My trip to meet LIA friends in the USA is now well underway, and I am now in Lee Harding’s basement enjoying ‘time-out’ in Iowa before my next leg of my journey.
I landed in Minneapolis and was met by Nina one of the Producers of the documentary that was made at Light in Africa Children’s Home in October of last year and is proving to be quite a ‘tear jerker’ with many people. After all it’s not every day a ‘miracle’ is captured live on camera – as it happened .
It was a joy to meet Nina’s mum and dad who kindly hosted me in there lovely home and to meet Nina’s sister Nini and there friends Monique and Adrian. The following day it was off to meet Mark Anderson the Producer of the documentary and his lovely wife Janine and their daughter Beritt, whose 16th birthday was celebrated on the Sunday. The whole family were involved in LIA production. I was taken to Janine’s favourite hair salon and given a lovely new hair cut, so off came the headscarf.. It was a pleasure to visit Father Bill at Pax Christi church and be introduced to the congregation who were invited to a showing of the documentary. Inside the church there is this amazing water feature which I was much impressed with. Thank you to everyone for your kindness to me.The following day I was invited to meet with Bishop Wayne Fenton of The Holy Christian Cathedral who kindly extended an invitation for me to address the congregation and show the 27 minutes of the documentary at the 11 am. service the following day and then to enjoy lunch at his home with his wife and family and staff members….. wow… that beef was just so tender and succulent and the desert that Diandre made was just too ‘scrummy’ for words. As you can imagine, living in Tanzania with very little choice of foods does tend to take me ‘over the top’ when I eat more than one course…. I really had a great time, many thanks for the opportunity to Praise the Lord together and share what the Holy Spirit is doing in Tanzania. (thanks to Nina /Christine/ & Patricia for organizing this event)
Then dinner in the evening with Mark & Janine and more friends….then the following day Nina put on a delicious buffet at her home where I was able to meet Sam Scaman & his wife. Sam was instrumental in placing all of the graphics and music soundtracks on the LIA documentary, so I was delighted to be able to ‘thank him’ for the wonderful choice of music which so powerfully adds to the video presentation……then it was off to my ‘second home’ in Akron – Iowa, the home of Lee & Nicole Harding, were I have taken over their basement to replenish my tired bones.
Pastor Jean at the Trinity Lutheran Church is a wonderful lady who deeply feels the needs of her parish and has a heart for Africa out-reach mission. When we meet, although it’s been over two years, we just slip into our ‘sisterly routine’ as if it was yesterday.
Nancy Enstrom one of my dear friends in Akron wanted to show me what had been created in memory of her father in the church. I was stunned to be shown a beautiful stained glass window depicting the baptism of Jesus Christ that had been dedicated to the children of Light in Africa. I was just so moved that Lee & Nancy, Don & Deb Feauto could have felt so much love for our children that they had a stained glass window made for them in ‘appreciation’. How very very special. I shall be taking photo’s back to show the children how much they are loved by this little town of Akron.
Lee & Nicole then held a barbeque for our dear supporters to meet with me and watch the documentary. You all know who you are so I won’t embarrass you by writing all of your names. It was just a delight for me to meet with the instigator who met with Lee in a service station some 18 months ago whilst they were both waiting for their vehicles to be serviced, Mark Anderson’s mum and his sister Mary K and his Aunt Helen and her husband Murray Rowe. We enjoyed a great time of discussion and everyone had the opportunity of hearing how the documentary came into being by a chance meeting at a garage by these two faithful servants of God…..In the next county, in the neighbouring state of Nebraska, live Marilyn and Bruce who very kindly invited us to a wonderful meal in a hotel overlooking the flowing Missouri river. Marilyn had remembered I had left a jacket in a taxi when we were together in Zanzibar and she very kindly replaced it for me. Marilyn is one of our ‘evergreen’ volunteers who come each year with Sue Gass to volunteer there services to our children. Thank you both so much for your kindness to our children.
