Part Three

I'm back to give you updates...

Saturday, 4/19

Safari day! Our fees with GSC include a one day safari to Lake Manyara National Park. The fact that I had never heard of this park and that it is only about an hour away from Arusha led me to keep my standards quite low for the trip. However, I ended up LOVING it!

Even excluding the animals, the park itself is beautiful. It is in the Great Rift Valley, and about 2/3 of the park is covered by lake. Therefore, as you drive through the park, you have the huge ridge of the valley on one side (all covered in green), and the lake on the other side. The portion of the park that is land is partly forest area and partly open fields. Adding to the beauty of the park was the fact that it was such a glorious day. Sun shining, not too hot, very few clouds, and no rain. As for the animals, we saw: giraffes, zebras, monkeys, hippos, flamencos, antelope, wild hogs, buffalo, ostriches, and elephants. We also saw a lion, but it was really, really far away and could only be seen with binoculars.

A couple cool things:

1. A lot of them are in mating season, so almost all the animals had little babies in their herd (3 weeks, according to our guide)
2. We were able to see pretty much all the listed animals close-up, only a couple meters away; which made the safari that much better.
3. We saw SO many of each animal, especially monkeys, giraffes, and hippos.
4. Even the birds in the park are cool, because they are really colorful
5. We had a picnic lunch by the lake, with a herd of giraffes strolling along about 10 meters behind us.

All and all, a really glorious day!

Sunday, 4/20

On Sunday, my mama had planned for me and her to go to a village called Moshi to visit her various relatives. I was, to say the least, not too excited about this plan for several reasons:

1. We would have to get up at 5:30 AM
2. Moshi is about 3 or 4 hours away, and we would be traveling by dala-dala (the overly-crowded vans)
3. Visiting relatives did not sound too fun to me
4. We would be sleeping there, and leaving at 5 AM the next morning so that i could be back in time for work.

For all these reasons, I decided that it was imperative for me to come up with an escape plan. When I woke up that morning, I had a bit of a stomach-ache; so basically I just exaggerated my pain and pretended to be really sick and I was free! Mama Chaula went ahead without me, and I went back to bed.

Most of the day was spent hanging out at home, but at four I took my "brother" Kevin and his little cousin Papi (who is now also living with us) to a futbol game in town. Sumeet brought his own homestay brother as well.

Despite there being a lot of people, most of the game was pretty calm. However, when a team scored in about the 70th minute, there was MAYHEM! The whole team ran around the field, took off shirts, screaming, dancing, the bench ran onto the field as well. The crowed yelled, cheered, ran around, played drums. It was pretty cool. When the game ended 1-0, the same celebrations happened again, and many of the fans ran onto the field.

When we arrived home, there was a black-out. The kids got bored quickly (we were all just sitting in the living room, doing nothing), so I decided to liven it up by moving my flashlight around quickly, dancing like crazy, and yelling "disco!". The kids loved it, and we were all dancing around in the living room. I think my uncle Edward thought I was ridiculous, but anything to entertain the kids, I suppose.

Later, the power came back on and then it stared pouring rain. Kevin and Aunt Kayrn took buckets outside to collect the rainwater. I noticed them carrying in bucket after bucket of rain water and putting it away in the kitchen. When I later asked Mama Chaula why they did this, she said told me that it is the water they use to clean clothes and dishes.

A couple random remarks that don't belong in any particular day:

1. One of my neighbors has an extremely loud cow that starts moo-ing around 5 Am. It is quite an unpleasant alarm clock and I have yet to get used to it.
2. Papi and Kevin will find absolutely anything to play with. Kevin found a piece of plastic that looks vaguely like a video game remote control. When futbol games come on the tv, he holds this and pretends he is playing a futbol video game (pressing down on imaginary buttons and everything). Kevin also used 4 bottle caps, tapes, two tooth picks, and a piece of cardboard to somehow make a little toy car. I continue to be impressed by their creativity.
3. Movies are sold here not individually, but in a collection. A single CD will have anywhere from 5 to 48 movies on it. And there are sold for $4-10 each. These movies are clearly pirated, but the quality is actually pretty good.
4. Megan, one of the volunteers who arrived at the same time as me, told me an amazing story about her first day with her host family. The family had prepared a special sausage dinner for her arrival. Unfortunately, Megan does not eat meat. When her "dad" asked her what she ate for protein, she said that sometimes she eats chicken. At this point, the whole family and Megan got into the car and started driving to the market. They bought a live chicken, put it in the front seat of the car (no cage), drove back home, slaughtered and prepared the chicken, and had it for dinner that night.

