Krismas Njema!

25 December 2009

Krismas Njema! Our first Christmas away from home and our first as a married couple was a good one. We still missed our families and Christmas traditions and snow (believe it or not!), but we made of it what we could and had an enjoyable couple of days. On Tuesday we attended the candlelight service at church and the Simonson’s invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. We thankfully obliged and had a great time with them. We ate ham and mashed potatoes and had a mango crisp for dessert! Then we sang some Christmas carols and watched everyone exchange gifts. Dave and Eunie, as well as Nathan and Susan and John and Annette Simonson, graciously gave us little gifts. Their kindness and hospitality made us feel as close to being at home with family as was possible over here, which was wonderful.

This morning we woke up and opened stockings (which we improvised with some oven mitts) and made omlettes. Then we exchanged some gifts and went to church. It was kind of cold and rainy, so the dreariness made it feel at least somewhat more like a “white Christmas” J. We came home and watched Christmas movies and snacked on various foods all day, and really enjoyed just relaxing for a day. Zach gave me a beautiful purse made out of scrap kitenge materials and I gave him a soccer ball made out of banana leaves and some authentic African cooking tools, which he was excited to try out.

We have been invited to go to the beach with Simonson’s for New Year’s and will be leaving on the 28^th or 29^th. We are looking forward to getting out of town for few days and getting our mind off of our work. We also have never seen the Indian Ocean, which will be fun. We’ll be in touch when we get back. Hope everyone has a safe and fun New Year’s.

(The picture is of our Christmas tree and "stockings," which were actually oven mitts made out of kitenge scraps, but they actually looked really cool.)

Written by Whitney

Maasai Babus

17 December 2009

We had another draining, yet successful week of village visits. The drains come in the form of long and bumpy daladala rides, cultural frustrations both during our presentations and apart from our presentations, and then having to wake up the next morning to do battle all over again; the successes come in the form of meeting new people, learning of their struggles, and sharing our knowledge with people who desperately need it. Plus, we get to explore many new areas of Northern Tanzania, which I never get enough of.

We received some wonderful news about a generous donation that was given to us by Gerry and Lois Olsen in order to buy basic medical equipment for the villages that we visit. We have already provided a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff to both the CWCD and to the Karatu regional hospital.

Yesterday, we returned to a village that we visited last week, Matudumomye, in hopes of speaking with the village men as well. It was Stacie’s birthday, so the village women, in coordination with Mama, had a large celebration planned with singing, dancing, and a wonderful feast. I felt so guilty that they provided such an extravagant meal for us, but was glad to see the 20 gallon pot filled with pilau for the whole village (it took three women to carry it).

We took a half an hour out of our celebration to revisit the Sambasha antenatal clinic, which was the site of our first village visit, and it was this clinic that inspired the Olsens’ wonderful gift. We bought a stethoscope and a blood pressure machine to present to them, and the elation shown by the two nurses was enough to pull tears to my eyes. They bounced around the room giving hugs to anyone and everyone. One nurse looked at me and said that just that morning, she had suspected hypertension in one patient, but had to refer her to a hospital in Arusha, which is a good half hour drive, simply because they had no equipment to properly diagnose her. We have pictures of the event, but I wish that Gerry and Lois could have been there to witness the joy that their gift brought to this rural clinic. There will be many more of those stories coming up.

If the excitement at the clinic wasn’t enough, the ride to and from Sambasha included a daladala full of Maasai women who were just as thankful and showed it by serenading us with their traditional songs. Whit and I were joking that it was the ultimate surround sound system.