Then I was able to take a ‘day off’ with Lisa. And I bought a lovely coat for just $7.00/- at a thrift shop, because I’m afraid I was ill-prepared for the cold weather. And Lisa took me to enjoy a manicure, the second time in my life to have one (I’m really being pampered above and beyond on this trip, I could really get used to it) Lisa’s husband Steve really got on well with Marcus when he travelled with me two years ago, he was able to enjoy the thrill of a Harley Davidson bike ride, he still wears the hat he was given from the showroom for best. We would just love you to come out this year with Lisa; Steve we could sure do with some of your craftsman skills in Tanzania…..no pressure though….
A great Big hug to our friends and supporters of Akron who are just so faithful in their support.
Thanks Mavis for travelling all the way from Minnesota with your friend Peg just to come and meet with me again, bless you both.
And so here I am wrapped in layers of blankets in bed in the basement before I move onto New York tomorrow
Bless you all – Mungu Akurberiki…..mama Lynn
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Hi everyone,
A very Happy 'Saviour' filled Easter to you all.
At long last the 'rains' have started to arrive over this Easter period and that makes it truly very special for us as we are so desperate for the rains if we are not to endure a 'drought' season again.
My schedule to visit my American friends has now been completed and I leave on Wednesday (11th) from Tanzania..... The friends I shall be visiting are in Minneapolis, Mark & Nina the Producers of our amazing documentary who would like to introduce me to their friends and families, which I shall find a real joy, followed by visiting Lee and Nicole Harding and friends in Iowa, and possibly Marilyn and Bruce in South Dakota. Then off to New York New York and a date with the New York Phili as guest of Arlene and friends, Molly and Stacey.... Then to Tenneesee to visit with Ricky Worley and Ashley, two volunteers who left us just a week ago, possibly meeting Trevor & Elizabeth, (Trevor visited LIA in 2003 and didn't forget us) he then came back last year with his wife, father and mother in law, I guess our children really impacted Ton his first visit to LiA.
From Tenneessee over to San Diago to meet with Friends and Families, then down to meet Joan Coleman and Harborday School children then down to our dear friends in Malibu.... so quite a 4 week tour of the country which I am really looking forward to.
It is very exciting to see our new Family Business taking shape and taking off.
This business venture, Torch Bearer Co. Ltd . which is to help support the children of LIA is also a mechanism for training our young people.... Over this Easter period we have had campers staying with us who have been officials at a rally, and our accommodation has all been full. The kids handled everything superbly.
Be the Light where you live and offer a little act of kindness to someone, you will be surprised how you can change a life,
Mama Lynn
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Hi everyone,
At last with great difficulty we have now managed to place all of our school students back into education.
Here in Tanzania if you do not have the funds – up front – you are not allowed to take the children to school, and as we have so many more new children that have recently come into our care it was, I have to admit, a little bit of a struggle to find the means to place them back into the school system with new uniforms, new school books and stationary items.
Many thanks to everyone who helped us with this massive undertaking, from dropping off pens and pencils to making generous donations in sponsoring our children for them to gain an education. Education, in my opinion, is the only way out of the poverty trap so we place great value on it.
Light in Africa’s documentary that was produced by Mark Anderson and Nina Boughasavanh, showing the work that is undertaken on a daily basis at our centers is now ready to be shown in America. A TV station is already considering showing the full length documentary of 27 minutes through its network, so that should encourage more awareness on LIA. If you haven’t seen it yet yourself, I recommend you go here .
Next month I will be visiting the USA and I am hoping to be able to take Julianna to (CHOC) hospital in Orange County for surgery to have an amputation on one leg and a straightening for the other. I say ‘hopefully’ as we have been trying to obtain a passport for her since September and each time we think it’s all sorted out Immigration comes up with another request! I fail to understand it, but anyway I shall be going over with or without Julianne and this is how Joan Coleman has provisionally planned the trip to date:from Orange County to Nashville to New York to Minneapolis to Long Beach / San Diego / Malibu and then returning to Orange County…….
