Set you Eyes on our Holy Milk Cow Prize!

I may be prejudice, but I think our milk cow is very very very good looking! I am just so grateful to donors, the Quest (Shannon and Julie), and the local partners (Jerusha, a local teacher Bruno Kapinga, and our Wagumu counterparts) for all of the efforts to make this project run smoothly in such a short time.

As one of the Quest donors stated, "Our project is Moovelous!"

Please see the link below from The Quest 2011 as some initial information they have gathered to tell you about the success of the Holy Milk Cow Fund!

The Quest

We bought a pregnant milk cow today!

YEA WE DID iT!!!!! Details to come! Compassionate Backpackers are having the adventure of their lives! And enjoying every minute! Let's just say their was a enormous celebration in the village today! AND with the money leftover we were able to buy a roof for a classroom for Wagumu Camp to teach health, reading, and life skills!

When "Holy Milk Cows Fly"...to DC!

Shannon and Juls are on their way to Dulles Airport in DC, a short pit stop on their way to Tanzania! I am set to meet them to go over the details of the Holy "Milk" Cow adventure. Stay tuned. I think there will be alot of surprises! While I wait for them at the hotel, I will think of random swahili words that relate to the Holy Milk Cow Fund 2011. yep. I am bored...

Swahili Lesson of the Day

Kumbe (Kum-bay)- Exclamation of Surprise!

Kazi (Kaa-zee)- Work

Wagumu (Waa-Goo-Moo) - People with Hardships

Ngombe (gnome-bay)- Cow

Maziwa (Ma-Z-Wa)- Milk

Fedha (Feh-the)- Money

Mungu (Moon-goo)- God

Nzuri (Nnn-zuri)- Good

Shannoni (Sha-no-knee)- Shannon's name in Swahili

kuku (coo-coo)- chicken

mbuzi (mm-boo-zee)- goat

Nagaga Kijiji (Na-ga-ga Key-jee-jee)- Nagaga Village

Maisha (My-isha)- Life

ni (knee)- is

Matamu (Ma-Ta-Moo)- Sweet

Upendo (Ew-Pen-Doe)- Love

Amani (Ah-Mon-eee)- Peace

Amani Everyone!

Cold Hard Cow Cash

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa

Next week, Shannon and Julie are flying, on their way to Tanzania, by way of Washington, DC. I will be delivering to them the $1000, and we will be organizing our thoughts on the two week project that will be happening in early August. As of now, many details are pending, we are still looking for our livestock to purchase and looking into sending Bwilo to a quick conference on livestock and basically figuring out all of the details in the back and forth between myself, Jerusha, Wagumu Camp and Bwilo.

Thanks for the Moooo-La!

We have officially raised ALL OF THE MONEY for this project!

1000 dollars!!!

Thanks to our final donor, and birthday girl, Jessica Smith!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

This will translate into over ONE MILLION TANZANIAN SHILLINGS! Thanks to everyone that donated! And stay tuned for the details of the Holy Milk Cow Project which takes off next month!

It takes a village to raise a milk cow!

The Wagumu Camp Community Group and Mkangaula Village have been alerted to and are very excited to hear of our fundraising successes! We are very close to our goal! Phone conversations with them are going well and the budgets and logistics are being formulated. This will not be an easy project--there will be ups and downs of completing a project such as this in a rural setting--but the Compassionate Backpackers, Jerusha, Shannon, and Julie have been working hard to get their plans coordinated. We still have $80 to raise, but are so close to our goal thanks to the support of so many fabulous people!

We have raised $919.71 from our goal of $1000!

Today's Forecast: Cloudy with A Chance of Milk Cow

Another big Thank Moo to all the donors and a shout out to Marisa Hanson and Michelle Choy, two Returned Peace Corps Tanzania Volunteers from the same Deep South region and Michelle even served in the same village as me! They both know the culture, language, and people of the Deep South area first hand and both generously gave to the Holy Milk Cow Fund! We have recently begun to contact Wagumu Camp about this project and will be updating the site with the budget and developing plan for the two weeks in August when this cow becomes a reality!

WE ARE NOW AT $776.30 RAISED FROM OUR GOAL OF $1000!

We are calfway....I mean halfway there!

Where: Mkangaula Village in Deep South Tanzania

Situated 12 hours inland by bus from Mtwara and off of a dirt road between Masasi Town and Newala Plateau bordering Mozambique are the villages of Nagaga (where I served for two years in Peace Corps) and Mkangaula (the neighboring village and home of Wagumu Camp).

