The Red Deer Task Force Team and Gateway School are in the news again. Daniel Kooman was interviewed on the team’s return by Heather Schultz of the Advocate. Check out the article below:
Local Group Reaches out to African Orphans
the need
the connection
the possibility
the reaction
After much packing, shuffling, sweating, driving, waiting, flying and traveling the Canadians for Africa team is home! A few of our members will be winding down in Amsterdam and/or Chicago for a few days, but the rest are happy to be home safe and ready to share with family, friends and perfect strangers about our experience.
Keep your eyes peeled for the Red Deer Advocate article about our trip and mark your calendars for Sunday June 22 at 7 pm. We will be sharing about our experiences at Streams Church on 55 St. The founder David Youngren will be present with our team and we will be premiering the footage from our journey on the big screen. Contact one of our team members or just show up on Sunday night (June 22) for an incredible night beginning at 7 pm. It will be a great opportunity to hear how the journey impacted each one of us. More on that soon!
Friday morning we all parted as a group. Thursday night was emotional as a team to try and grasp all that we had experienced as a group, as well as to part as a team and go separate ways … for Danica, Tami and Andrew, they headed for different destinations. Tami headed home, Danica headed to Whitehorse to work, and Andrew was heading for another 4 weeks of travel to Jordan and Egypt, etc …. The rest of the group
traveled Friday morning by bus (again … not as long as before but still as grueling) to Mwanza to experience a safari. We stayed overnight and headed out early Saturday morning for the Serengeti … What an amazing experience! We saw so many beautiful animals and were in the middle of such grandeur …. it was unbelievable and we often had to pinch ourselves to believe we were there! unfortunately, we did not get to see a lion or cheetah (apparently no one had seen any large cats for days) …. but we sar 26 giraffes, 4 elephants, many zebras, wildebeasts, etc, etc., etc ….. It was such a tremendous experience!!!
This morning we experienced part of a worship service here in Mwanza … again, such wonderful singing and worship. What a privilege! Now we are preparing to fly to Dar Es Salaam where we will be for almost 2 days. We will then begin the long journey back home on Tuesday evening. What an unbelievable time we have had! We cannot wait to share with you in person once we arrive home!
Please continue to pray for safety and health … many of us have battled stomach cramps and the intestinal issues … we are so thankful for safety and being spared real illnesses while here! We look forward to seeing you all in person …. Blessings to youfrom Tanzania!
Thursday we worked at the home in the morning and left for lunch. Before we left the work site, two women who had been working with us at the house presented us as a group with a gift …. A chicken and a duck! At first we thought that the gifts were for the family that would be living in the house … but then we realized that the gift was for us to eat! That was definitely a first for all of us!
Although this was a bit out of our comfort zone, we realized that this was a great gift on their part … they literally have nothing to give … and these birds cost money for them! They were honoring us in a way that we could not fathom. We were overwhelmed! And so, I climbed into the back of the vehicle, holding onto a chicken, and Danica holding onto the duck …. and we drove away. They were cute … we named them appropriately “Mzungu” meaning a white person (the duck was white) and “Rafiki” for the black chicken, meaning friend …. Thankfully, we did not dine on them before we left, but we left them with the centre where we were staying!!!
Bill Shaw arrived Thursday afternoon and joined us for the celebrations. He will be travleing with us for the safari and then staying on for another 2 weeks to meet with officials for planning future construction sites and plans for Save Africa Now. We were excited to have him join our group! In the afternoon we welcomed Juma, Haruna, Sabina and the other orphans to see thier new home for the first time. Even though they
will not be able to move into their home for another couple of months, this was the first time that they have seen the house. They were overwhelmed … and so full of gratitude and thanks! One of the smallest rooms in the new home is larger than the tiny place they are packed into right now! This will feel like a mansion to them! We celebrated with sodas, many photographs, small gifts and much laughter … what a wonderful experience! When we sang a blessing to the group that will reside in the home, Sabina (the grandmother and
caregiver) broke down and cried … overwhelmed by the changes that will happen for them … New hope … new life … literally being saved from the despair they are currently living in! It was a wonderful afternoon …. but so hard to say goodbye! For them, there is much hope for the future, and yet … it is hard to see us leave
them! It was an emotional day for all of us!