If anyone would like me to visit with them whilst I’m in the area please contact Joan on jcoleman@harborday.org
Many thanks and blessings to you all.
Mama Lynn
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Sponsor Kevin Bridgman and team took Light in Africa to new heights
What an achievement and thank you for your support to our children.
The children made them this colourful banner
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Living here in Africa in this developing country we experience many physical difficulties and everyday annoyances, and we always try to help as many people and agencies as we can, but unfortunately our assistance to the local social welfare office to take in 38 children from an orphanage that they closed down in November 2011 has brought us naught but problems. After the ‘honeymoon’ period of Christmas, it was soon apparent that these new boys had not known any boundaries in their previous home and throwing stones at our small children was ‘a fun thing to do’ and pushing a staff member over and injuring her arm, appeared to be ‘nothing to get worked up about’… all this from a 10 year old child.
As our regular volunteers and visitors know this is not how the children of Light in Africa behave, or else how could we take 40 children on holiday and not have one tear or a tantrum? So this unruly behavior from these boys caused Pastor Frank enormous problems to have to deal with and of course this behavior was having a detrimental effect on our younger children.
When we were informed that some of the boys were not coming home from school but going into our neighbors garden and stealing there corn and mango’s, that was enough for our social worker.
A visit to the social welfare department was required to enlighten them about the conduct of the ‘new older boys’.
After discussion, it was agreed PILGRIMS BOY’S HOME would be closed down and the boys transferred to Tudor Village. My first reaction was one of shock!!. Yes, we had every intention of moving all of our boys (50) to Tudor eventually, but not until we had built more houses on our 14 acre site. And after all, this had been the only home for some of our children they had known for the last eight years. Was it fair to move them due to the poor behavior of other children?
But the department was insistent: to enable our staff to have more control of the children they must all move to Tudor Village.
The first 20 of our smallest boys moved into Rosemary House yesterday. The ‘special needs’ will go to live at Pilgrim House until their new building is completed. Joy joy joy: the dynamics of Tudor Village is about to change.
I mentioned on the Xmas blog that Flow, our dog had given birth to 7 puppies, sadly a week later Flow died and all the puppies were hand reared by Anna the dressmaker who did an amazing job of feeding them…. This photo shows the children being introduced to the puppies. We like to have animals around to teach the children compassion; care of animals is not normally embraced in this country. The boys have pets of pigeons, dogs, and guinea pigs. Patrick has a really special attachment to his rabbits but is going to boarding school tomorrow in Arusha along with 5 other of our older boys, so I asked him who was going to feed his rabbits whilst he’s away? The answer I received, was: “you of course mum”!! something else for me to get lots of joy joy joy out of…..Some exciting news about our four oldest children, Ramisha, Douglas, Ritha, and Frieda who have lived with me for over 11 years, they have all passed there ‘O’ levels and are now taking a year out from studies to give back to LIA to help their younger brothers and sisters before going on to sit for there ‘A’ levels next year. They are all heavily involved in the Torchbearer Co. Ltd., and I was thrilled to see them all work as a team when we had 8 council officials arrive for an evening meal and they excelled themselves: the guests didn’t appear to want to leave and it was well over 11 pm before the good ‘goodbyes’ were all said, and then it was time to clear all the pots away….. a rewarding training exercise for them.
The Torchbearer website is now up and running thanks to Ramisha and tourists are already taking advantage of our services, knowing full well that they are contributing to the feeding and care of our children in Light in Africa. Visit the link at www.torch-bearer.com and let me know what you think of it.
All grown up and now the adventure starts as these students start Secondary School. We are thrilled that every child to date has passed there Secondary School exams, no mean fete for these children who have come from disfunctional backgrounds...