Monday, 4/21

Monday we stared giving classes to a new group. Whereas last week it was just me, Sumeet, and Rita this week we had many more people. GSC is currently training new translators, so two of them came with us. Also, Michelle, who had been volunteering in a different village, has now joined the HIV program, so she was with us. One last guy had interviewed for a translating position, but had not been hired. He, however, showed up on Monday and asked if he could sit in the class and volunteer. We found this to be weird, but had no objections. So there were 7 of us in total.

The class was given to students in a vocational school. Specifically, our classroom is usually used as a sewing class, so the "desks" were actually sewing machines. The group was all girls, aging from 15-18, 8 girls total (in the following days, this number would grow to 12).

The class ran pretty smoothly, despite the fact that the new translators are not nearly as good as Rita.

Once we finished lecturing, we opened the floor for any questions. After some pretty standard questions, one girl asked what masturbation was. Sumeet, who had been answering all the questions, struggled for a moment to decide (1) how to describe this in words, and (2) how far to go in detail on the subject. He explained pretty well, however; and when the girl translated, she actually added in the hand gestures (had to stop myself from laughing at this point). All of a sudden, the random "volunteer" guy, stood up and started addressing the class in Swahili. When i asked the translator what he had said, I found out that he had told the girls that masturbation is discouraged because (1) it is bad for your muscles and makes them weak, (2) it makes it harder to get turned on during regular sex, and (3) it hurts you psychologically and makes you not want to get married.

I pretty much became furious at this point and had one of the translators say repeatedly that none of this was true, that masturbation does not hurt you, that it is normal, and that it is a personal choice. Random guy sat down quietly.

Tuesday, 4/22

Happy Earth day! Tuesday morning I went to the craft market in town. The craft market is basically a bunch of tiny stores that sell wooden carvings, masks, drums, paintings, sculptures, and other souvenir-like things. Despite the constant hassling of the shop keepers for me to buy from them, I enjoyed the craft market a lot.

After the craft market, I met everyone at the school to give the second day of class. For me, the most interesting part of teaching is the questions, comments, and rumors we get from the students. Here are some of them:

1. Why do people perform oral sex?
2. Why are girls at higher risk to contract HIV?
3. Why does Africa has such a high rate of HIV compared to the rest of the world (not exactly the easiest question to answer).
4. Rumor that condoms stop all pleasure during sex
5. Comments that only men say I love you first
6. Comments that saying I love you is equivalent with having sex with that person
7. Comments that only men initiate sex in a relationship

After class, me and Sumeet went to town for a bit, and then I went back home.

Wednesday, 4/23

Today was a pretty slow day. I spent the morning at home, playing cards and watching A Series of Unfortunate Events with the kids. At 1 PM, I went to the GSC office to meet up with everyone, and then we headed to the school to start class at 2:30.

We took the dala-dala to get to the school. For the four of us (Rita, Michelle, Sumeet, and I), the ride costs $1000. GSC had given Rita money to pay for the ride in a $5000 note. Once we got off the dala and started walking into the school, Rita realized that she had forgotten to get her change. I went back with her to try to find the dala-dala.

To put things in perspective, trying to find a specific dala-dala in Arusha is kind of like trying to find a specific taxi cab in New York City. Additionally, the $4000 that she had forgotten to get back is equivalent to about $3.40. However, 4000 shillings is also half of her weekly paycheck; so you can see where her concern came from. If the lost money comes out of her paycheck (as I imagine it will), it will be a lot to lose. Of course, we never found the dala or got the money back, and Rita (who is usually very cheerful and light hearted) was visibly upset.