We finally returned to Matudumomye, and were able to talk with 20 of the elder men of the village. This was our first presentation to a group of men, and I was a little apprehensive. I had no idea how they would react to our information, and it doesn’t help that they all carry big sticks (for walking) and machetes. But they were very attentive, which is all I can ask for. However, their questions and concerns showed the fundamental difference between relationships here in Tanzania compared to relationships that we are accustomed to. They asked a question about how to protect themselves if their wife is unfaithful, as if it happens all the time. But the very next thing they asked was what they are supposed to do to protect themselves when they leave their families for weeks or months at a time, because they simply cannot last a couple of weeks without having sex (supposedly). It is so hard to listen to them talk about their relationships here because they are nearly always based on money and convenience, rather than love. It is so easy for us to why HIV spreads so easily here, but the challenge is trying to explain to them these concepts without seeming like we are pointing fingers and blaming them. I feel like we have to be blunt at times and point fingers at harmful behaviors, but I don’t want to upset them to the point where they question our credibility…it’s quite a fine line.

Whit and I filled out an application for a program called STAR that works to promote women’s and children’s rights, and the CWCD was one of 12 selected out of 90 NGOs who applied. Mama, the director, has to travel to Dar for a meeting on Monday, so we will know more about what our membership in the program means. It was a nice little success story for Whit and I that we can tangibly see.

Stacie, our roommate and co-worker, decided to leave this week and is taking off tomorrow. I’m actually really looking forward to having our own apartment for the first time since our wedding, but we both are a little jealous that she gets to go home and see her family for the Christmas. The holidays have been very difficult for us here as we miss our families and friends and traditions, but we have some fun plans for Christmas.

(This picture is of us presenting to the group of men. I love the traditional dress of the Maasai men (the ones mostly to the left us). Definitely one of our more intimidating crowds.)

Written by Zach

Maasai Boma

10 December 2009

Today was another absolutely wonderful day, as was yesterday. We traveled to a town west of Arusha, known as Monduli, to visit the small village of Olesteti.

This area has been experiencing extreme drought for the last few years and has struggled mightily to produce enough crops. However, we are in the middle of the short rainy season, which has showered the area with an abundance of well-needed rain. As we approached Monduli, we turned off the main road to head to the village only to find a huge mud bog swallowing the road; and if that wouldn’t be enough to stop us (which it was), the bridge just beyond this bog was halfway washed out. But we had no reason to complain as the rolling hills below Monduli Mountain we lush and thriving with vegetation.

Luckily the village was only a few hundred yards from where we had stopped and we were able to maneuver around the muddy trails to the boma of a Maasai man. The boma is the full property of one man and his family and consists of a collection of huts inside a fence constructed of brush, and the establishment where we presented belonged to a man name Ndoipo Migaro. Many of the women from the village (several of the surrounding boma) met us halfway, wearing their ceremonial attire once again, and escorted us to the center of the boma, where they proceeded to lavish us with singing and dancing. These Maasai villages truly know how to make their visitors feel welcome. I hate to say it, but my “dancing face” always seems to crop up in our pictures.

We set up our “classroom” outside in the courtyard of the boma, amidst the odor of animal dung and hoarding flies; goats, chickens, cats, and dogs roamed freely within the bush fences. We presented to a group of more than 40 women with a few younger men and the owner of the boma, and many of the village children gathered as well to simply be a part of the happenings. I was expecting very few questions from the women in the group as they often become tentative when there are men in the audience with them, but we had wonderful interaction with the group. These people are very eager to learn; even though we can’t communicate well with them through words, their expressions say it all.

After a couple hours of presenting, we shared Supa Buns and juice, and then dispersed three large bags of flour among them to help out while their crops recover. They accepted our presence, our knowledge, and our small gifts with extreme thankfulness and shared their small tokens of appreciation (jewelry). They asked for nothing more, and they invited us back whenever we are able. The atmosphere in villages is so much more relaxed than in the touristy metropolis of Arusha, and they never try to exploit us. If we would have chosen a more rural area to stay here, we would have had a much more relaxed first couple of months here. The living conditions would wear on us, but the people are wonderful. This village epitomized the Maasai culture.

On our way back into Monduli, we stopped by the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School, which was built by Dave Simonson. We slid and swerved down a very poor road to get there, but it was such a pleasure to finally see this school that we have seen in pictures. There is a central auditorium at the school that was built so that the roof resembled a Maasai shield. We really wanted to meet the girl that Doug and Kari sponsor here, but they are on December break right now, so we are planning a return trip to present to the students and will hopefully meet her then.