Today we worked more at the construction site, and we visited two schools. The visits to the schools were a highlight for me, as a teacher! At one school we specifically met with “Standard 7″ and “Standard 4″ … we met with the Standard 7 because the Grade 7 classes at Gateway Christian School in Red Deer, Alberta had raised the money for the “Gateway House” that will be the new home for Juma and Haruna, Sabina and the other orphans.
We met with Standard 4 to give the gift that the Grade 4 students of Gateway Christian School had made for the students in Tabora Tanzania. It was overwhelming to stand in front of MANY students … eager and hungry to be in school and to learn. School is a privilege here and not something everyone is able to experience due to the extreme poverty. The students were packed into a barren classroom, with wooden benches and rough tables, old chalk boards and simple paper notebooks … Wearing their uniforms proudly, so excited to see us, and so excited to be in school! It was wonderful! We greeted them and shared about Canada.
We sang our National Anthem for them and truly felt blessed to be among them! We then went outside and presented the school with athletic equipment donated by North Star Sports … we had a blast trying to teach them how to throw a football (they call soccer “football” here and do not play our form of football at all) and
double dutch skipping and how to use a frisbee, etc. It was great fun and much laughter!
Today was another emotional day. Today we went to the refugee camp that you see in Africa: Sing Me Your Song. We were welcomed and signed a guest book. Then we thought we would meet a few of the
orphans from the camp / settlement and hear their stories … instead we entered their church to face a group of over 1000 orphans and caregivers sitting quietly, waiting for us! It was amazing! They sang a song for us and welcomed us. We also sang to them and Daniel said a few words and Elias explained why we were there. Part of our intent was to begin to help in establishing a system of gathering information to catelog or organize for orphans to be able to be sponsored through Save Africa Now. This is a laborious job that
could be a full-time position for someone since there are almost 1000 orphans just there alone! We worked with Elias as a translator and were able to hear the stories of only 15 children, while Jeremiah
(another member of the church) did the same thing at another station.
It was heart-breaking … they lined up by the 100s, hoping to be able to find support for the children. Widows lined up and had to be turned away, since their children were not truly “orphans”. Some
children had lost their parents only 2 months ago. Others had lost their parents soon after birth. Many have died from disease, but most from HIV /AIDS. The children look into your hearts with sad eyes … they are beautiful! It was so hard to know that so few (at this time) could be helped …. There are so many more that need to be placed into the system and sponsored!
The people fed us a beautiful lunch meal and we felt like royalty! Totally spoiled! Then the good news was that after we left the church, we went and saw Esther (from the movie) … she looks healthy and well, and Richard … he is chubby and adorable, and the rest of their family. It was uplifting to see them and to know that Esther is still doing well.
We are emotionally exhausted tonight. But we are so blessed to be here. These people are so wonderful … and so grateful that we are here. And although we know we are doing such a little bit right now,
we are hoping and praying that this is only the beginning for being able to bring help and relief to these people!
We love and miss you all, and so wish that you could see and experience what we are seeing and taking in! – It is beautiful here … and has been life-changing for us!
Mungu Atubariki – God Bless You
(Nathan and Geannette)
I cannot begin to tell you what a privilege it was to worship on Sunday morning with the Free Pentecostal Church of Tabora … We arrived according to “African time” and they were already well under
way singing. Their worship is so beautiful … completely uninhibited … they are full of energy and joy in heir worship.
They dance, they sing, they harmonize in ways that bring you to tears. They include all ages within their church and have choirs of varying ages that sing and dance (with choreography) and lead the congregation in worship. They were so welcoming to us and made us feel a part of their congregation. Stu preached and Daniel shared, and our group sang a few songs for them as well. Stu also presented them with the gift of a guitar for their congregation that Parkland Audio had helped to provide. They were very grateful. It was quite
a moving experience to worship, sing and yes, even dance, with their congregation!