After class, I had lunch and am now in the internet cafe. That's all!

'

Part Two

Hey guys,
It hasn't quite been a week since my last entry, but I found internet so decided to go ahead and give you some updates today.

Sunday, 4/13

Sunday was a slow day. This is probably a good thing because the first week had practically been non-stop. Everything starts to close around 2 PM on Sundays, so the town was much more quiet than usual. Basically all I did on Sunday was go to town to use the internet and then played soccer a bit with Kevin and his friends. Kevin doesn't have a full size soccer ball, so we played with one of those little balls about the size of a coconut. This is probably a good thing though, because the area we played in was only about 4 x 5 meters, in the backyard. Nighttime was spent watching tv, reading, talking to the family, and eating dinner.

Monday, 4/14

Monday was "planning day." Sumeet and I would start giving HIV lessons the following day, so we had to plan our lessons and figure out what we wanted to say, how we would split up the lessons between ourselves, what activities we wanted to do, and what posters we would use. This basically took us all day, and we didn't leave the office until about 4 PM. After that, we went to a different part of town that we hadn't really check out yet. Summet wanted to get his shoe fixed- so he found some guy on the side of the street to glue his soles back on for 600 shillings (less than 60 cents). We headed back home shortly after this.

Once I arrived home, I started to pack. We would be giving lessons in a village called Moshono, and we would actually be staying in the village from Tuesday to Thursday. We were told there were going to be about 30 people, from ages 20 and up. We were also told however, that this type of information is pretty much always wrong. After packing, I had dinner, bathed, watched movies, and read until bed time.

Tuesday, 4/15

First day of teaching! So today we had to arrive at the office at 8 AM. We packed supplies, tape, posters (not made by me, Helen!!), soda and bread for the students, and then Sumeet, Rita, Frida, and I were off. Frida is the in-country coordinator for GSC, which just means she is in charge. She goes with us just to check out the place and make sure it is okay, but doesn't stay. Rita, who would act as our translator during lessons, stays with us though. Even though class was planned to begin at 9 AM, we did not even arrive in the village until about 9:30. Moshono is pretty much in the middle of a corn field. It is made up solely of dirt roads, has no running water, chickens and goats roam freely, there are only a couple of small supermakets, and the rest is homes or farm land.

Lessons are given in a very tiny church with just 3 pews and a chalkboard. We set up and wait for our students to arrive, and finally begin class around 11 AM.

The class consists of all women, 14 in total. Two of the women bring their young kids with them, and I have to make sure not to stare when one of them starts breast feeding in the middle of class.

The class itself goes very well. I think Sumeet and I both did a good job at explaining the important things, and doing it in a fairly simple manner. Rita is also good at translating clearly, letting us know what the students are saying, and keeping up a good pace to the class. Our students seem to age from 20-40, and I am happy to see them participating openly with discussions and activities. For the most part, they are more knowledgable then I expected, but I am shocked when they all agree that condoms are ineffective because they have tiny holes that allow HIB to pass through. We discuss modes of transmission, facts and myths, progression of HIV into AIDS, and the basics of the immune system. Then we give out lunch (peanut butter sandwich with soda), and the class is dismissed for the day. The whole class takes about 2.5 hours.

After giving class, there is pretty much nothing to do. Sumeet, Rita, and I just hang out in the room until lunchtime, eat lunch (rice, cabbage, meat), and then decide to go explore what little there is to be explored. Walking down the road, we see lots of people strolling along, seeminly with nothing to do. Some people walk with their cows, sheep, or goats. We walked up to the primary school, and all the kids are just getting out of class for the day. They all stare and laugh at us because we are white. When we turn to head back home, the kids started following us, and soon there were about 20 kids following us down the road, whispering and laughing to themselves!

After dinner, we decide to go on a second, much shorter walk in the opposite direction. On this second walk, we watched as a mom yelled at her 6 year old (estimating) son, hit him quite hard with a branch, and the boy ran off screaming. Rita translated the situation for us: the boy had been sent to the store at 3, and was only returning now (past 6). Seeing themom start to smack the kid in the middle of the street was totally unexpected, but frankly I found it to be pretty hilarious.

