Go Cavs!

Yet ANOTHER addition to RVCV!

Introducing Baby Grace! Only one month old, her mother died shortly after childbirth. Grace comes from the same region as Mika, Gabriella, Natalie and Maria - called Mong'ola. She came into the clinic on Monday with two repeat volunteers - Elissa and Ellie! Dr. Mshana thoroughly checked her out and reported that she is in great shape - a little skinny, but everyone at Rift Valley will quickly change that! More good news, she is HIV negative!

Here is Elissa and "her" new baby!

Proud mamas!

Grace getting her eyes checked.

Dr. Mshana giving her a physical.

Correction

Wanted to let everyone know that Grace and Peter's baby is not in fact named Joan.

Her name is JoAnn.

Spelling Western names is tricky here!

Thanks!

Peter and Grace

For those of you who have volunteered with RVCV in the past, I wanted to share the good news on behalf of Peter and Grace. Last night Grace gave birth to a healthy baby girl! They have named her Joan. Congratulations to the new mom and dad!

Tumaini Health Screenings at FAME

Last week, here at FAME, Dr. Ivan and Dr. Mshana did health screenings on 80 children from Tumaini Primary School. FAME and Tumaini have worked together before, doing health screenings at the school. But now, with the FAME clinic completed, the new students who have never been screened before, were brought to the clinic for their checkup!

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos!

We love healthy kids!

ps - Frank and Susan are in the US at the moment, on their fundraising tour - we miss them here, but we hope that all is going well!

AOEF Scholar Success!

Yesterday I went up to Rift Valley Children's Village to visit one of AOEF's scholarship students. Josephat (in the blue and white striped shirt) has just finished secondary school at Makumira. At the end of secondary school, all students take an exam. Your score puts you into one of four divisions, one being the highest and four being the lowest.

Josephat received a Division One score!!! We couldn't be more proud of his accomplishments. He has always been extremely bright and very hard working.

The reward for scoring so high is that Josephat can apply to government colleges and universities and will likely be picked for a scholarship!

Here are Josephat, Julius and Edward (previous student teachers at RVCV, back from school - who also just finished secondary school and did extremely well!) working at RVCV over the summer.

All three will find out where they will be headed to college (fingers crossed!) in August.

I will keep you posted!

But a big congrats to Josephat on all of his hard work!

Update

It has been a while since I gave a general update, so here we go! The rains are here - occasionally - but when they are here, boy does it get muddy! Luckily I know how to drive in snow and sleet, with black ice - which is the equivalent to the kind of mud we have here. The corn is growing but everyone is still holding their breath to see if the rains will last long enough to have a good harvest.

Last weekend, Minnesota International Health Volunteers (who have an office here in Karatu), held their second annual Run for Malaria - a half marathon aimed at raising awareness about malaria prevention and treatment. The Olympic teams from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda all came to Karatu to run from the gate of the Ngorongoro Crater into Karatu town.

It was tons of fun! I was at the finish line to cheer everyone on! Dr. Frank and one of our nurses were there as well, providing medical attention to those in need!

Here is a picture of me (with our friend Paula) and a local "crazy woman" - there is no better way to describe her. She wears goat skin and this tribal mask, and tries to frighten small children. She found Paula and I to be fascinating. I was wishing her goat skin skirt didn't smell quite so much!

Other than that, things here are great! Frank and Susan depart this Friday for 7 weeks of fundraising in the U.S.. The FAME staff and I will hold down the fort while they are away! We will miss them, but we wish them luck!!!

People have been emailing me and sending me messages inquiring about the adoption process. First of all, THANK YOU to everyone for your love and support. Especially to those of you able to support my parents back home! Things are going well - so far, so good - slowly, but that was to be expected. No return date as of yet. The rest of April and all of May will be important - lots of court dates. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Lots of love, Meredith