(This photo is of our final dance in the center of the boma (the classroom) before we left. The lady on the far right is Mama Hindu, who runs the CWCD and has translated for us on our village visits.)

Written by Zach

Dancing with the Maasai

9 December 2009

Today was the first day of a series of village visits that we have planned over the next two weeks and it was a great start. Today we went to a village in the foothills of Meru called Matudumomye, but there were also women there from a village called Elakunoto.

When we first arrived the women were singing and dancing and bouncing their ceremonial shangas up and down. They called us into the center of the circle and put a shanga on me and tried to teach me how to dance with it. It was really fun, but really hard. I need to practice a little bit more (or a lot!) before I have the skills that they do J.

After the dancing and introductions we went into the local church and presented. The women were extremely interested and asked TONS of questions! We talked about so many different things and the women didn’t feel like they had to sensor themselves around us. We talked about menstruation, pregnancy, nutrition, female circumcision, STDs, AIDS, stigma and I also gave a condom demonstration. Mama told us later that she had never heard women talk so openly as they did with us. She said it had a lot to do with the fact that there were no men around to intimidate them and keep them quiet. She said that if men are around and hear them asking questions and talking about these topics that often get in trouble and can be shunned.

When we first brought up female circumcision there was quite a bit of unrest in the group and they seemed very uncomfortable. We decided to cut our discussion about the topic short so that we didn’t lose our credibility with them, but they still asked several questions about it. Mama told us later that the reason they were restless was because they were nervous that we were going to take down their names and turn them in to the government, even though they all claim to have stopped the practice. Tanzania recently made FC illegal, but the government made no attempt to tell the villages about the new law. Mama tries to spread the word through her work with the women’s groups, but it is hard to reach everyone. Every woman we were presenting to had been circumcised and about seven of them raised their hands when Mama asked which of them performed the ceremony. We asked much resistance there was to the practice being made illegal, but Mama said that for the most part they all adhere to it very strictly and did so as soon as they knew it was illegal. This obviously surprised me and I am not sure how common that reaction is, but I think the groups that Mama works with are more inclined to react that way because they are learning about their rights and health and are beginning to be empowered by such things. I am sure that more remote villages, if even aware of the law, clinging much more strongly to this cultural ceremony.

After the presentation, to say thank you, the women danced and sang more and kind of ceremoniously gave me a necklace and Zach a bracelet, putting them on us while singing. It was very gracious and unexpected surprise for us, and things we will always have and appreciate. We plan to go back to the village again in January and will meet with a group of men instead, which the women were also very excited about. As important as it is to teach and empower the women, with cultural tradition of patriarchy still very strong, it is equally important to teach the men about these issues so that hopefully changes will be made as a whole village.

I had such a great time today and I can’t wait to see the villages that we will visit over the next weeks and months. I am finally feeling like we are getting to do what we came here to do in the first place and I’m loving it.

(This picture is of me dancing with the Maasai women before the presentation. The white shangas are worn for celebrations and ceremonies, which they treated our visit as such. It was very humbling.)

Written by Whitney

Push Carts & a Christmas Tree

5 December 2009

Today was a pretty slow and relaxing day. We went to town this morning to look into a kennel that a guy called us about after seeing one of our fliers around town. It ended up being pretty much a piece of trash that he was asking $400 for, so we obviously didn’t take him up on that. We had a couple other errands to run in town and then went home to relax a bit. We went to Maasai Camp last night with a couple friends of ours here, which is kind of like a club where locals and tourists come together to dance and socialize. It is normally not my kind of scene, but last night was a Michael Jackson tribute and there were not many people there, so Zach and I had fun dancing, hanging out with friends and meeting new people. We were out late and had to get up early so we were pretty tired today and spent most of the day reading. I just finished Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult, which I really enjoyed and I am going to start reading A Shackled Continent by Robert Guest now. I try to alternate novels with informational books so that I don’t bog myself down with one depressing book after another.

