Dear Friends,

For anyone who picks my brain for more than a minute or so about some of the transformative experiences in my life, the odds are high that my time spent in Tanzania will be the first thing they hear of from the soapbox.

In Tanzania I found a language that I love. I found a part of myself I hadn't really known existed. And I found a second family. A family that took me in like I was one of their own. One I've laughed with, and one I've cried with. One that I miss the second I step onto that plane to fly home.

The matriarch of that family, Devota Songita, better known to the community as Mama Deo, needs a little help.

Mama Deo is one of the warmest people I know. She's lighthearted, sarcastic, and steadfast in her devotion to her four sons. She somehow manages to find a sense of humor in everything, and she never fails to find a laugh at my expense. She once warned me against eating some local variety of pepper, and then almost died crying while I panted like a dog on the couch for the next fifteen minutes; agonizing as it was, that's one of my happiest memories.

She held onto that humor even after one of her most painful; during the pandemic, her husband of decades, Laurent, passed of an undiagnosed respiratory illness. And she held steady, too, shouldering the load of the family business, Usa River's local stationery shop.

But steady as she is, she can't do much to stop the fading vision in her right eye. After a visit to the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, it's obvious that she needs surgery to mend the growing gap in her retina. Without the surgery, that gap will widen, taking the remainder of her sight in the eye as it does.

Unfortunately, the surgery is just a little over $3,000. Even for families that are somewhat well off, like Mama Deo's, it doesn't take a PhD to understand that in a poor country, that price is steep. I know that I can pitch in a decent amount, and I know that my immediate family is happy to help some too, but we're still short.

Which is where you come in.

Any little bit helps. Ten bucks here and ten bucks there can add up to a few hundred in a hurry, and then maybe a few thousand. For all the warmth Mama Deo has shown me in the seven years since I was blessed to be matched with her family in Tanzania, it would mean the world to me if you could find the space to send a little warmth back.

Thanks so much,

Ian