Wednesday, 4/16

Our second day of class went pretty quickly- less than 2 hours. We covered prevention methods, did a condom demonstration (which induced laughter), and discussed effective communication.

Discussing communication is important because many women in these villages do not know how, or don't feel they can, have discussions with a man about sex and being safe. There was a lot less resistance and discussion about this topic than I expected, and I just hope that they can take something from it and try to apply it to their lives in someway.

After class, there was again nothing to do. Eventually, we went on another walk and strolled through a lot of farm land. Once you get out of the residentual area of the village, it is all open field. During a two hour walk, the only buildings we passed by was an orphanage and a hospital. It was pretty cool, since it is pretty much impossible to find such open land in California or most of the US.

Later in the day, we were sitting in the yard, just relaxing, when two men came in with a goat. One of the men tied the goat to a tree in the yard, and then went into the house. We asked one of the girls that lives there what was going on, and she told us that the goat was a gift for the owner of the house. The goat would be eaten the following day.

Thursday, 4/17

Our last day of class covered HIV treatment, gender roles, and stigma/discrimination against HIV+ people. After this, we had Mama Betty (she was the HIV+ speaker who talked to us during the first week about symptoms and treatment for HIV) give an extremely long speech to the students. Everyone was also tested and given their results 15 minutes later. Of course, I do not know the results of the HIV tests since they are confidential. After this, we ate lunch, packed up, and headed back to town.

All of the volunteers had decided that we would go to Via Via that night, a restuarant/bar that plays live music on thursdays. We would have to stay in a hostel, because we would be leaving late and all our host families lock the doors around 10 PM. There were 7 of us in total: Sumeet, Megan, Michelle, Tai (all volunteers with GSC), Genea, Genea's friend Eli, and me. Via Via was a lot of fun. There were lots of other mzungos (white people) around, and we got to listen to music and dance.

Friday, 4/18

Today, I just relaxed and am now using the internet to post this blog. I wanted to have a mellow day, because tomorrow we are going on a one-day safari, and on Sunday I am going to a town called Moshi to visit Mama Chaula's parents. Both should be full days.

That's all for this time! I miss everyone!

Week One

Jambo! Hello all! So I have been in Tanzania for one week now, and I have lottttts to tell. This entry will probably be ridiculously long, so feel free to skim. Here we go...

Sunday, 4/6

I landed in TZ on sunday. Once the plane landed, I realized that one of the other volunteers had been sitting right in front of me the whole time. We introduced and walked into the airport together. Her name is Megan and she lives in Chicago and she is my age. The airport is very small, just three rooms: (1) entering room/visa application, (2) baggage pickup, (3) meeting point/exit. The application for a visa was just a small card with basic info (name, age, nationality, etc) and a $50 fee. We got our bags and met the Global Service Corps (GSC) representative right afterwards. We also met out driver, and we were off to Arusha.

First thoughts/impressions:

1. the streets are very dark, there are hardly any street lights
2. you drive on the right side of the road
3. even though it is 10 PM and the beginning of fall, it is very warm outside
4. you can see so many stars!! I don't think I have ever seen so many, and its pretty amazing.
5. the radio plays american music and the station playing is called KISS! It has hardly any commericials and I quite prefer it to the KISS FM I know back home.
6. Speedbumps occur in random places, they seem to serve no purpose
7. There are NO traffic lights whatsoever. Despite this, the traffic is quite organized (even now, after being here a week, I can say that there are no traffic lights anywhere and that the traffic somehow manages itself).
8. Everything is only one story high. The only exception to this are some hotels, which often seem out of place.

We arrive at the hostel. It is pretty basic. It has several small buildings all close together. The main building has a dining room, lounge, kitchen, and bathrooms. The other buildings are the rooms where we will stay. Me and Megan are sharing a triple room. It is pretty large, with its own bathroom (most of the rooms don't have a private bathroom). The toilet is normal, but the shower is just a shower head (no bathtub, no curtain, no door). We also meet Sumeet, the last volunteer. He is an Indian-American (not to be confused with an American Indian!) and is 24. He lives in Atlanta and will be applying for medical school once he goes back.

