The children at Big Tree

Mdoula- Tanzania

Just when I thought I had witnessed some very terrible living conditions for humans I met a woman , an African who has a small NGO with little to no funding ,and she was trying make a difference.

When she described to me the conditions the people of this area were living in it sounded bad but somehow similar to the way others were living in which I had been serving. But still I wanted to go and see for myself so I took a very dangerous 7 hour bus trip through the hills and mountains to the region of Dar es Salaam .

When I arrived my nerves were not as they should be but I was in one piece and happy to be off that bus.

She took me to visit a pastor of a church that also was trying to serve the people of this community, his name was pastor Bartholomay and he was as poor as everyone else. He rented a small room for he and his wife and children, about 10 ft by 10 ft ,and struggled to pay the $3 per month rent. They had only a thin foam mattress on the floor for sleeping and food was also a huge challenge. To sit and talk with this man you would not get the impression that life was so difficult. He was happy and enthusiastic and just a really nice person, they all were.

So we walked about 6 k up and down the hills and as I walked I noticed a few small water holes about 20ft in diameter and filled with murky brown water, like coffee with cream in it. We arrived to a small area where there were mostly mud houses with grass roofs and a curtain for a door and many of the houses were crumbling. Near these homes was a school made of brick in 2002 but now is crumbling also and serves about 225 students. There were 3 teachers working at this school even though there were supposed to be 8 but the living conditions were so bad that the others moved away and were never replaced. .They took us on a tour of the school property and I could see that if something is not done that these building could topple over and there would be a school no more.

Next we visited some families nearby that were also members of the church and there life was also a constant struggle. Also their homes were made from mud and sticks with grass roofs and very small. The strange thing about this church is that they meet and pray under a nearby tree as they have only just acquired some donated land and now are trying to figure out how to get the $6000.00 it would take to build there church. I said I would gladly build there church for them but it would take me a while to save that kind of money.

Now about the people, some of them worked small farms or made grass carpets or housed chickens but all earned very little money. Also I learned there is no clean drinking water. The water holes I mentioned earlier was their drinking water and they do not filter or boil it before using it so it’s a wonder that many of the children have intestinal worms that are untreated and who knows what else. Also I learned that that there are over 250 orphans in this area and that number is growing due to the spread of HIV and none of these children have been tested because there is no organization to help them , I am the 1^st.

Education and awareness is the foundation to the solution to their issues but also caring and compassion from outsiders as well as the locals is helpful. I was told that I am the 1^st mazungu ( white person) to visit them or this area and as I mentioned I am the 1^st NGO to visit as well. So I tell you now I have a plan of change and development for these people , for these children ,for this area.

The one thing that acted like a beacon of hope to me was that in the center of this area stood a tree as tall as a 12 story building and its roots were as round as a house, I was mammoth , and it was the only one like it around anywhere that I could see so I called this area “Big Tree”. I f you believe in God then you believe this tree was put there for a reason, perhaps to help find these people and to give them what we are all gifted at birth--LOVE.

-a Climb for Glory-the film

-a Climb for Glory-the film

-the embrace of Glory as i climb Mt. Kilimanjaro Jan 2011

There is a 16 year old girl i met while i was doing research for the SANDY project in October of 2010,her name is Glory and as soon as i met her i new i was supposed to change her life. To look at her you would think she is about 10 years old because of the the size of her body and its limited growth due to the retardation she had experienced both psychical and mentally. She has never been able to walk or talk or hold anything in her hands or do any thing for herself whatsoever , she completely relies on others for all aspects of care. But she does have a personality, if you sing softly into her ear she will smile and begin to do her version of a laugh. Her life before i found her consisted of her laying on her back

on a thin piece of foam on the floor for 10-12 hours per day with the flies crawling all about her face and mouth and there is nothing for her to do except stare at the ceiling and try and blink the flies away.

When Glory was 1 year old the doctors told her mother that she would not live past 2 years old . Glory was 6 years old when her brother was born ( perfectly normal and healthy) and after this is when her father decided life was too difficult for him to deal with so he did what he thought was best for the family-- he just left them all behind. After her father left, her mother struggled so hard to house and feed the children but was failing and caused them to have to live and sleep in a small shack shared with cows. After some years of going from place to place her mother was finally able to learn how to make a profit by selling tomato's at the market. She would leave early in the morning and go to a local farm and pick the tomato's herself and pay a price to the farmer (wholesale) Next she would go to the market and try and sell those tomato's, she paid $10 and ended up selling at $14--- so her income for that day was $4-- but at what cost? the stress of the thoughts wondering if her daughter was OK alone in the house without anyone to care for her.

