Masai Girls Education fund. On Grayson and Charles recommendation of kids doing well, and/or working hard... English vastly improved with older kids teaching English to staff and little ones.
-Simone donated computer for Majengo, taught Killo, Grayson computer skills, which they now teach the children! Wait till we get our new facility, with computers and a library!!
-Registered 16 kids into Masai Girls Education Fund, secondary school program thanks to Peg and Marion.
-Visited 4 street kids in jail for stealing food, in process of getting them out and into govt boarding school, primary. Need sponsor.
-Margie Zeidler creating sponsorship for teacher Grayson into one year Early Childhood Development degree in Arusha. (Grayson preparing teachers Matilda and Eve in his absense.)
-huge staff meeting: with challenges, successes, bought new needed items; maintenance, etc.
-Created proposed policies on children’s rights, behaviour, staff, vision, mission, treatment of kids, properties. To be approved by Board.
-Dennis (govt. social worker) reviewing backgrounds of all kids, to determine vulnerability and need to meet Majengo criteria.
-Welcomed 2 more vulnerable kids into Majengo.
Currently supporting 114 kids: 76 children living in. 37 living out.
-Updated Staff and Children’s bios and pics, age, schools, charts.

And had a fabulous time doing it!!!
Decided to include this into my blog....a record of hard work and great fun...
NEXT STEPS:
-New Majengo facility: estimated cost: $250,000.
-Major fundraising efforts in the US and Canada planned. Anyone willing to help,
please EMAIL!!! In the US: majengo@majengo.com; In Canada: lynnconnell@sympatico.ca.
-Matt's visit June to review legals, set up process with Charles and staff re building new facility, on ground contractors, builders, construction drawings....
-begin building new facility.
-Jamie taking church mission over in Sept/Oct to assist building.
-Lynn back to Tanzania November....

Would love to hear from you...and welcome everyone to get involved....
Thank you to everyone out there helping...I only wish you could visit to see for yourself what your dollars are directly doing....thanks~!!

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TEAM JANUARY 2012 visit…a fabulous three weeks with Susan Lee and her daughter Simone, Toronto architect Margie Zeidler and my daughter Seanna and granddaughter Sierra..seems like we have been over here for months! In a way it is much harder to get things done in Africa for me, without Swahili which is no one’s fault but my own and my inability to remember! It’s a language which has absolutely no reference to English, French, Italian or Spanish. It’s here like grabbing a multitude of sounds out of the air, starting usually with MB, or MV, or Mn. M anyway and it goes on from there. Memorizing is the only way to beat it, and when your brain is wired for details, not sound, or images, colour, ideas, and not sound. Ain’t easy!

I’m sitting propped up on my bed at the Continental, which again is a bit of a stretch, Tuesday morning around 6:30, a rooster’s crow squawking a little above the incessant idling of a safari truck, parked, going no where but with the engine on, outside my window. It’s cool at this hour, the raging sun still at rest, the sky blue promising another great day here in the dusty village of Mto Wa Mbu.

When I was first coming, we did art classes and HIV AIDS workshops, but these days we do orphanage, day and night..

Since last December’s explosion of 67 new kids to Majengo, raising our numbers up to 114 kids to look after, with 77 living in, things have settled in beautifully. The kids are happy, calm, and finally in a place where they are safe, fed well, looked after medically and are loved, especially by our 17 staff: cooks who dole out 300 meals a day, cleaners who wash the kids, their clothing and the three cottages we rent, two night watchmen, one great teacher with 2 Masai girls who a great group of Canadian artists sponsored through Montessori, a couple of assistants and a mama and baba who look after keeping the whole thing together.

This trip has been about spending lots of time with the kids, Seanna and Sierra running art workshops every morning, Susan and Simone English classes, crafts, yesterday a full session with all 77 kids stringing beads and looping paper clips together creating magical necklaces and bracelets. Seanna brought in a couple of local jewellry makers last week to weave bracelets for the boys, necklaces for the girls- all decked out and looking great.

A group of sewers from a fabric shop in Minnesota sent over a huge bag of beautiful cotton dresses, gorgeous!! plus all the clothes donated by Simone’s friend Martha. Lots of pics to post when I get home.

We’re finally learning names….especially challenging with the little ones who all wear their hair closely shaven, with beautiful round little faces, Careen, Pauline, Jeska, Esther, Anna, Amina, Fausta.

