Esther has been in hospital all week with pneumonia - but thankfully she seemed a lot better when I visited her today and we hope she will come home tomorrow.

Rhobi (Mary's Mum) was buried on Wednesday and her other children came from Musoma to attend the funeral. It is very strange not having her around the place now.....but she will always live on through Mary (Leila).

I had an 'Interview' with Clarin's and YOU Magazine as my Mum entered me for a Volunteer of the Year Award! I was shortlisted and had a phone interview on Wednesday. I have not heard anything so I am guessing we did not win. It would have been nice as the prize was £30,000 for Forever Angels which would have been SO wonderful.

Today Yohanna arrived at my house with his Mum. Yohana was our second child at Forever Angels and he went back to live with his Mum a few months ago. He was very hungry and has lost weight....but more importantly - he looked very sad. His Mum came to tell me that she wanted to bring him back to the Baby Home as she couldn't look after him anymore and he was too naughty?! She said all this in front of Yohanna before I could stop her!
I will need to get Social Welfare involved in this family again as it is clear Yohana is not being cared for at home - but he is now too old to come to Forever Angels. I will go to see the Social Worker tomorrow to see if Yohana can be placed in another orphanage? It saddened me a lot as this was one of our 'sucesses' and seeing him so sad was very hard.

There is a sickness bug going round which poor Tara and Imogen (our volunteers) have both caught. Thankfully it does not seem to have got to the children yet.....watch this space!

And now a sad / happy tale.....Yunisi (our first ever Forever Angels child) will be leaving this week on Thursday! It will not be the same at the Baby Home without her - I adore this little girl and will miss her so much!

When Yuni first came to us, she was living with her Grandma and 13 year old Aunt (Sophia). Her Grandma died shortly afterwards from cancer - leaving Sophia alone. I helped to get Sophia a place at the Bethany Orphanage for older children. The plan was for her to live there for a couple of years and then come to live at Forever Angels and take part in our 'Teenage Orphan Trainee Scheme'. However - Sophia is doing SO well at Bethany - it seems a real shame to move her! She is top in her class at school and great things are expected of this young lady.

Yunisi however, adores her and talks about Sophia all the time. She sleeps with a photo of her in her bed and always talks about going to live with her. Because of school, Sophia is unable to visit Yunisi very often so I am afraid that this bond will soon diminish. These girls only have eachother lfet in the world and I think it is right for them to be together....so Bethany and Social Welfare have agreed that Yuni can be transferred there this week.

We will be having a leaving party for her on Wednesday and then driving out to Bethany on Thursday morning. Although - long term, this is the best solution for Yuni - she still seems so tiny at times and in the 20 months she has been at Forever Angels I have grown to really love this little girl....Thursday will be a sad day!

The pre-school really IS going to open soon! Imogen is going to start painting it next week and I hope the Volunteers will then try to get it going.

We had to sack one of our Night Watchmen this week for sleeping on the job (for the third time!) It is so hard to try to instill how important this job is for the children's safety and security.

We have been re-writing all the contracts for our staff to make sure we are abiding with all Tanznaian Labour Laws (of which there are a LOT!). This has taken Ben and I a LOT of time - but we are due to finish this evening and will both then breathe a big sigh of relief!

Today - a bouncy castle came to Mwanza for the first time!! The volunteers took Yuni, Sarah, Tuliza, Charlie, Mwita and Joseph for a bounce and some lunch at the beach and they all had a GREAT time! I will put some photos up this week.
It has been another busy week all in all and I do not seem to have stopped....

Today Chloe and I spent the afternoon and evening in Bugando Hospital with Esther who has just been admitted. She has had fever for a few days, but she suddenly got much worse this afternoon. I had already tested her for malaria (4 times!) and taken a stool sample in to the lab - both of which were negative.