So when i found Glory as i was doing research for the SANDY project i worked very hard to be sure that this child would not have to spend another moment alone and her mother could work with confidence knowing her daughter was safe.

That takes us to this moment now. I am filming a short documentary about the life of Glory and everyone around her past, present and future. During the filming i will be climbing to the peak of

Mt. Kilimanjaro (6193M) also filming the climb as i will have glory strapped securely to my back.

Why would i want to do this? reason number 1-- Glory needs money to survive and i have given her all of mine so i now need the help of others. reason number 2- she may not be able to say thank you but i can see it in her eyes so my gift to her is to take her to the top of the highest mountain in all of Africa and see what God can do to help this child.

As an example- the house rent for Glory and her mother a brother for one month is about $15 or $180 per year and food for the 3 of them per day is about $3 about $1095 per year and school fees for her brother is about $50/year- so as you can see it takes almost $1500.00 USD to sustain the life of these 3 people not including and medical expenses that may come about ,but, when health care is pay first not many people go to the Doctor they just stay home and die.

This to many may seem like a small amount of money but to this struggling and suffering family is means the difference between life and death.

So here i am begging for someone , anyone to please help me help this family. If 15 people donated $100 each then this goal would easily be accomplished bot of many people gave just a little then over a short time all of that would add up. I hope your life is all you hoped it to be, i know Glory is happy because she is loved and she has made a lasting impression on me forever.

Changing lives- project SANDY- learning center for self empowerment

So last year as i was doing my best to try and make a difference here in Tanzania i came up with an idea of creating a project for the homelessness issue in the village of Usa-river. Since my return i have been working very hard trying to design and develop a program that fits the needs of this community as well as being culturally sensitive, i have come up with a program that would assist women and women with children. We found that due to the male dominance within the culture that women were found to be the most vulnerable. So for over 3 weeks along with another American i happen to meet here as well as a young man from the village that would serve as our community liaison as well as interpreter/body guard we combed the streets and alleys of the entire village. Let me explain the layout of the village. It is very large and there is only one main paved road then there is one main dirt road then there are hundreds of small dirt roads that meander between all the houses and throughout all the village. It was a difficult task to try and filter through all of the candidate's as everyone is in desperate need but we were being very selective. Some of the women we found were forced into prostitution in order to pay house rent of about $3/month as well as feed their children and maybe themselves. Some of these women have HIV now as a result of this behavior as well as possibly continuing to transmit the virus to others. Some of the women have small infant children that are products of this prostitution. So we immediately took them from that environment along with there children and gave then a free room to live in , 3 meals a day. care for their children, medical attention where needed and personal counseling concerning health and welfare as well as in micro-finance so they may start a small business within the local markets in order to have a means to support themselves and their families.

Another woman we found was living alone with her 10 year old son and her 16 year old daughter who also was born with severe mental and physical disabilities. Her husband left 10 years prior as the stress of the family situation became too great, this is very common for men to leave their families with several children and perhaps the husband and wife both have HIV and typically the wife is infected due to the husbands sexual misconduct outside the marriage.

This mother was forced to leave her daughter, that has no ability to walk or speak or move her own body in any way at all, only lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling,was locked in a room for 10-12 hours a day 5 days a week so she could go to a local farm and pick tomatoes and pay $10 for a bucket of them then take them to the market and sell them retail for a price of $14, a profit to her of maybe $4 a day.

When we found this woman i did not hesitate to make certain that she came to the project. Now her children are cared for including her daughter and she was given a small loan in order to expand her business at the market and increase her profit .No longer in a constant depression over her life's situation now she has hope for herself and hope for her children and it only took finding her and spending a little money and giving from one's heart in order to make a difference.

Another woman we found was living alone with no husband or children or any family members to care for her. She can't tell us her age as she does not remember when she was born but we gauged her after many questions to be about 85 years old. She was living in a small room made of mud living in dirt and filth with no means of providing for for herself or even pay the $4/ month for rent. She was forced to walk the streets and beg for food and coins but with her badly swollen legs this was very difficult to do so she prayed to God for help but received no answer. Only the day before we found her she was preparing to poison herself in order to end this life of suffering. When we explained to her our plan to take her with us and care for her for her remaining years she just broke down and wept thinking that how she was about to take her own life that very evening.

These are only a few of the examples of the women and children we found, in total we are supporting about 20 individuals. The program for most will only last 90 days, just long enough to get them back on their feet and in an upward direction and after the 90 days we make certain they find affordable housing for themselves and their children and that their children stay in school and along with the various types of counseling they had received make sure they never find themselves in that previous situation ever again. In the case of the old woman and others like her we have plans to build a special building just for them to spend their remaining years. As for the others after the 90 days we will move a new group into the small homes and start the process over again.