NEW FACILITY: we’ve been renting three cottages over the last four years…leases up in 2013….77 living in, sometimes 2 to a bed, with a couple of mamas sleeping over. This trip, we’ve been visiting other orphanages, lodges, schools, houses, as research with planning a new facility which we hope to get started this summer!! Architect Margie Zeidler shot hundreds of photos: roof, window styles, size of rooms, furniture, shelving, colour, materials, wood, brick, concrete blocks, ventilation.. lots to think about, working with Charles who'se an engineer, the government inspectors, our staff, kids and village leaders as to what kind of children’s home they best want and what we can best create. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with!! Visits to Rift Valley Children’s home…a very well put together facility, small houses, each one with a mama and volunteer… loved the U shaped home founder India shares with 10 kids, a courtyard dancing with flowers and climbing vines surrounded by bedrooms, indoor bathrooms, and a huge living, balcony and dining area with bright blue chairs lined up aside a long table to seat everyone.

Recreation/gathering hall, big communal kitchens like the one we visited yesterday at Manyara Sec School with 4 huge brick stoves, built to conserve firewood, huge sunken pots of beans boiling and a guy with a paddle big enough to fire a canoe plunged in and circling around a massive pot of traditional ugali, a sort of crème of wheat national dish.

A great library with quiet space for homework, a line of computers, books, DVDs. We just got electricity hooked up in our office, with Simone's friend Amy donating a computer and teaching sec. Killo, our top teacher Grayson who we’re sponsoring to further his education with a year of Early Child Development in May, and Hamidu, our driver, computer skills. Education and learning is everything here. Great to see one of these guys surrounded by kids around his desk practicing, cut, copy, paste!

Infirmary, office, indoor and outdoor dining….sports field, and dreams of a big playground with swings, climbing apparatus, which could be nailed together by a handy volunteer showing up next year. It will happen, as the process of Majengo creates itself with the right person coming along at the right time. Susan Lee has been fabulous helping charles and I with budgets, financial statements, logistics, with a great sense of humour along the way….Margie with ecological sensitivities, her adherence to good community planning a la Jane Jacobs, and her architectural and building background…Simone with her camera and incredible connection with the children….Seanna and Sierra too with songs, art skills, fun, creativity, colour….

Me, I am trying to put it all together, harassing Charles daily for updates on legals, land surveys, budget details, staff salaries, comparison's with other orphanages, government minimum wages, numbers of kids, bios, pictures, registering Masai girls into education programs. Every day.

Charles is the glue that holds this whole thing together. Believe me. Not only does he have to deal with us 7 from Canada, driving us around, meals, safari trips with the kids, running up to karatu for the bank, government officials..there is a constant stream of people lined up on benches against turquoise walls, waiting in the ICA office. HIV testing, legal rights, land rights, abuse..there was a flood here in December, one woman had 6 huge bags of incredibly hard worked rice in her room which soaked, started to grow sprouts, losing all but the one on the top. Destitute now, she has to start over, and on it goes. January time to register secondary school aged kids, if you have the money,which no one does. Bits and pieces pulled together to keep their kids off the streets, into school, the most important goal of African parents here.

Charles knows all the stories, the woman waiting for her daughter out in the corridor, who'd been raped by her boss while cleaning his house, fast forward 14 years of supporting this girl, both she and the child with HIV, she waits with the hope of He gets it done, but on Charles time. Drives me crazy, sometime, but patience is something you have to learn to work well in Africa.

Working on legals…the local village of Majengo govt are giving us 8 acres of land down the road, a huge open flat grassy plot next to a half finished govt school which I envision we will help to run with the village, down the road. Most of our kids are either in our own Majengo on site pre school, or trudging down the dusty roads to one of 4 primary schools in the area, a couple of kids walking over 3 miles each way! Along with Mama Anna’s English medium school, a private school teaching all subjects in Engish, a short walk from Majengo.

Met this time Joseph Slepertas, a great young guy from England whose living full time now in Moshi, a town about 4 hours away. H stumbled across the GoodHope orphanage out on the safari route and sponsored two of their older kids a couple of years ago into Mama Annas…coming back this year he discovered it closed, shut down by the government for corrupt practices, the Good Hope kids now living over with us at Majengo. After a few visits he was blown away by what he saw at Majengo, with how much greater the kids were now, happy, safe and well fed…and began to sponsor more and more kids to Anna. We now, along with Susan Lee and Canadian sponsors Peg Graham and marion Burnett, have 14 kids at Mama Annas learning English.

For me it’s been a question of making sure the kids who aren’t going there, are okay. Along with teacher Grayson and Charles, we agreed to support the older kids at Mama Annas, heading into Secondary School in a few years, with only English taught there.

Without English, secondary school kids are completely lost here, as govt primary schools are taught in Swahili only. These older kids who get to go to Mama Annas can teach the younger kids, and staff what they are learning, each night. Last night, during bead threading, it is awesome to come across 11 year old Tatu yesterday with an English kid’s book on her lap, a circle of younger kids around, reading stories in English!! Incredible what Mama Anna has done in only a month for Tatu!!

