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!