The building of the homes was made possible through me and my organization yellowbluebus.inc

and in cooperation with a local NGO i have been working with for some years "TAMIHA.org"

each house costs about $500 USD to build and would house 2-5 people( mix of women and children) we currently have 5 houses built and have plans for 7 more houses as well as a building for the elderly and eventually a men's unit and perhaps very soon a modest church( so if a church would like to adopt us and help fund its build it could serve as your sister church) You would not believe how cheap it is to build here and the difference and the impact these things have within a community. I understand that with all success comes failure but if only 1 life was changed because of what i have done here then its worth all my effort. May Love be in your every footstep.

Please if your interested in sponsoring the building of a house we will put your name on it and you are more than welcome to come help build it i am only one man with a little bit of money but i need your help.

You can change the world

Guess who is building a homeless shelter for women and children in Tanzania-Africa--this guy. Thanks to some donations by a few people and contributions of my own YellowBlueBus.inc will be funding the construction of a modest shelter/housing for the homeless mainly single women and single women with children. Construction starts now as well as the application process as there are many in need but we will only be able to house about 25 individuals to start. We will offer them shelter, 2 meals a day, medical services, education and training as well as personal counseling. Many of these women are widows due to their husband dying from AIDS and they themselves affected with HIV with little to no options for them and their children. Also note that many of these women have had to turn to prostitution in order to have means for food and a home for themselves and their children. The ripple affect of these circumstances goes beyond the imagination but with this shelter our hope is to lift these women up and give them the strength and the power to overcome their past and build themselves a new future and give the the tools needed to sustain their own lives only months after coming through our doors. This will only be the beginning stages of this project, our hopes is to build a men's unit and expand from there to enable the support for many in order to save and change lives and most importantly give them our LOVE.

East African Community( EAC)-Tanzania-Kenya-Uganda- Rwanda and Burundi

So it seems i have some free time coming up soon so i decided to buy a plane ticket to
Tanzania- Africa. The length of my stay will be 6 months and i will primarily be working/volunteering in Tanzania near Arusha as well as doing some work in
Nairobi, Kenya and also in Kampala, Uganda.
I have plans to try and raise some money to help various groups of people including orphans/children ,widows, people living with HIV and the homeless.
I work about 90 hours a week to save the money needed to get there and back as well as my stay there but just as importantly money needed to help feed the orphans, pay for school fees, help children receive much needed medical attention. Also i try a community integration approach and i become part of their lives in every possible way. My hopes are not to find 3 or 4 people interested in donating hundreds of dollars but instead to find hundreds of people interested in donation $3-$4 each and add it all together to help make a change.
please help me help others-- its easy to do and costs the price of a value -meal.
Please be aware that i pay for ALL of my own expenses- any money received in donations goes 100% to the people and the project we at yellowbluebus.inc are trying to help.

"Slipping"

So i am currently working 3 jobs approx. 90 hours/week helping people with disabilities
and i make on average $10/hour($8.50 after taxes) i am trying to save the money needed to return to Africa as soon as possible. I need money for my plane ticket. my current living expenses, living costs while in the country and most importantly money to use to help the children, widows and families i support though an HIV project.

which leads me to my problem , I had a "shift" off this past week and while driving my 1993 Accra integra my clutch said "clunk" and like that it was gone.
i was disappointed because that was money i did not budget, but thanks to my brother
(Eric the car guy) http://www.ericthecarguy.com/ i was on my way again at very little cost. Also i was moved as to how my friends were eager to help me with a ride or even lend me their car for a day. It shows me how others see how important what i am doing is and that i must continue, and i did, thanks to them lifting me up.

i would like to end by saying Happy mothers Day and thanks for the power "to be"

Hello to all my friends , family and those in between. This is my first attempt at a blog even though i sort have written one previously on my website now non-profit http://www.yellowbluebus.org
My main intention of this is to try and share thoughts , ideas and experiences with anyone that may be interested in the places i have been and the lives i have changed :)
I need to begin by thanking the creator for creating me in a form that has the ambition and desire and willingness to give myself to all that are in need, for my life is secondary to those who suffer. My true best friend Matt aka "Catfish" has played a major role in helping me make it possible to do some of the things i have done. So please do not look upon this as anything but and information booth for i go to places that many of us would not go because is is a horrible place to visit let alone to live even though on the outside it may seem very beautiful it truly is ugly and filled with pain and suffering and death. From my experiences i have learned to find the beauty within. As i live among these people i am accepted as a member of the community and of their families and for this i have great respect and appreciation. Life is frail and every "moment" is as precious as the next and i try to live every one of them with clarity and understanding and purpose giving all my Love.