Seeing Africa Through Their Eyes
By Michael and Dorris Fortson
We are at our home in Tanzania at last! This trip, we will be
here until September 15. Here is a photo of Dorris and four
month old Phillip. This is what we are here for.
After church Sunday we took some of our Neema volunteers out to
see the land Neema is buying, and where we will build the new
home for the babies. We were sure we could hear the laughter of
children echoing across these beautiful hills. God is indeed
Good!
To have two teenage girls see Africa for the first time is way
beyond cool! Hayley, our granddaughter, and her best friend
Kyndel (Hayley, right, and Kyndel, left) have been at Neema a
week now and I think they have fallen in love with Africa and
its beautiful people.
The Neema babies, Debora and Matilda Grace, both abandoned
babies, can be found most anytime either tied on their backs or
in their laps as the girls feed, change, bounce and burp these
beautiful little Neemaities.
Everywhere you look Africa is a million shades of manjano
(green in Swahili). Yesterday we took them to Moshi, a
beautiful green flowering town, where they toured a coffee
plantation and helped make the world famous Tanzanian coffee
from “bush to cup.” An old African Mzee took the girls
through the process and energetically sang and pounded,
winnowed and roasted his way to the best cup of coffee I ever
drank in my life. I will never drink another cup of coffee
without thinking of this weathered almost toothless man singing
and clapping as we pounded the coffee beans.
Mt. Kilimanjaro, who is very bashful and as the Africans, say
only shows herself to special people, finally peeked her snow
covered head from the clouds to greet the girls. Michael and
the girls hiked to the Kili waterfall at the base of the
mountain and waded through the ice cold glacier river water to
stand on a rock and see this misty vision of God’s beauty.
We sat with them in the damp, musty caves of the ancient Chagga
people and listened to the guide tell of how the ancients hid
from the warrior Masaai who came raiding to capture tall women
to sire their babies. Sadly he told us they killed the women
when the child was five so she could not tell them of their
Chagga home.
At the end of the trip we stopped by the Machame hospital
where Jack and Mija Coles from Temple, Texas worked for so many
years. In the maternity delivery ward we got to see a brand
new baby just washed and I was given the honor of naming the
baby. It was a touching moment for all of us as I named this
beautiful little wonder, Rebekah.
On their day off last weekend we took the girls to Maji Moto, a
hot volcanic pool, where they swam in the blue pool, swung from
a rope swing squealing as only teenage girls can, or sat still
while the little fishes nibbled at their feet. It is quite a
unique place, dropped in the middle of a dry, goat-infested,
overgrazed plain, this beautiful oasis suddenly appears.
The pool was hidden by giant, spreading fig trees with monkeys
flinging themselves from branch to branch in search of their
dinner. We have nicknamed Kyndel, the monkey magnet, since
she can spot them anywhere.
We are so glad to be back in Africa and once again be able to
share this land and its people with you on our little blog.
Having Hayley and Kyndel here and seeing Africa through their
eyes has been a special treat for us. Bless all of you who
made this possible for them. And bless all of you who support
and pray for our babies at Neema House.
Grace to all,
Br>
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