Warmest wishes to you all,
Mama Lynn
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Hi Everyone,
Well, like most people, I am intending to start this New Year by making a resolution to be more multifaceted with the multimedia, and I can assure you this does not come easy for me. My first concern, or should I say, reservation, was ‘how am I going to fit more commitment into my already very busy daily life,’ and with my attention focused at the moment in helping to get our THE TORCHBEARER CO. LTD. up and running to help train our older children in new life-skills as they, like me, have to learn to cope with new challenges.. So with the help of Nina who came over to help produce the documentary, she has kindly opened a Facebook page for LIA and with Ritha and Frieda, my two oldest girls,
we have today opened and started operating the ORIGINAL Light in Africa Facebook Page
So here’s to the draggggggging in of mama Lynn into the 21st century. I really hope it’s painless!
NEW YEAR APPRECIATION FOR OUR COMMITTED ORGANISERS OF OUR OVERSEAS LIGHT IN AFRICA SITES.
I would like to share the appreciation of Light in Africa’s Executive Officers, the staff, and our children to the many people around the world who unstintingly give ‘freely’ of their time in helping to raise awareness and funds, which allows us to help so many more children and the surrounding tribes in our two working regions of Tanzania.
Firstly, our sincere thanks go to Paul our webmaster, who although an extremely busy guy still manages to keep the website operational.
GERMANY
Linda and Josphine have been involved in fundraising for Light in Africa ever since Josephine visited me when I started operating our first children’s home 6,000’ up on Mount Kilimanjaro, that must have been around 2002. Linda Shultze is now visiting us again in Tanzania, she just can’t keep away from our precious children…… THANK YOU LADIES and your team of Light in Africa, Deutschland e.V.
THE NETHERLANDS
Paul (webmaster) started off preparing all the official paperwork to operate Stichting Light in Africa Nederland some 3 years ago together with the support of our past volunteers Christa Biegelaar and Dirk Geurts. Regularly returning volunteers Marijke Bakker and Jonathan Ploeg joined the board of the Dutch foundation in 2011 and are actively involved with our long time Dutch sponsorship. In 2010, thanks to the Dutch foundation and partners Wilde Ganzen and Rotary Amsterdam International we realized their brilliant idea of extracting the water from the river to cultivate our tropical garden, and vegetable field.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Lee & Nicole Harding / Marilyn Kelly / Sue Gass have been constant supporters of Light in Africa in America for many years, with Marilyn and Sue coming over each year to visit with us. I would also like to thank Pastor Jean and the people of Iowa who have been so gracious to me when I have visited with them. Your loving support of our children is outstanding.
I wish to personally thank Phi and his team of ‘ Friends and Family’ who have fed so many of our children and the street children of Mirerani with the container of food that we have previously received. What price can you put on ‘saved lives’ and how can the word ‘ thanks’ ever be sufficient? We bless you all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
A ‘big ’ thank you to Jessica who I know would want to remain anonymous, but you are forever in our grateful hearts.
Our dear friends Cindy & Jim, Rose & Phil, and Salina and all their team from California who have ‘always been there for us’ and have enabled us to purchase the land at Tudor and now build a Day Care Centre. May God Bless you all Abundantly.
Joan Coleman and her group of friends will be joining me again in Tanzania next month, can’t wait to ‘chat over a coffee’ our friendship is due to a wonderful Tanzanian man called Simon Mtey, who is quite an amazing athlete, and has a record of climbing up and down Mount Kilimanjaro in around 8 hours.!!! What a humble human being.
We now have some new shoots starting to sprout from the US East Coast with Corey Schmidt, a regular volunteer, initiating the necessary paperwork to the authorities to establish the 501C3 charity LIA-USA Inc. More details can be found on our donation page
Corey and his father Douglas are busy working with Molly, Stacey and Arlene and Nina in preparing events for my visit to the States around the end of Spring 2012.