She had some diaoreah - but not severe, high fever and no other symptoms? The Doctor was actually very good and suggested the 2 things I myself was thinking - pneumonia (although she doesn't have the signs?) or a UTI.She was feeling very sorry for herself as we left her this evening in the care of one of my staff - but she has started on antibiotics so I hope she will feel better soon.

Mind you - there were no mosquito nets on the whole ward as they had apparently gone for cleaning - so even if she does not have malaria now - she will by the time she leaves?!

Tomorrow is Rhobi's funeral (Mary's Mum)which I will be attending. And I also have a telephone interview for Clarin's Volunteer of the Year Award which my Mum nominated me for! More about that later!....

Well - it has been a difficult few days for a number of reasons, but Mary's Mum (Rhobi) is the main factor.

After a week of racing around various hospital departments trying to trace her medical records (as she lost her appointment cards for the HIV and TB clincis) we took Rhobi to hospital on Thursday to get her medication for TB. She was very weak and it was suggested that she be re-admitted to hospital - but the Doctor who examined her did not think it was necessary.

We brought her back to the Baby Home and have been giving her food and medicine over the weekend. Last week we had all planned with Rhobi's brother that she wanted to go back to live near to him - so yesterday - we took her and her new bed and belongings to her new house. I had rented a room for her next to her brother's house and we had paid someone locally to cook food for her.

Rhobi was very weak and has very bad TB but we thought she had about 6 months to live.

I am not sure what happened last night - but this morning, I got a phone call from her brother to say that Rhobi had just died this morning at home. Tomorrow I will go with her brother to arrange her funeral.

I always knew Rhobi did not have long to live, which is why we agreed with her to take care of Mary (Leila)..... but I truly thought she had longer than this. She was however suffering and I think once she knew her baby was going to be well cared for - she gave up?

Rhobi was only 32 years old and I don't think she had much happiness in her life. I hope she can now rest in peace and know that her little baby Mary, will always be my little girl and will grow up knowing how much her Mum, Rhobi loved her.

I am very sad for Rhobi and her family - but also for baby Leila who will now never know her Mum.

Rest in peace Rhobi....I promise to tell your baby girl everything I know about you and she will certainly know that you held on until you were sure that she was well cared for.

All is going well at the Baby Home.

We have had some good publicity this week in the Miss East Africa Magazine. Miss East Africa came to visit the Baby Home back in December and now they are trying to help us to raise funds for Forever Angels.
Check out their on line magazine and the article on Forever Angels at:

www.misseastafrica.co.uk/magazine

We have had no power most of this week, so this time, it is not my fault that I haven't updated the diary!!

We are still busy making changes to the website, adding new pages and changing things around - so please excuse any delays or errors in loading. This should have been finished by now - but with no power it makes a difficult job, even more tricky!!

Mary's Mum is now out of hospital and living back in our preschool. She is on some medication and doing a little better. She wants to go to live back near to her family, so next weekend, she will move again. I have arranged to rent a room for her, in a house where she will have meals cooked for her every day. She is very happy with this and will come regularly to visit Mary. In the mean time, Mary is living with us, growing well and is a very happy little girl.

Sophia (Yunisi's 14 year old Aunt) came from Bethany orphange to visit this week and Yunisi was delighted to see her. These two clearly love eachother and I think the best situation is for them to be together. I am going to arrange with Social Welfare for Yunisi to move to Bethany. It will be SO hard to say 'goodbye' to this little girl as she was our first child at Forever Angels - but family is so important here in Tanzania and Sophia and Yunisi only have eachother so I think it is essential that they now live together. I hope that she will be able to go to be with Sophia in the next couple of months.

We are probably going to get 3 more babies this week from Bugando. I am not sure of all of the details yet but will keep the diary updated.