Spent three weeks working on getting the land grant gifted by the local government, passed by the District Council….and just before leaving, we received a letter of approval. We are on our way!!! 8 beautiful acres of land….to build on, about 3 miles down the road from our current location. There’s a half built school on the property, which the govt plans to finish this year. Margie Zeidler is on her way home right now, armed with photos and drawings,…about to put it all together, after months of research.

WE’ve got our own lawyer, setting up a US/Can and Tanz Board of Trustees or NGO to own and have full control over new facility buildings hopefully to start building in August this year!

Back home Matt wrote that someone has donated $50,000 towards the new orphanage project!! Wonderful and thank you whomever you are!!!

I’m back end of this week..to start a great fundraising campaign up in Canada, now with full tax receipt ability, since October. Anyone out there who wants to help, with dinners, fundraising events, speaking engagements, let me know!!
Just got home...30 hours...Kili to Dar...Dar to Amsterdam..thank you Merit for coming out to meet me! 7 hour wait and on to Toronto, three films later, with the kind of jet lag you can't imagine...all that energy put out there for three weeks, and it's over. Over are the meals, endless of rice, bananas and beans!! Hopping in and out of safari trucks, getting stuck in the mud with 30 children atop the van waiting, looking out my window and way up just above the van, a lady lion perched on a swinging branch, barring her teeth, ready to pounce!! Filippo covers his head with canvas for protection, as we speed away.
I'm going to write more later, with lots of pics. Huge thanks to Margie Zeidler, Susan Lee and her daughter Simone, my daughter Seanna and Sierra for their incredible imput, everyday over at Majengo running classes with the children. Making bracelets, necklaces, teaching English, playing, drawing, dancing, singing...it was fabulous...
more later....

Tatu....oh....she breaks my heart...she is 14 years old, and came to us last December, one of the older girls from one of the corrupt orphanage, age 14, wary, hard, tough, one can only image what she has been threw...when i first met her in January. We didn't have electricity back then, it only came in April, after three years of begging..imagine putting 77 children to bed in the dark. But at the end of our visit, we threw a big welcoming party for all the kids, with great food: rice, ugali, greens, cobs of corn, beans, goat meat and beef, chicken, a real feast...set it all out under the stars, with tables and benches nearby when a huge storm blew open the skies, big rains poured down and we all raced with platters of food under shelter squished into one of our newly-renovated houses, the children sitting on the floor with paper plates filled..clumps of mud a buffet table outside quickly set up and laden with wet food, the generator on full blasting the joy of music in the dark with Matt holding a flashlight as kids poured out and started to dance; they knew all the music, the lyrics, the African beat, dancing, wild, excited. They get the rythm. In their blood.
Suddenly Tatu....so hard and tough and staying away only a few hours before, now dancing as with the wind in her soul, eyes flashing, she grabs my hand, Tatu exploding with life, with hope. We connected that night in the pouring rain, the music, the dance. And as I left the next day for Canada, once again saying goodbye, tears of once again losing, once again connecting and someone leaving, falling, hugging, and once again sadly pulling away from each other. We are, their mama, their baba, with a hug, a love and then, once again, leave...

Coming back a few months later in October, I look for Tatu and find her there. Watching. Outside, away from the others. Crowding around. Filippe, I have known him from the beginning 3 years back, with big ears that stick out and buck teeth, the boy who was nicknamed "fearless one", who had been left alone for over 24 hours by himself, both mama and step papa gone... asking for bicycles. Five of them. The last time he asked for a car or a bus to carry them to school, walking the two miles to and fro, he was pushing for help...but bikes, sure we could do that. And all the while Tatu is standing back behind the crowd watching.

We spend a morning in and out of the shops finding oil paint in colours of red, yellow, blue, green back and white...in little cans, we buy brushes and get the kids to draw animals with felt pens on paper, and buses, and children in front of houses with mamas and babas....I head over the next day with the images and draw big and huge on all four walls of our newly-built office outside the orphanage for guests to come and visit....and the next day invite the kids to come and paint. Wow, it was insane with everyone of them crying ME!! ME!! ME!!!.!!!! I am going crazy, i tell them they are driving me craxy. but....They did it...covered in oil paint which doesn't come off, Proud of their work, every one of them painting....you have to see it...
The day the bikes arrive...they are carreening around the grounds, all of them taking turns on all five bikes...swishing and wizzing about, like mad...jumping off, falling off, laughing...crazy...
Tatu comes to me and says. Holding my hand.
Quietly.
"No mama. No baba. I have a sister."
I say to her, great, wow...where is she?
She bows her head and shakes it back and forth. She doesn't know. With tears.
Until a bike becomes free.
And with her wild skirts flying, she takes off, free.

