Helena's visit to the Musoma Children's Home

 

A trip to Tanzania in the company of people that have lived there for one year, and the possibility of meeting the local people, became reality for me and my family.  Our friends and colleagues, Karin and Fredrik, brought us to their special place, Musoma.  They told us about the children’s home, where especially Karin spent a lot of time during the time that they lived and worked in the city, a couple of years ago.  I was told that the children’s home was run by a Swedish/Finnish couple, Lisbeth and Daniel.  They longed for messmör (a kind of cheese made from whey, very popular in Sweden!) and rye flower, so we packed our cooler boxes full of this before we left. That’s about all I knew about the children’s home before we left Sweden.

 

After a long journey by car together with our travelling party of nine, whereof three were children, we arrived in Musoma.  Life along the road, what we saw, the people, was a different but exciting experience.

Arriving inside the gates of the Musoma Children’s Home was as Karin had described it; an oasis, clean and neat.  We were given a warm welcome by smiling people.  Lisbeth and Daniel greeted us with open arms.  Lisbeth was very busy with the childrens vaccinations and a sick child, but we were welcome whenever we wanted during our four days stay in Musoma.

To spend time with the children, to see how clean and well dressed they were and how they enjoyed playing outside, to see sixteen toddlers sitting round a table eating together was an amazing experience.  My 11 year old daughter Alva loved being a part of this during our visits.  She played with the children and was given the honour of having extra close contact with one little girl, to help feed her and put her to bed.

Everything involving the children was carefully taken care of, always under the guiding hand of Lisbeth.  Rules and routines felt well thought through.  I, myself being an assistant nurse, was amazed and impressed.

To help the continuation of the work at the children’s home feels both obvious and important.  I have understood that the main part of the financing is in the form of gifts, sponsors and friends.

 

I recently celebrated my 40th birthday.  On my invitations I requested that any money that was going to be spent on gifts instead should be donated to the children’s home.  I know that every penny will be used to pay for expenses at the children’s home.  This was very appreciated by my friends and also by Lisbeth and Daniel and the children’s home.

Me and my family have happy memories of our days at the children’s home and hope that Lisbeth and Daniel will have the energy and the finances to keep running it as well as they do now.

 

/Helena Happe, Undersåker

 

Inger's visit at the Musoma Children's home

 

A whole gang of us from Sweden visit the Musoma Children’s Home one day in February.  The weather is good, of course,  and all the children are outside.  They crawl around between the nursemaids who more often than not have a little browneyed baby in their arms.

Daniel, of course, wants to show us the buildings but we have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the little ones.  A quick look inside the house shows us that it is spacious and sturdy and equipped as it should be.  After having visited a few of the villages in the poorer areas, where the huts basically just contained a bed and a fireplace on the floor, we think the children’s home wonderful with its nice little beds, beautiful textile decorations, proper washing facilities and a proper kitchen.

We chat to Elisabeth who is a kind of manager.  She is a trained midwife and sees herself as a grandmother to all the children during their stay at the children’s home.  Hopefully they will be re-united with their own grandmothers when they move back to their villages.  But she also tells us that some of the children are so called foundlings and for these children they look for suitable adoptive parents.

Then Daniel offers us coffe and swedish buns at the family house, which is right next to the children’s home. We are a little bit curious about the high fences but Daniel explaines that they are a necessity.  There are both wild animals and dishonest people, even in Tanzania.

We had, as for almost every minute spent in Africa, been given something to think about when we continued our journey.

/Inger Nordahl

 

 

 

Tore has visited Africa seven times.

 

During my last visit I was very interested in checking out how everything in and around the children’s home had kept for the last 10-15 years and how the children’s home worked now in comparison to my previous trips.

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed not so long ago that the building work was started by the building of the fence.

 

 

 

Daniel put a lot of work into the foundation.  There must be very few (if any) building projects in Africa which were carried out with such meticulous care.  This attention to detail and quality pervaded the entire project, and now, 15 years later, you can see that it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

To wash a large quantity of small children demands a proper washing room.  The wear and tear is enormous and sturdy equipment is of the essence.

 

 

Believe it or not, this is the same washing room today.  It sure is an advantage if the ”plumbing workings” is passed down.  It was also good to see that the three different sewage systems at the home worked without problems.

But what happens if the warmwater heater conks out and there is only cold water?  To buy a new one is out of the question.  This homemade heater works well.  There is no question that also African fruit trees thrive on ”sewage water”.

 

I had a personal interest in seeing how the beds worked.  Why? Because this is the result of my 50th birthday.  Can you believe that my friends gave me so much that it was enough to buy all these beds and that they are still working today?

 

Beds at 50+	Beds at 65

 

Obviously the houses need maintenance.  The years take their toll, especially in Africa.  On top of this minor earthquakes are common.  A large project with is (probably) due soon is the renewal of all the ceilings.  They are made out of sheet metal.

 

The children’s home is finished, windows are being cleaned	The children’s home

 

 

Work is around the clock, numerous are the diapers changed and washed over the years.

                           

It was touching to see an old grandmother come to visit her grandchild.  She sat there for several hours and expressed her gratitude to the children’s home for taking care of the little one through the difficult period.

 

Final comment   I enjoyed coming to Africa again.  My conviction that this project must not be discontinued has become stronger and stronger.  I would like to visit again, the hug received by Mariamu on arrival was solid.   /Tore Karlström

Lisbeth & Daniel,

 

Thank you for the Christmas Greetings and also your letter on the 4-month anniversary of our wedding day!  This year has been very good to us and we were so pleased to receive your letter. 

In your letter of October you wondered about our reasons for asking the guests at our wedding to donate a gift to the children at Musoma Children’s Home instead of to us personally.  The idea of sponsorship has been growing in our minds for a long period of time, ever since we made our trip to Tanzania and experienced the selfless commitment of both of you.

When we bought a few magazines to get some inspiration for the planning of our wedding and in the first magazine read about three different  ”example” weddings, where the first one had a budget of 300.000 kr, the second one 500.000 kr and the third one had a secret budget it seemed ”sick” and we wanted to do something less shallow.  At the same time we wanted very much to gather our best friends for a special weekend, which we also got, at Apertins Manor House here in Värmland.  We could not have wished for anything better, even weather-wise.  Three of the best days of summer.

At a wedding there is a lot of attention focused on the bride and groom and we can’t deny that it was a special feeling to be the centre of attention.  Even so, the best time for us was during the preparations when we thought about the 50 people closest to us which we had the privilege of  gathering.  To plan something which we hoped would be special also for them gave us great pleasure.

Given this opportunity, we felt that we in some way would like to give something to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  Asking our guests to think about giving something to the children at Musoma instead of buying us presents is something that we have in no way whatsoever regretted.  It felt right from the very beginning and many of our friends have expressed the same sentiments.  Somebody has also said that they would like to follow our example but still felt that it might be too hard to give up the presents.

We also know of a somewhat more distant acquaintance, who was not invited to the wedding, but who, when they heard of our wish, also found out how to make a contribution.

To be given the opportunity to give is a gift in itself!  Unfortunately, when caught up in the everyday ”rat race”,  this kind of thing is easily put off until the next day.

Please feel free to tell our story if you wish.

Best wishes for the New Year!

Regards,
Hans & Anna