Many Exciting things are coming to Sunrise. This month has been full of much anticipated meetings, and finally getting the deeds to Sunrise land. We finally had our very first trustee meeting (Sunrise is now a trust) and it went extremely well. The trustees gave us a lot of really great ideas, and things to focus our fund raising efforts on. As you all know, our main goal is to make Sunrise self sustaining. We grow our own food, and are slowly expanding the garden space to grow more, we have 75 avocado trees that will be producing in 2 years time, and a few other small projects, but its time to think BIGGER. The trustees suggested that build a larger carpentry shop, with about 6 machines. They say with this we can mass produce furniture for schools and companies in the area; things such as tables, chairs, bookshelves, beds, cabinets, etc. They also think that we should also build a store, and sell things that Uhekule and surrounding villages need. An expat in Njombe is working for a company that sells fertilizer and chemicals and things for the farm, people in our area have to pay for these items to be transported from Njombe, BUT if we sold them near by it would be much easier and cheaper for them. The man in Njombe says that he will supply us the things we need for our shop, and help transport them here (to Uhekule). Kay is going back to the states in about 2 weeks and will hopefully be able to fund raise for some of these projects!!
The kids are all doing well!! One of our boys is 13 and in the 4th grade. He came to me the other day and asked if we can get him bumped up a grade or two, because he just realized he will be 17 when he graduates Uhekule primary! He says, "Court-ta-ney, i will be mzee sana!" (i will be very old). He is always the child that is good at everything, top of his class, speaks the best english, great at all the sports he plays, great at all the board games, basically anything he does he excels at! We are in the process of trying to get him moved up, but its not something that they usually do so we are being faced with a lot of hoops to jump through.
Back a few weeks to a month or so ago, one of our girls was at school complaining of a headache and her stomach was hurting. They teacher called me to come get her, but then called again to say she had fainted in the classroom. Our Handyman drove up to the school to get her and brought her back to Site, she was not responding so I told them to take her over to the dispensary. When we got there the nurses thought maybe dehydration, I said great, start that IV. Next thing i know they are trying to force water down this poor none responsive girls throat. I tried to tell them they can't do that it's dangerous, and would never get enough water into her system anyways. I ran back to site to get the "Where there is no doctor book" so that i could show them what to do. By this time she had woken up some and they told me they couldn't do the IV because she refused. I said, "She's 9 years old its not about what she wants, its about what she needs." My frustration was building and so I finally call Bibi Kay (who was in town at the time) and asked her if we could take her somewhere else.
One of the major problems with healthcare in this area is that they use antibiotics for EVERYTHING. They hand them out like candy and for anything you come in with; headache, stomachache, colds etc. Things you would not use antibiotics for, things that usually lots of water and rest can fix. A doctor in the area (who is from another country) said that there is now a new strand of Malaria that cannot be treated with the medications they have now. This is due to the fact that they treat everything like malaria, and give you the medication for it, even when it isn't, and the excessive use of antibiotics.
So back to the dispensary, they then bring in a syringe with something in it. I ask the nurse what it is, she says antibiotic (with the expression of no duh) I took it out of her hand and said you are NOT giving this child an antibiotic. They say, "then what kind of medicine do we give?" I say none, the IV would've done just fine. So the story ends when we finally get this poor child to another hospital where they know not to give out malaria medicine and antibiotics for everything, and they conclude that the child was indeed dehydrated. She is now back to normal and learning the importance of drinking water.
I am waiting for the medical officer to return from her Vacation and then I would like to educate her on antibiotics a little and show her some material that I have received from nurses who go overseas and educate on this very thing. It's such and important thing for them to learn, and a life saving thing too!
We are working hard in the farm right now, trying to get our corn caught up. We have 6 acres of corn and 1 of potatoes. We decided this year to only plant enough potatoes for our own consumption, and it turns out we made a good choice too. The southern highlands (where we live) is the area that supplies potatoes to the rest of Tanzania. Usually if you are harvesting them now, you can sell each bag (which is about 250lbs of potatoes) for around 50,000/= tsh ($31.00) and therefore can make a great profit, but for some reason this year they are only selling for 22,000/=tsh, ($13.75) which is ridiculous! These farmers literally work themselves to death every year in their farms, and to be taken advantage of is so frustrating. Especially when the "middle man" is making around 70,000/=tsh ($43.75) for each bag he sells. But the farmers here are just thinking in the short term, the needing money now, and the buyers are taking advantage of this.
We have a new volunteer coming to Sunrise! She arrives one week from today from New Zealand. Her name is Gerusa, she is in her 30's and very excited to come help us here. We are also excited to have higher-ed a retired teacher from Tanzania to help at site as well. She will come once a week to teach and tutor our children in the subjects they may be struggling in. It will be great to have an actual teacher here to help out, especially because we cannot teach all of the subjects to the children. Plus it will be nice to have another volunteer to hang out with, although i have become accustomed to having the whole volunteer wing to myself!! But I guess I can share :)
(I was trying to upload some pictures but the internet is not allowing me today, 3rd world country and all! Will try next time I'm in town!!!)