Tonight here back in Toronto on the first day of the year, after a few days at the River House in Dunedin..i am back in Africa...Tatu...Filippe....Amina...Godlisen, (as in God Listen, oh i love that little kid..he jumps from the top of the bunk beds from one to then next, breaking them...!!! He wants to be a policeman when he grows up....). I once taught them how to swim....

I haven't written for so long..
Once you start something like this...it gets bigger and bigger...
There are things you can't write about anymore..Like the nights you lie in bed and hope with all your heart and dear soul that everything is okay over there....
Funny...it all begins with seeing 52 kids on a mud floor...you, and why you? have to do something about it...i say now, the right person at the right place at the right time...that's about all it is...I was there. Charles brought me kicking and screaming. I'd just been bamboozled by a corrupt orphanage director who threw me out of his lucrative orphanage business on the safari route, luring in tourist money, cause i was the whistle blower. I wanted out. Out of Africa. Weeping, couldn't stop, that day in our office. I'm leaving. I'm heading up to Nairobi...
I want out. I want to go home.
So he takes me on the back of his big old red truck to see 52 kids on the mud floor and hey they are kids. He says you've learned so much about orphanages...so why not put what you've learned towards these kids. Kids are kids. Over there in Africa it doesn't really matter, there are so many kids, like 16 million orphaned out there by HIV AIDS...who cares, in Charles' opinion..if one thing doesn't work out, move your energies to another....so we founded Majengo.
That day. March 2008.
And here we are almost 4 years later...we've got 114 kids depending on us. So. How did this happen? This isn't a situation where you go over there, somewhere, anywhere...and build a school, or a dam. or whatever...you start and orphanage and you build a house and move 27 kids into it, and all of a sudden, three years later you have 77 kids, with 37 more living out that you are responsible for, and you can't sleep at night.
you can't be there full time...no. You have your own kids and grandkids back home..and you are an artist and have friends and a life in Toronto, and in Dunedin and you are running an art retreat for people who want to paint, but all of a sudden you have this huge responsibility a long way away, but so very close to your heart, to your home...
Till tonight, i have been writing, in a more business kind of way.
And i have been very stuck. Writing about catch-ups on visits, on new facilities..on what we have to do. On structure. On administration. This year i have learned much about charitable status, about boards, about structure. Structure. About how it has to be done. About the administrative ends of things.

So. When you donate, I race to my drawer, haul out my bank book and thank you cards, and tax receipts, and photographs of the kids, and get busy...boy am i paranoid of getting it wrong...I got my good friend who is an accountant, Brian who brought in a bookkeeper. My gawd. Believe me, everything i am doing is A one...and if it isn't, it is out of ignorance.

Marci my good friend called today. A friend of hers who wrote me a cheque for $150. asked her, how exactly does the money go "straight over to the kids at Majengo", and Marci said, well, "i don't really know. Knowing Lynn, she probably stuffs it into her bra and underpants!!".

So...I told her what we do, i have to sit down and write it all out, as it is.....

From you...into our MAJENGO CANADA..or in the US, the Warren Majengo Foundation, who have had their IRS status for the last two years or more...
Every month..our local NGO Tanzanian agents over there, ICA TANZANIA..through Charles, the guy i have been working with for over five years now..send us a requisition of how much money the orphanage needs for the next month.
Our budget is 1/3 lower than the two other orphanages we visited..we work every time we are over there, with Charles and with our Majengo staff..to correct and keep our budgets up to date.
So we get the requisition, check it with our agreed upon yearly budget, and wire the money into the bank accounts of ICA TANZANIA. They send the money down to Mto Wa Mbu, where Charles distributes it for food, clothing, medical needs, cleanliness needs, education, staff salaries, etc..with receipts for everything...He keeps the financial statements which we receive every month...and on it has gone....for the last almost three years...
Do I worry. Sure i worry.

There is corruption and deviences and discrepancies everywhere on the planet.
It is your money i am responsible for. That is a huge worry for me.
Now i am painting for Majengo.
All the proceeds of my paintings go toward the orphanage..
I asked tonight a great old friend of mine to give up her life in Canada to work over at the Orphanage, to be our liaison there......yes...Kathie.....yes...think about it. Do it!!!
I haven't written for a long time, and tonight...it feels good to be back into the sheer bones of what we are all doing here...hey..there are 77 little kids over there...and 37 more living out in the community who depend on us...none of whom have a mama and a baba who can look after them...and tonight on this first day of the new year...i thank you all for being such a huge important part of helping them find a way to be part of this world, to grow, into leaders, maybe, of the future....
thank you..x