Thanks also goes to Tony Hammac a.k.a. Tony the savior who enabled Kim to get proper diagnosis and treatment from a life threatening disease, or Tony the biker who cycled in support of an HIV/AIDS Campaign from San Francisco to Los Angeles or Tony the guinea pig who, during his recent stay for the 2011 holidays, trialed a unique Masai Moran survival adventure for the Torch Bearer Co.
THE UNITED KINGDOM
We have always been blessed with all the commitment that has been given by my own country the UK. I want to thank all of my dear friends & past volunteers who support Light in Africa Tanzania not just by sponsoring our children but also in prayer support. I am so blessed that there is just not sufficient pages in a book to write you all down, just know that my world is made so much richer by having you all in my life.
LIGHT IN AFRICA – UK
Pastor Graham and Elaine Jamson have kindly responded to our need to re-open a Light in Africa in the UK. We are deeply grateful to them for stepping into this position.
We now again have the facility of a UK bank account which can be used for local UK money transfers while cheques made out to LIGHT IN AFRICA UK COMMUNITY ORGANISATION can be sent to Pastor Graham. The details can be found on our donation page and the funds will be accessible by is through the Tanzanian ATM machines.
On behalf of all of us here in Tanzania:
May God bless you all Abundantly…
Mama Lynn
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... We were hungry
and you all helped to establish Light in Africa
Click here to read about our faith
Thank you and best wishes for 2012
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Dearest friends and supporter of the children of Light in Africa, may I wish you all an abundant New Year full of all of God’s wondrous blessings, and may you know sheer health and joy in the coming year.
With 2011 now under our belts we look forward to a New Year of 2012 praying that this new year will not be so challenging as this last one has been.
As you can see Flo our Tudor dog has celebrated by producing 7 puppies to welcome in the New Year, at this point in time we don’t think the father was the German Shepherd Kuna but we have to wait and see.We also want to pass on our congratulations to Tracy and her new husband and young son Euin. who have recently tied the knot. Tracy and her family when they volunteered with us provided the funding for Dr. Minja’s dispensary in Mirerani.
Some good news this month is that all of our children that have taken the Primary School Exam have all passed to go onto Secondary School.
This year the children did not receive their customary shoe box but Ritha and Freida and Anna in the dressmaking workshop produced cloth bags for them which we filled with the usual ‘goodies’. A big ‘Thank You’ to all you kind sponsors who have supported our children with ‘small package gifts’.
From my visit to the UK I have been able to open a new Light in Africa bank account at Nat West which is going to kindly be managed by Pastor Graham Jamson and his wife Elaine,. Any cheques can now be made out to Light in Africa and Elaine will place them into our account for transfer over to Tanzania….. Paul our webmaster is going to place all the details on the donation page… We are so grateful for your continued support to our children when we found ourselves ‘hijacked’ in February (2011).
Tony Hammac who has left Light in Africa this evening to return to the States has just endured the EXTREME MAASAI WARRIOR CHALLENGE that TorchBearer, our sister organisation, is offering to the many tourists who come to Tanzania. He exchanged his western garb for that of the maasai shuka and had an individual pair of shoe tyres made for him, then went shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables with three donkeys;, accompanied by the maasai moran warriors he climbed up medicine mountain to see the medicine trees and unbelievably managed to start a fire with two sticks which he was totally thrilled about and then set about cooking a meal on the fire. His journey ended by swimming in spring water and dancing with 9 maasai who visited and competed against them with bow and arrow and long sticks. Rasta Sam was seen to do amazing gymnastics from the trees dropping straight down into the clear spring waters….. Tony says he’s coming back next year to walk further with his maasai brothers and to bring his friends with him to experience the Extreme Maasai Warrior Challenge. All very exciting stuff.
On the last blog I mentioned about little 5 year old Shadrack praying out aloud about the ‘economics’ of LIA…..this month he has decided to go a little further with his requests by asking God to “ please find a good good husband for Truefine, because I love her so much” one wonders what goes through their little minds. Truefine is one of his carers in Happy House, I wonder what she thinks to this request?
