Neema Forahee

I feel happy.

One month already?! Holy cow, so I’ve been in Africa for 2 months and in Tanzania working at my placement for a month! Cape Town, and even Kilimanjaro seem so long ago and it’s hard to believe that all that stuff happened! I’ve been pretty bad at blogging on this adventure but it’s hard to think of new things to say. Every week, Positive Love is about the same- make some bracelets, teach English, clean some stuff, water the garden. I’m not saying its monotonous by any means, everyday is different and what happens is usually unique to that day, but the basic stuff we do is all the same.

(Me and Mama Welu, our senior most designer, sporting our positive love skirts and scarves!)

 

But I want to talk a bit about my adventures outside of placement this time around! Laura and I have been busy the past two weeks and have done some neat things! Two weekends ago, we took the bus back to Moshi, where we started our trek and met up with one of our amazing guides, Baraka! It was so fun to hang out with him! We went to lunch, walked through some markets, visited his house and met some of his friends. It was cool to be able to see him again and I think he was pretty happy to see us too! We were also able to see our lead guide, Richard here in Arusha! We met up with him expecting to go grab some lunch but instead he took us to his house and we met his wife and his 3-month-old baby! This kid was too cute! It was fun to chat with Richard and his family! The Powers, our guides, and I really formed a little family on the mountain and being able to keep in touch with them is really specials for all of us!

(Another hidden gem- The Arusha Peace Park, commemorating the completion of the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.)

Then on Monday of last week, Laura had her first Compassion International sponsor visit. This was such a special experience to be able to share with my friend. After meeting our host, who is also the Director for the Tanzania office, we headed out to the outskirts of Moshi to meet Emmanuel, a 13 year old boy who Laura has been sponsoring since he was 5 years old. So for them to meet, it was wonderful! We arrive at the Compassion Center, which is also a school, and were greeted by the school band and handed flowers! It felt like we were royalty! After the initial meet up, we met with the school directors and pastor and learned all about Emmanuel and how he was doing in school and life. We then left and headed to meet his family at his grandmother’s home.

(Emmanuel, his mother, grandma, and Laura- hanging out at his house and exchanging gifts)

Being welcomed into their home was so cool and when Laura brought out the gifts for the family and for her sponsor kid, everyone’s eyes lit up! Being able to see how Laura has impacted this family was such a blessing and a treat! Compassion is a fantastic program that is making real changes in the lives of the families who benefit from the organization, and to be a part of it, not only for one kid, but for 6?! Laura is a real humanitarian. We have more Compassion visits coming up for her other sponsor kids and I am so excited to see how these ones go!

(Laura with Emmanuel and the very first picture she sent him when she started sponsoring him 7 years ago!)

Back at Positive Love for the week. The building is looking good! We just need to get it painted (which is happening this week) and then add the final things like windows and doors, and furnish the inside! A huge shout out to Sloanes General Store and the Inn at Alcova for their generous donation towards completing this building project! (Be sure to check out Sloanes website below!) Without their help, this would be a half assed project, so being able to have a welcoming shop for the women of Positive Love will be amazing!

http://www.sloanesinalcova.com/

(Building stage 1: Finish cementing the frames and walls)

(Building stage 2: Prepping the walls to be painted)

(Stage 3: Applying protectants to the walls and adding glass in the windows and door!)

In other news, we are ready to launch our Positive Love website and start selling the products the ladies make to all of you wonderful people back home! I will have the link on my Facebook, so you can check it out there!