Yesterday we got a Christmas tree for our apartment. We went to a “nursery” on Old Moshi Road and got it for about $4.00. It is pretty small and has a cactus-like trunk and small leaves all over it…definitely a Tanzanian Christmas tree J. We put a few ornaments on it and when we track down some lights (hopefully!) we will put up a picture of it for everyone to see.

Since I don’t have much more to tell I thought today I would write about the pushcarts that you find all over here. Since many people in town have lots to move around and transport, but don’t have cars, pushcarts are a very useful and common way to get things done here. Although many people will pile a bicycle seat high and walk beside it, tipping hazard and loading capacity still make pushcarts a superior option. The pushcarts carry sugar cane, clothing, fruit, chickens, just about anything and everything you can think of. For big loads there are often two men moving it along and for those that don’t, as they pass you say a sincere “pole” (pronounced poh-lay) to them as they pass. (This is their word for condolences and is often said in passing to strangers who have hard work or a cough or if they fall down, etc. People most often say it to us when we are walking up the steep dirt road when we work when it is really hot or really muddy. We also get it a lot when we tell people that we are volunteering, which I think is pretty funny J.) On the streets that are downhill the pushcart driver uses the momentum to kind of glide down the road. If there are two men one sits of top of the cart and just rides while the one in front steers. When it comes time to slow down the driver takes his weight off the front bar so the back end of the cart starts to drag on the ground, which is padded with pieces of scrap tire. This process does not happen quickly, though, so it can often be more dangerous to get in the way of a runaway pushcart than a dala dala or motorcycle. Although I think pushcarts are an incredibly eco friendly alternative to motor transport, the strain that it puts on people here is not healthy, and unfortunately, the day when they are not a necessity here seems a long way off.

(The picture here if of a pushcart near Clock Tower (one of the busiest areas in Arusha). It is full of I think onions or maybe potatoes and bicycle, obviously, but either way, this is definitely a load that deserves a “pole” in passing.)

Written by Whit

World AIDS Day

December 1, 2009

Whitney and I woke this morning with no major plans for the day. We had to write a proposal for a grant for the CWCD, but being World AIDS Day, we were upset that we had no event or fundraiser or anything to go to. Whitney told me that the first thing that she wrote in her journal this morning was that she was embarrassed that we were in sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS has devastated millions, and we had no way to ‘celebrate’ World AIDS Day…it was a sad and lonely feeling to be here and have nobody else to share our passion with on this very somber, yet empowering, ‘holiday’. Little did we know that within the hour, we would stumble upon a huge parade full of enthusiasm and desire to put an end to AIDS.

We were on our way to the office when we heard music and commotion by Clock Tower (the center of town). We turned the corner just in time to catch the rear of an endless line of parading activists. We started running to catch up to the front, and on the way, we saw that these activists took the form of students, adults, mothers, fathers, children, widows, friends. We saw groups of Maasai, whole schools, AIDS organizations, hospital workers, and many others.

We asked some marchers what else was going on today, and they enthusiastically said that we should go to the stadium and find out. A lady asked us what we were doing as we marched, and upon hearing our response she asked in a baffled tone, “You teach about HIV/AIDS and you didn’t even know about the parade?” Just another example of how it doesn’t matter what you know, it’s who you know.

Upon entering the stadium, the parade was greeted by a standing-room-only crowd, who were full of cheers and applause for the marchers. Many of the groups performed skits, songs, and small speeches that demonstrated their knowledge of AIDS and their desire for an AIDS-free Tanzania. A panel of guests of honor, probably political leaders from the region, also addressed the crowd (in Swahili) that clearly motivated the onlookers. Many tents were set up around the stadium that had information about everything from HIV to human rights. Free HIV testing was available to all who were willing, and the line for testing was ten times as longer than any other line. It was a wonderful sight.