The documentary has now been completed that Mark Anderson and Nina have produced and is ready to be released in America. I wonder what will happen in 2012 for the good of LIA.
As midnight approaches, we just want to wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Mama Lynn
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Well, where do I start with the blog. ? Such a lot has happened to the running of our organization. For one thing we have grown so much larger with more and more children being brought into our care, we are most certainly the largest children’s home in the area.
Two weeks ago Grace Kivuya - Light in Africa’s social welfare officer - was informed by the local social welfare department in Hai district that they intended to close an orphanage down due to mal-practice, and would we please help the department by taking in some of the children into our care.
After much deliberation and prayer we decided we would accommodate 33 of these children into Light in Africa's childrens homes; one child has a disability and is wheelchair bound and another small child had been sexually abused at a young age and has on-going physical and medical problems.
On Friday 11th November with children piled into the back of a social welfare pick-up truck, the children were moved into their new homes. Our children had tied balloons to the gate and were there to sing our welcome song….”Welcome Welcome to Rosemary House" and Margareth our administrator asked the children: "Who do you now live with?" and they responded: "We are now Light in Africa children!"Jokingly she asked: "Are you sure...?" "Yes, yes! We belong to Light in Africa" came their joyous response, and with that they dashed off to try out the playground apparatus, so magnificently made by Project Ape group from Bristol UK a few years ago.
The children have all settled in remarkably well, and we have been assured by the social welfare department that they will help us to handle any issues that may arise, and we shall have continued financial support from a Swedish NGO who had previously supported the children before things went disastrously wrong.
When I look back at our photo albums which Jake Lyell has so diligently made for us over the years, it is such a joy to see the children grow into such lovely children. I thought you might like to see some (before and after) photo's.
Miss Upendo (before/after) wants to be a Pastor when she grows up; she and her sister Beatrice were the first children who came into care 11 years ago.
This handsome 'chappie' was my first abandoned baby (no 'before' picture) and he is now 11 years of age.
This beautiful girl is one of a family of five who all came into care on the same day after I found them severly malnourished and their hands and feet full of Chiggers (a skin eating parasite). I had to take them to the local hospital to have there fingernails removed.
We do not only provide for the children in our homes. During one of our medical outreach dispensaries, we found this child suffering from severe distorted legs (due to the high concentration of fluoride in the ground water her family is forced to drink from). This young lady had to go through major leg surgery before she could look as lovely as this with straight legs.
This water situation obviously affects many more children, here is another one waiting for the next opportunity to have her legs straightened when the means will be available.
Whilst delivering Xmas presents to a maasai school, this young man was brought to us with a diagnosis of cancer, luekemia. He had stayed in his village for the previous year without so much as an aspirin tablet for pain relief.Tony, one of our Xmas volunteers asked if I would help the child. Not wanting to take him to the cancer hospital for chemotherapy, I
agreed to take him to Kenya to get a proper diagnosis. After many tests the child was found NOT to have cancer but to have treatable closed TBC and he was given proper medication for six months where now you can see the amazing result.
Famine was hitting hard and this baby had just days to live as his mother had no milk to give him as she too was desperately hungry. Our carers have now nicknamed him 'meaty meaty' due to the large rolls of fat he now posseses. (This picture is just for you Said!)This picture is of Julianna who now has a wheelchair instead ofgoing around walking on her knees. Julianna is hoping she will be allowed to go to America for her right leg to be amputated and the other to be operated on which will allow her to have a pair of prosthetic legs to enable her to walk straight for the first time in her life.... We'll hope to post the 'after' picture after a successful procedure.
Most visitors to Pilgrim boys home remember Rogarty, who has been with us for many years... Thanks to Tom he now has a brand new wheelchair as he had outgrown his other one.