Monday, 4/7

The day starts at 7:20 AM. Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast (eggs and toast). At 830 AM, a GSC worker comes to pick us up. Her name is Rita and she is around 17/18 (just finished high school) and is a bit shy. Rita is one of the "counterparts" which just means she will be helping us and translating for us when we give our HIV lessons. The GSC office is about 20 minutes away, and I get to see the town for the first time in the daytime. It is more or less what you would expect. The roads are paved, but the sidewalks are not. There are lots of people walking and riding bikes. There is a lot of green: trees, grass, bushes. A lot of people say hello to us as we walk down the street. Despite the fact that there are virtually no trashcans in Arusha-town, the streets are surprisingly clean.

The GSC office is pretty nice. White paint and tan wood, it gives a very clean appearance. We meet Genea, who will basically be in charge of us on a day-to-day basis. She is a mizungo (white person), from Montana, young, very outgoing, lighthearted, funny, and pretty outspoken. I like her.

The first thing on the list today is Swahili class. We will have two hours of class for the first three days here. After this, the itenerary is as follows:

1. swahili class
2. introductions of staff
3. rules/expectations/questions
4. walking tour of arusha
5. lunch in town
6. health/safety
7. get weekly allowance, 15,000 shillings (about $15 dollars)

I will only talk about the more interesting parts: the tour and the lunch.

The town is a little far from the office; walkable, but takes about 25 minutes. We take a dala-dala to get to town instead. A dala-dala is basically a large minivan which is made to fit about 14 people. But in reality, there is no limit to how many people can fit into a dala-dala. During rush hour, you can see about 25 people in there. It is madness. Once in town, we walk around and see the restaurants, landmarks, post offce, banks, internet cafees, futbol stadium, and market. It is me, Sumeet, Megan, Genea, and Rita. Despite the fact that it is a holiday (first president's birthday), the town is quite busy. Not surprisingly, everyone tries to sell us something.

We stop for lunch. All the restaurants serve pretty much the same thing: fish, chicken, meat, rice, beans, french fries, vegetables, bananas. You can mix and match these as you see fit. The fish, chicken, and meat are all fried. There is no such thing as grilled fish or chicken here. I get fish and rice. The fish comes in its entirerity: head and tail (eyes removed) and you have to spit out the bones as you go. It is actually quite good, and I am pleasantly surprised to find that my expectations of TZ food was too low. The rest of the day is pretty bland, and we head back to the hostel around 6 PM. After dinner, I go to take a shower. You are supposed to press a button which turns on the hot water, but this button is useless and I end up taking a VERY cold shower. Not fun at all. Shortly thereafter, there is a blackout. (Blackouts are very common here, they happen almost everyday. Luckily, they usually only last a couple of minutes.)

Tuesday, 4/8

Schedule for tuesday:

1. swahili class
2. "living positively with HIV" lecture
3. lunch
4. overview of healthcare system in TZ
5. history of TZ
6. dinner

Tuesday is actually a pretty boring day. The living positively with HIV lecture had the potential to be really interesting, but it is instead almost completly useless. The HIV+ speaker (Mama Betty) runs through a LONG list of symptoms and then gives an even longer list of natural medicines which can help these symptoms (garlic, onions, carrots, nuts, fruits, etc etc). The healthcare and history lessons are similarly boring. For dinner, Summet, Megan, Genea, and I go to a italian restaurant (there are a handful of mizungo resturants here) to eat pizza. It is very, very good. We take a taxi back to the hostel and are asleep shortly thereafter.

Wednesday, 4/9

Wednesday was a big day because we moved into our home stay families. Also, we did a home visit (details coming next).

After our last swahili class, Megan, Sumeet, Rita, and I went to the WIA office. WIA (women in action) is another non-profit organization which focuses on helping women with HIV and other chronic dieseases. GSC works wtih them sometimes, and so we went. MIS visits very sick patients at home and provides basic services: change sheets, clean wounds, feed if necessary, provide counseling/company. We went on one of these such visits.