The citizens of the Deep South villages of Tanzania have maisha magumu (hard lives). Little access to running water. Failing schools. Economic difficulties. They often live in mud huts. (no air-conditioning or heat or electricity here) Do not have limited access to clean water and lack the resources to afford proper nutritional meals and prompt medical care. They live in communities with 10-20% HIV/AIDS rate, highly vulnerable to malaria and other local ailments. However, while facing all of these hardships, the Wagumu Camp members inspired me with their dedication to the community. This is a community where if you have two shirts you give one away to someone who has no shirt. Can you imagine?

We have raised $610.44 out of our goal of $1000!!!

Don't "Have A Cow"....Give A Cow!

Thanks to the generosity of friends we have raised....

$450 towards our goal of $1000!

Also, in addition to personally donating, I am giving 100% of the proceeds as a notary public to the project! Please share this blog and inspire others to give!

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of a Milk Cow

Wagumu Camp Tree

In case you were wondering more about the Holy "Milk" Cow Fund, I will be posting the Who/What/Where/How in the following posts. Please post any questions you have regarding this project in the comment section and I will do my best to fill in the details.

WHO: WAGUMU CAMP'S BWILO SALAMU

I met Wagumu Camp when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania in 2006 in Nagaga Village. My first days in Nagaga were a blur of new faces and swahili conversations I didn't understand. One group, Wagumu Camp, stood out in their eagerness to work with me.

I was led to their meeting place, a humble tree by the roadside marked simply with a sign. They sat me down in a chair and began to perform for me- songs and dances all geared toward HIV/AIDS and health education. They wanted training, books, and guidance. Througout my two years of Peace Corps we did weekly lessons, village trash clean-ups, HIV/AIDS testing days, set-up their offices, as well as doing several large and small outreach projects in several villages reaching thousands of villagers.

The owner/caretaker of the milk cow will be Bwilo Salamu and his wife Hadija. Bwilo's story is one that is very common in Tanzania. As a young man he left the village to go to Dar es Salaam to seek his fortune. However, in Dar he became sick and was forced to return to the village. Back in the village, he tested positive for HIV. With the help of Peace Corps volunteer Michelle Choy and Wagumu Camp, he was able to more fully understand the virus and to begin ARVs. He met his now wife, Hadija, also living with HIV. I became great friends with Bwilo and his wife during my time in Tanzania. As one of my counterparts Bwilo helped me with many projects. Honestly, he may be one of the kindest and more generous Tanzanians I met during my stay there. Always bringing me food- such as eggs, cashews, bananas- and participating in the planning of many projects for orphans and vulnerable children, as well as bravely coming out to his community during his wedding in 2007 as living with HIV helping to eliminate stigmas in the village.

Me and Bwilo at his Wedding

So, that is the basic story. I have stayed in contact with Bwilo by phone. He keeps me updated on the weather, crops, births and deaths in the village, and the ups and downs of village life. There is, of course, much more to the story. So many more experiences. Stories of tragedy and beauty, teamwork, and tenacity. I wish I could take you all there and show you the sign and the tree where this humble movement was born, march with you through the dustcloud a Wagumu Camp parade, and sit with you as hundreds of villagers gather in the dirt and climbitrees to strain to see the songs, dances, and lessons of Wagumu Camp.

Wagumu Camp Members at Art/Kite Camp for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

NEW TOTAL RAISED: $284

I've Got a Fever and the Only Prescription is...

"We have a stake in one another...what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and...if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth." --President Obama

Read below and consider donating to the Holy "Milk" Cow Fund today!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...Lend me your Cows!

The Holy "Milk" Cow Fund has raised....
211 dollars!
on our way to our goal of $1000!

Donating A Cow Puts Everyone in a Good Moooo'd!

Inspired by recent phone conversations with friends in the village of Nagaga in the deep south of Tanzania and the Compassionate Backpackers Quest 2011 (click for link)...and I have decided to embark on a journey specifically, to purchase a pregnant milking cow for Wagumu Camp champion and HIV survivor, Bwilo. (I know it sounds like an "udderly" ridiculous idea!) BUT, a milking cow can provide up to 20 gallons of milk a day, which can be sold or consumed by the family benefiting both the family's yearly income and nutritional intake. The cow will be delivered by the compassionate backpackers's Shannon Schiele and Julie Costa in 2 months time during their travels to Tanzania. The journey to both fund and complete this project will be documented on this blog!

THE GOAL: to raise $1000 to purchase a pregnant female milking cow and to cover initial costs of feed, medical care, supplies for the cow, and transport. (100% of your donations will go to this project!)

HOW KNOW TO DONATE BROWN COW?: Click the donate link to the right of your screen to donate with credit card. Hunt me down and give me cash. Or send me a check.

I can be contacted at jessicalhayes@gmail.com for further details.

THE STEAKS ARE HIGH! Donate Today!