Monday we worked on the house in the morning. Mixing concrete was started …. it is amazing. Everything is done by hand … it is gruelling work! We carried (in a chain / line) 84 buckets of aggregate (rocks) and later 50 more, all to be mixed in the concrete. This was used for the flooring of one of the bedrooms in the house.
It is all poured, one bucket at a time, and smoothed with a hand trowel in the rooms. Quite a job!
In the afternoon we had the “party” hat we had planned for the orphans. These were children who were invited by the church that are orphans and are being taken care of by various guardians or relatives. We had a compound location for the party, and expected approximately 75 – 80 children to attend the party. We were prepared with small gifts to give to the children and drinks and snacks. We had planned various games to play with them and were excited about the party ….. We were NOT prepared for over 200 children to come,
along with their caregivers! We were overwhelmed! We played with them and the games were a riot! They enjoyed frisbees, bubbles, skipping ropes, playing soccer, and playing with balls and beanbags
on a parachute! The kids were enthusiastic and excited and they immediately captured all of our hearts! We laughed and hugged and held hands with them and as we played with them our hearts ached that
they were ALL orphans and they ALL need sponsors!
When it came time to have drinks and snacks and give out the “gifts”, we were in a panic … there were not nearly enough. We quickly redistributed the items that were in the gift bags and went out to purchase more drinks and snacks. Still, we did not have enough. We worked hard and prayed hard, and by the end of handing out the little trinkets and items, there was nothing left! It was an unbelievable
experience …. such beautiful children …. and yet, such heartache, and an ocean full of need! They took our hearts with us when they left!
Where ever we go, if we take a picture of children and then show them themselves in the camera, they laugh and shout and clap! They get really silly and want you to do it again and again! We have even found it to be true with the adults! We have had great fun with the cameras!
(Nathan and Geannette)
Our team has been working hard on the building site for a couple of days. it’s a little hard to see progress but a lot is being done. in the past few days we have hauled about 100 buckets of water from a pond about 200m from the building site, used a trailer to haul 3 loads of aggragate (gravel) from one side of Tabora to the other (loading by shovel at the supply yard unloading by shovel at the building site) and today we cleared a 30m road to provide better access at our building site.
The work has been hot and dusty. For the most part we are all well watered (bottled), covered in sunscreen, wearing sunglasses and hats. very few mosquitoes. Christy got what we think was sunstroke yesterday and she stayed at the FPCT centre for the afternoon. She’s doing better today.
Today, Saturday, we started at 8:30 AM and finished at 1:00 PM. Had lunch (food is always tasty and there is lots of it — rice, ungali, salads, some fruit, usually chicken or beef but once a great tasting fish — chicken isn’t the fat juicy kind you find in NA). Methuselah is our cook and he is a great guy serving us for all meals each day. after lunch we cleaned up and went downtown so all of us could buy material and get fitted for a dressy African outfit. the girls have a Tanzanian lady helping them, the guys have Elias helping us.
It’s amazing to see what these people live with (and without). With a 20litre bucket and a bicycle they can pretty well do 90% of what they need to do. Most of the places they live in (from what we have seen) would be considered unlivable in our world. the current home for Juma, Haruna, 5 other orphans and the grandma is beyond comprehension. one small room (8 x 10??), one mattress and an entrance way (5×5??) is what they have. When the place is done, they will move to a mansion — even if running water and sewer is a few months away. It looks like they won’t move in until about July. The house is quite a bit more than we had imagined and everything is labour intensive.
We bought a shovel, 2 rakes and a wheel barrow. The shovel broke in about 1 hour, the rakes looked strong but bent to become close to useless and the wheel barrow is so shakey that it takes two peope to load it — one to load, one to hold. I’d love to talk peavey mart into sending them a few really good implements.
(Nick)
building building building, in more ways than one!