The home we went to was in a full-on slum. It is hard to capture what the place looks like without a photograph, but I will do my best. The "neighborhood" is behind a clay wall. On the other side of the wall there are some low-quality shops (fixing shoes, selling beads, selling fruits, whatever). Inside the wall, the floor is dirt and muddy. There are very small kids running around everywhere, in rags and usually barefoot. The kids are very excited to see white people, and they come up to us and shake our hands and say hi over and over. I notice that the adults, oddly all women, do not look so thrilled. The "houses" are just one room, with a very low ceiling, no lights, no bathroom, no kitchen. Basically it is a bed, a couple plastic chairs, a small table, and a bunch of random crap everywhere else (laundry, clothing, soap, towels/rags, food). The door is just a piece of hanging fabric. You can hearall the neighboorhood noises (screaming, babies, dogs). The room is quite dark (no windows) despite the fact that it is sunny outside. The room is about 1.5 X 2.5 meters.

The person we are visiting is named Joyce. She has AIDS. She went to the hospital yesterday for high blood pressure but they coule not do anything for her, and sent her back home. She tells us she feels very sick today( with Rita translating). We learn she lives in this house with her 13-year-old daugher and now her sister who is helping out. You can tell she has little strength to talk and sit up, so we don't stay long. It was very intense.

Skipping ahead (the rest of the day is negligable), we went back to our hostel around 5 PM to get our bags and move in to our host family homes. I was very nervous! We met and had tea at the hostel before departing. As could probably be expected, at first it was a bit awkward; but it got better quickly.

My mama is Mama Chaula. She is pretty old, probably around 70. She is short, very dark, missing her two bottom front teeth, speaks english but with a very strong accent and very quietly, smiles and laughs a lot, and seemed geniualy excited to meet me and have me stay in her home.

Also with her is 13 year old grandson Kevin, and her son/Kevin''s uncle Edward with daughter-in-law Karyn. Kevin knows all sorts of western things (MTV, Lion King, Superman, gameboy) and asks if I want him to call me dude. His english is very good and he is very obdient of his grandma, as far as I can see He has already asked me to buyh im a gameboy, toy race car, and soccer ball. Him and I have good conversations because he talks plenty, is funny, knows about everything, and I can understand everything he says.

Edward talks A LOT and sometimes I get quite tired. His english is also good. Karyn is pretty quiet and doesn't talk to me much except for hello, goodbye, good morning, etc.

Mama Chaula has 7 kids (5 boys, 2 girls). The husband and at least one son has died (didn't quite understand). I am taken aback when she tells me this, since I just met her an hour ago. Excluding Edward, all her kids live in Dar es Salaam. I have no idea why Kevin lives with her and not his own mother.

A couple tidbits about the house:

1. To get to the house, you walk down one of the four main roads and then turn into a little dirt road. A car can only go so far on this road because 1) it becomes too narrow and 2) it is blocked by banana trees. Luckily this little dirt road only takes about a minute to walk through (important if it is nighttime!).
2. The walk through this dirt, surrounded by trees, gives the impression that that house will be very run-down. However, the house is quite nice. On the outside, it looks like a little cottage. Inside, the house is simple but neat and well-kept. 90% of the decorations are religious. The rooms are surprisingly large, but have no closets. My room is about the size of the guest room back at home.
3. The most exceptional thing about the house is the bathroom. It is split up into two side-by-side little rooms: toilet and "shower." The toilet is down on the floor, like in Japan. The shower, however, is nonexistent. There is merely a drain. To bathe, you heat up water (in a rice cooker, no less), put it in a bucket, and pur the water over yourself with a large cup. It is not too much fun.
4. Helen, this one is for you: When I first arrived at the house, Kevin turned on the tv. To my amazement, the tv showed the Nsync HBO concert from circa 1998!! It was vey nostalgic and surreal.

Thursday, 4/10

Nothing too excited happened today. We did HIV training from 9 AM - 4 PM (excluding an hour for lunch). Basically Genea gave us the lessons that we will be teaching starting next week. The curriculam is pretty basic: what is HIV/AIDS/Immune System, methods of transmission, prevention, treatment. We also talk about "life skills" such as communcation, decision making, and self-confidence.

