If you have only got a few minutes - I'd skip this entry!! Yesterday was a long long day for me!
It started by taking Haji and Davey to clinic at the hospital. Chloe and Sara stayed with them while I went to do some 'quick jobs'!! Ha ha!
Firstly I was trying to chase up Leila's (Mary's) birth certificate. This has taken a month so far as it has got lost in numerous Government Offices. Last week I spent 13 hours trying to locate it! Apparently it has left the Hospital (where we initially registered for it) but it has not arrived anywhere else (like in the Town Hall where it is supposed to be processed!) I finally managed to discover that the reason for this is a lack of transport money - the hospital has no money in its budget to take the applications to town (2 miles).....until August! Anyhow - to cut a very long story short - I actually drove the Manager of the Hospital and all of the birth certificate applications to the Town Hall. We then had to wait for 90 minutes while the key to the office was found so the applications could be 'signed in'.
So - at least now Leila's birth certificate application is in the correct office. I have been told to come back on Friday to collect it - but I will believe that when I see it!!!
Then I went to the Police Station to try to chase up Sophia's abandonment certificate (which is needed for her to be fostered). I started this a couple of weeks ago and every time I go, I speak to a new 'Officer in Charge' as the other one has gone / left / retired / been transferred....so I start the story all over again about who I am and what I want etc! This is hard enough in English (as people here do not really have a concept of 'fostering' someone elses child)...but when the Police Officers all refuse to speak any English - and I have to do it in Swahili - it takes even longer! This is another very long story which I will not go into right now - but again....I was told to go back in a week!....
When I got home, Juma's Dad and family had arrived to visit Juma. Juma's Mum died in childbirth in November 2007 and we were told that his Dad was unable to care for a newborn baby. He is our only family member who has not been to visit his child at the Baby Home and every month I call him and ask him to come and every month he tells me it is too far and too hard to visit. I have started to get a little irrate with this man and this week I called him to say he MUST visit or I will report him to Social Welfare for Child Abandonment.
So he came - and when I saw him, I felt really bad.....
He brought with him (from his home in Geita which is a 4 hour bus journey and a 2 hour walk for him)his other 2 children - a 10 year old boy (Musa) and a 12 year old girl (Minzia). Minzia, has very severe Cerebal Palsy and Juma's Dad is her sole carer. I was not told about this and so then felt very guilty for demanding that he come to visit Juma - a very long trip on your own, not to mention carrying a 12 year old the entire way. They were all exhausted and very hungry when they arrived.....but I am glad they did come as now I know his family circumstances we can help them.
Juma's Dad is a builder and his wife used to care for their children. When she died, he had no option but to stop working to become a full time carer for Minzia. So now the family has no income at all and is utterly desperate.
Minzia is hard work. Really hard work. She struggles to swallow, has no control of her limbs, has never received any physiotherapy so is twisted and tense. She is large and they have no way of moving her around so carry her everywhere. Even her 10 year old brother was carrying her!
It was SO amazing to see a family who clearly have nothing and have recently lost their mother/wife - being so loving and caring towards their severely disabled daughter. In Tanzania, people with disabilities are shunned, thrown on the street and even killed. Seeing a family so loving and dedicated to this little girl was heartwarming.
In the UK this family would receive so many benefits and help - a house, a car, disability allowance, a special school place, physiotherapy, speech therapy - as well as advice on wheelchairs, cups, positioning etc.
This family receives NOTHING and has NOTHING! He knows nothing about how to care for Minzia except what he has learnt himself.
I asked Juma's father what I oculd do to help him and his family and he had only one request....a wheelchair. He said that if Minzia had a wheelchair, he would be able to leave her with neighbours and friends and return to work...but right now, no one will care for her as she is too hard to lift / carry.
Wheelchairs are expensive here (about
£100) and hard to come by - but it was something that this wonderful family were in desperate need of. So - we all went out into town to try to find one. Again this is a VERY long story and didn't even start until 4pm....so we did not have long before he had to get his bus back home.
Needless to say that we could not find one in any obvious shops...(you have to come to Mwanza to see the irony of this statement - no shop is 'obvious' here - until you venture inside you have NO idea what the shop sells and generally they sell such random things that to even hazard a guess about which shop to go into to buy a particulr item is laughable! Selling mattresses, padlocks, oranges and nails is quite normal!) Anyhow - whilst looking I came across a kind Asian man who owns a tool shop who told me that he had a wheelchair at his house as his Mother had been using it and had recently died.
So we all went to his house - had to have tea and biscuits, look at photos of his Mum (I did decline the offer of actually seeing his Mother who was apparently in the back room waiting to be flown to India to be buried?!)...and we finally we got the wheelchair!
Of course it is much too big (you can't get a children's wheelchair here) and Minzia's posture is so poor that sitting in it was not even possible....but her Father was delighted and said he would 'fix' it to make it fit her.
When we got to the bus station (just in time) we were told that the bus had left 1 hour early today!! Of course it had! So I found a guest house for them and gave him some money for the journey home.
Just as we were saying our goodbyes, poor Minzia was sick - all over my car, herself and her dad and brother. They had no change of clothes (as had not planned to stay over night) so we had to go to the Clothes market to get clean clothes for them all!
The saddest part about all of this - is that I really wanted him to come to visit Juma as I wanted to explain that Juma has Special Needs. As yet, we are not sure what these are - but I do not think that he is able to see or hear....or maybe he can, but his brain does not respond to stimulation. Seeing how difficult this man's life already is and how hard his work is with Minzia - I decided not to tell him this information about Juma just yet. I don't think it will help anyone for him to know right now?
Anyhow - I drove home after a very long day, cursing the unfairness of life. I had been moaning about waiting a few months for paperwork earlier in the day - but meeting this family put things into perspective for me.
I arrived home to my four beautiful children putting on a 'concert' for my husband and I, and I quietly thanked 'whoever it is out there' that I have 4 perfect, happy and wonderfully healthy children. And even if, at times they are not healthy - I know I will always have the means to get them the best help possible. Sometimes we forget to remember how lucky we are.
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I have just driven Tara to the airport as she is leaving today after 3 months volunteering at Forever Angels. Thank you Tara - you have been a wonderful volunteer and a GREAT friend and I will truly miss you. She thinks I am just saying this because I have to write nice things about volunteers when they leave!!.....But I am not. Tara has been a wonderful friend during the last few months which have, at times, been very tough. Thank you. I WILL miss you tonnes and REALLY DO want you to come back!!.....PLEASE?
