Franki’s Village

Five year ago, Franki was the very first baby to come to Neema.  He was the smallest of a set of Maasai triplets and his mother didn’t have enough milk to feed them all, so Franki was given to Neema.  The homeschool co-op I went to my senior year of high school was Franki’s first sponsor.

Neema gives supplies to Franki’s village about four times a year and I was fortunate enough to go with a group of volunteers on one of those trips last week! Franki was my car buddy on our four drive out to his village.

Poor little Franki boy was SO worried we were going to leave him that it took about 20 minutes of me holding him until he let me put him down.  His mother, father, and siblings were so excited to get to see him!

Myself and Franki with his mom on the right and dad on the left.

Here I am trying to convince Franki to let me put him down so we could take a family picture. Notice his sweet little hands wrapped around my neck!

Franki and his family!

Franki dressed up like a real Maasai.  How cute is he?!?! “I am Maasai” he was saying.

Who doesn’t love holding babies?! Casey, one of our volunteers this summer, holding Franki’s baby sister.  We had to take turns holding her because the flies were SO BAD and they seemed to really like the younger kids in the village.

This picture makes me cry. No one should live like this.

A normal Maasai house.  Franki’s parents were kind enough to show us into their home.

Here I am with my mom and Franki’s mom.  We think one of the reasons they don’t have windows is to keep some of the flies out.

Franki’s family served us chai tea.  Not gonna lie, it took me a couple minutes to muster up the strength to drink it. Turns out, it was pretty good! I’m so glad Dorris was there to show me the ropes!

Ashley has very quickly become my bestie here in Africa! I love sitting in her room in the evenings talking about anything and everything! I was so happy when she was able to get away from her school job at Neema to come with us to the village.

We took seven of the big kids with us to the village as a “field trip”. Here I am trying to find somewhere for the kids to go potty while pointing out the termite mound and telling them to not touch it! 

We here at Neema can’t thank our volunteers enough for the love they show everyone wherever we go. From passing out candy, dancing with kids, and holding babies, our volunteers are very hard workers. Also, I want to point out the fact that Casey and Lexi have put in countless hours in the office helping get some P&P in place.  It was very nice to get out of the office for the day to enjoy Africa and love on its people! Ashley, my mom, and I always seem to have so much fun together! I sure am going to miss my momma when she goes back to Montana!  Notice my mom’s cross necklace which Franki’s mom gave to her as soon as we arrived.

Franki’s village served us goat for lunch before we left.  I’m thankful I was served the chai tea to drink first because I’m not sure I could have dealt with the meat right away.

That’s the bag the meat came from. 

I ate it and lived to tell the tale. But really, it wasn’t as bad I thought it was going to be.

Dorris with her grandson Tanner.  They both loved it!

It’s hard to get a picture with a large group of people let alone when you don’t speak the same language. The car ride was LONG and BUMPY, but we had some pretty great car buddies. Here I am with Gloria. Yep, that’s my necklace around my face. We were doing anything to keep the kids entertained.

Over all it was a very good but long day! I am so thankful that Neema is here to help take care of the kids who would have been left to try and fight for their lives out in a village with no clean water nor healthy food to eat. As my mom likes to remind me “the days are long, but the years are short” and I can’t believe this is how I am getting to spend some of those long days of my life!