After this we get our cell phones (!) and Sumeet and I decided to go to town to explore some more. We got calling cards, used theitnernet, went to the supermarket, and generally just got to know the town better. By the time we were done, it was nearing 7 and starting to get dark, so we decided to get a taxi. Our taxi got lost taking me home and I had a mini-panic attack when I realized that I didn't know where we were. But we called GSC and got everything straightened out.

I got home around 7:30. Literally five minutes later, a DOWNPOUR of rain started. I guess I was pretty lucky! Had dinenr with Edward and Karyn (Kevin and Mama Chaula were still out). Then there was a kidogo (small) blackout. Me and Edward talked a lot this night and I found out that he used to be a soldier and then a DJ and is now a miner. When he was younger, he won several town competitions in disco dancing, karate, tennis, and squash. He also plays guiter and drums and supposedly can bench 100 kilos despite being pretty skinny. I told him he was a renaissance man (after explaining the meaning). Upon telling these stories to Sumeet, he said that maybe Edward was just a compulsary liar. I guess you never know. Edward also has an 8 year old daughter, but I have no idea where she is in the world.

Friday, 4/11

We finished learning our HIV lessons today, and gave practice lessons. We were done with work by noon, and didn't have much to do. Sumeet and I decided to go to town again to try to figure out something to keep us busy. We went to McMoodys (a burger joint and a internet cafe) for lunch. Afterwards, we stopped by the futbol stadium to try to figure out when the next game would be. When we got there, we realized there was a game going on, so we paid 500 shillings (about 50 cents) to go in and watch the game. The soccer itself was really poor, it was a third division game; but it was cool to see the atmospere. I was pretty much the only girl there.

Saturday, 4/12

All the volunteers were supposed to go hiking at Mt. Moshi today. In addition to Sumeet, Megan, and I there are two more girls who arrived here 2.5 months ago: Tai and Michelle. Sumet and I are both doing HIV prevention, so we live close to each other and will be working together. Megan, Michelle, and Tai are all doing Agriculture (teaching farmers how to farm better), and so they all live in a smaller town about 20 minutes away. T ai is going back to America after next week. Michelle will switch into HIV with Sumeet and I soon. Anyways, we didn't get to go hiking because it was raining much too hard. Typically it rains here from 10 PM until 10 AM, and then stops during the time. This is a good thing because if you can't go out during the day, you get bored quickly.

Since I didn't go hiking, I slept in until 10ish, when the rain stopped. Mama Chaula said that she and Kevin were going to a wedding and that I was welcome to come. I was pretty excited to see a Tanzanian wedding. We took the dala (the minivans) into the next town to go to the church. A band was hired and when the wedding started, there was a lot of music and everyone was dancing. All the street kids came out to see what was going out and they started dancing too. Everyone seemed to be having fun except the bride. I noticed that the bride didn't really smile throughout the whole affair, and I found it very weird. So the band played a lot, then there was the church ceremony, then more band playing for a while. Then everyone got into cars (Mama Chaula, Kevin, and I got rides with family friends) to go to the reception. The reception was basically just a big room with plastic chairs lined up and facing three tables. On one table was the family of the groom, on another was the family of the bride, and in the middle was the bride, groom, best man, and maid of honor. The Dj said a bunch of stuff and there were some short speeches (I, of course, did not understand any of it), and then it was dinner time. For dinner, we just go down a line and people put stuff on our plates. Dinner was rice, noodles, meat, fried bananas, watermelon, some other kind of rice, potatoes, and cake. The rice and noodles and potatoes were good. The meat was not good (very tough and fatty) , and I don't like fried banana. I couldn't eat the watermelon b/c raw fruits are a no-no unless you peel the outside (like a banana).

During the reception, the power kept going on and off. A couple of kids would stare at me and wanted me to take pictures of them. One girl in particular, Flora, kept following me around everywhere. It was a good experience though, and I'm glad I got to go!

And that was my first week in Tanzania!