Chloe and Tara went on an adventure with Mr Malaba (a Social Worker) to Sengerema on Friday. They went in search of some answers about Esther. Esther's Mum is alive but she is in the Hospital Psychiatric Unit suffering from Bipolar Disorder and HIV. She is ready to be discharged - and wants to take Esther - but she has no home to go to and no relatives or friends to help her. So they all went in search of some family or friends who can help.
It doesn't appear that Esther will be able to return home to her Mum as there is no sufficient support network to care for them both. Social Welfare are still trying to trace Esther's father though and so we are still hopeful for a happy ending for this little girl.

I will try harder to write more regularly from now on to keep you all updated!!

You may have noticed our website 'face lift'. We will be making a number of changes to the website over the next few weeks - so please bear with us. If our website still looks 'pink' to you.....press 'control' on your keyboard and click the 'refresh' button at the same time.

All is well at the Baby Home. We have had a new volunteer arrive - Imogen - who is lovely and is settling in well.

The rains seem to have stopped now so the children are able to play outside again which is great!

The children seem to be getting over their coughs and colds and apart from the odd bout of ringworm - they are all healthy.

Mary's Mum is very sick in hospital. She is on oxygen now and still waiting for test results to come back so she can receive medication. Please keep her in your thoughts.

If you read my diary yesterday about the albino baby a mother brought to our gate - you will understand why I think this BBC World HeadLine Newstory was such a conincidence today?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7327989.stm

It is hard living in a country like this where such backward beliefs and practises go on ALL THE TIME and are somehow 'accepted'! Whichcraft is HUGE here - almost every Tanzanian I know believes in it. At least the President is speaking out about this....

Well, today has been another very long day.

It is a long story - but to cut it short....

I went to try to find Mary's Mum to check she is ok, as when I last saw her she was sick. Tara, Rosemary (one of my staff) and I went to find her house. After lots of getting lost - we finally found it only to be told she had moved house! I met her ex husband (the father of her oldest 4 children - they divorced in 2000) and he took me to her new house.

She is now living with her brother. She says her ex-husband kicked her out - but he says there were problems with his new wife? Either way - she is now living in total squalor and is very very sick. Mary's dad has died from AIDS and her Mum is an orphan - so apart from some brothers - she has no family.

She was living on the floor in a room less then 150cm wide in the house of her youngest brother. She was coughing profusely but says her TB medicine is finished. She has not eaten for days and there is no food in the house.

I couldn't leave her there to die in those conditions. I hope to adopt Baby Mary (her mother has asked us to) and I just couldn't see her suffering in that way.
I also could not take her to live at my own house or the Baby Home or the Volunteer House as she has TB which is very dangerous for our babies with HIV.

So - our newly built preschool has become her home (for now!) It WILL open as a preschool just as soon as we finish painting the floor and fixing the windows - but until I find a better solution - Mamma Mary is now there. It means I can see her every day, we can bring her food and water and tea every day, she has a comfy bed to sleep on and some peace and quiet.
I actually think she needs to be in hospital and do not believe she has long to live....but if she is in Hospital she has to share a single bed with other TB patients and receives no care or food.

She came with a kanga (piece of coloured cloth) wrapped around her - no clothes, no possessions of any sort. Her 32 years of life is coming to an end and she has nothing and no one?
It is such a sad situation.

I brought her new clothes, a radio and bible, soap, towels, toothbrush, blankets and sheets.....it must have felt like Christmas for her?

Her family are extremely poor and agreed they can not ever care for Mary - so we hope to go to court to get her relinquished to us soon. Of course - Mary's Mum is in no fit state to do this right now. She is starving, has bad fever and is slowly wasting away.

In the house she was living - I would say she would have been dead within the month....but with good food, warmth and some medical care - who knows what her future holds?
It is so hard to see anyone dying in this way....particularly a young mother, barely older than myself?

As I got home, there was a lady at the gate with an albino baby. She had run away from her village and wanted help as people were trying to take her baby to kill it for witchcraft?
I told ehr about Social Welfare and I hope they can help her.

Some days I LOVE Tanzania. Other days I hate it. Today - I hated it. Today I saw extreme poverty in so many ways.....and can do very little to help!?