And our last picture is of Mark and Nina - the two producers who are working on a documentary which will be released before this Christmas. We thank you so much for coming over to visit with us and showing the work that we do on a daily basis. Bless you both.Our prayers are for the new children in our care that they will settle quickly as after christmas they will all be changing schools to enable them to attend the same school that our children attend. They are very happy about this as they had to walk 7 kilometers to school and back each day. In the new schoolyear, after Christmas holidays, they will move to local schools with their new Tudor village friends, which is within walking distance. And meanwhile they will enjoy a daily car ride to their old school to finish the year.
We hope you enjoyed this little peak into our daily lives here in Tanzania. Amazingly, at our morning service Shadrack - 5 year old - was heard to pray: "God help us with our uchumi!" (swahili for economics)
I am writing this blog in the armchair of Paul our webmaster's home in Holland, before moving on to the UK on Monday where I shall be visiting the Universities to meet with next years volunteers.
Warmest wishes, mama Lynn
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Hi Everyone,
Once again, thanks to our amazing volunteers we have now expanded and opened our craft shop and physically challenged workshop. We are now able to offer BED & BREAKFAST and a CAMPSITE facility for the backpacker or overlander vehicles.
As we are so close to Kilimanjaro airport, accommodation is available for the guest who would like an early or late pick-up without a further long journey into Moshi or Arusha, and Torchbearer Co. Ltd., website will be up and running shortly with its dashing logo created by a very talented young lady from the States called Nina. I hope to share some new photo’s of our new facilities soon on this page. In the workshop is Anna, Lucy and Eliazer the shoemaker whose development has been supported by LIA for the last 6 years.
WE REAPED JUST 5 BAGS OF MAIZE FROM 5 ACRES OF LAND
We have been blessed with some recent downpours of rain which has turned the scorched earth into a wonderful shade of green. Unfortunately, it is a case of too little too late and as we harvested our own maize which lasted us just two weeks, we were very much concerned as to how we would cope with the future of feeding the children as the price of a sack of maize had escalated due to the famine (Horn of Africa).
We are very grateful to our volunteers who used their project money to have welded two silo’s to hold maize and beans. And also to our friends who left funds for food provision for us, we have bought straight from the farmers who were harvesting their crops and we have now filled the largest silo up with maize which should last us along with our packet food for 1 year. We are deeply grateful to everyone who was involved in sustaining our food supply - thank you.
The older children have now completed Primary School and are anxious about their results to see if they will pass to enable them to go on to Secondary School. We have just heard today that the Government has taken away the subsidies to the schools so instead of just a little amount the poor will have to contribute, it has increased dramatically; for us alone with 30 children in school it will cost a whooping $1,000.00/- Over the last 11 years I have been impressed by the efforts that have been made to get children into school (education for all) but now with this increase it could be a retrograde step, just like the dramatic cost increase for the Immigration Resident C Permit.
We have been very blessed to receive two Producers from America, who came to prepare a documentary on the work of Light in Africa.. Mark Anderson and his associate Nina Bouphasavanh were with us for 13 days and had 14 hours of filming when they departed. It is hoped the documentary will be completed just before Xmas.
Among the many things that the team filmed was a ‘miracle’ of how one of our 7 year old children who has the virus fell asleep at school and the teachers thought he was resting, but he was actually unconscious. Mark filmed the nurse in this dramatic life-death situation at the local hospital where his veins had already collapsed…..sorry…. you will have to wait until the documentary is completed before I tell you more, but I will comment that one part of the situation shows me crying in relief as he comes back to us….. can’t wait to see the completed documentary.
I shall be in the UK from the 19th – 29th November, just a short trip but I am looking forward to meeting all the new University students who will be joining us in 2012 for a ‘real-life’ positive experience….you are all most warmly welcome.
Be Mightily blessed
mama Lynn
PS: visit our www.lightinafrica.org webpage for an important video impression by Mark & Nina
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