I am so glad that we could march with the very people that we are here to help and I felt that we were finally on the same page with this community. I was expecting the aura to be much more somber at an event like this since everyone here, if they aren’t themselves HIV+, has a family member or friend who has died from or is HIV+, but this was a World AIDS Day full of optimism and determination.

(This is a picture of one group of students marching in the parade with their WAD 2009 t-shirts on.)

Written by Zach

Happy Thanksgiving!

25 November 2009

We finally moved into a new apartment in town. It is a two bedroom place that we are sharing with one of the basecamp volunteers who is also here long term. It is on Fire Road, which is not far from Clock Tower, a central landmark in town. We are getting adjusted to our change in location, but some things are easier than others. We had gotten to know many of the people who lived around our old house so they no longer called us mzungu or thought we were tourists. We are now trying to create those relationships again with the people in our new neighborhood, but hopefully since we are more comfortable here and know Swahili better, the process will move a bit faster this time. We are also anxious for the street peddlers in town to get to know us so they stop asking us to book a safari ten times a day on our way to work. Our new apartment in pretty nice, though. We have a fridge, a hot plate and a western toilet, which is awesome. We also have a TV with cable, amazing enough! We spent our first days here trying to watch the news and get caught up on what is happening around the world since we have been so removed for the past few months. I think it will work out well for the next four months.

27 November 2009

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving away from home and it was better than I had expected it to be! We went back up to the basecamp house and had a big dinner with all the volunteers. Everyone cooked their own special dish and it was delicious. No turkey or pumpkin pie, but the food was all really good and everyone pitched in, which was fun. Zach and I made a makeshift version of stuffing made out of a Supaloaf (their bread) and rice. It was not quite like stuffing at home, but it was yummy and everyone liked it a lot. After dinner we got to talk to all the parents at home, so that was a great ending to the day. Although it was hard to be away from home it was a Thanksgiving that we will definitely always remember.

We also have some exciting, and surprising news! I think we have blogged previously about the dogs that we rescued from the street up by our old house…? Well, basecamp took no responsibility in taking care of the dogs long term and the girls who brought them home are now gone (they arrived the day we did). The new volunteers who came in were not crazy about the fact that there were dogs at the house and aren’t really willing to help take care of them. Basically if someone doesn’t find a new home for them, they will get put out on the street and probably survive for less than a month. One of the older volunteers (and our new roommate, Stacie) looked into taking them home, and found that it is not very expensive and there are no restrictive requirements about bringing them into the country. The only thing is that she would only be able to keep one of them once she gets home, so Zach and I are going to take the other one! She will live at my mom’s house until Zach and I move and can take her with us. She is a mutt and adorable. The picture on this blog is of her when she is just a couple of weeks old. We are re-naming her, though, to something in Swahili and are torn between three names, so we are going to post them all here and if you are so inclined to give your input, we would love to hear it. Here they are:

Kianga (Kee-on-ga) – means Sunshine in Swahili

Malaika (Mah-lah-eek-ah) – means Angel in Swahili

Karanga (Kah-ron-ga) – means Peanut in Swahili

Anyway, hope you like at least one of them for our new little Tanzanian pup. They are learning both English and Swahili right now, so when we get home they will still be able to understand people, but we also want them to stay connected with their heritage by learning commands in Swahili J.

Written by Whitney

Tough Realities

20 November 2009

Today was awful. Got up and was tired after a night of little sleep and I was not feeling great, but we were scheduled to give a presentation so I got ready and we headed down to the CWCD. Before the presentation Mama wanted to show us an apartment we could possibly rent out that her sister owned. We left the CWCD and turned onto Arusha to Moshi to road. Not far ahead of us there was a large group of people standing around and the cars were backed up. We figured there had been a fender bender with a daladala or something. As we got closer I couldn’t see any sort of cars and all of a sudden Mama was saying something about, “Oh! Watoto! Oh!” I looked out the car window and saw a small body lying on the road. All around on the ground were body parts and insides scattered around. It must not have happened very long before we drove by because the only person around helping was an older lady who was just laying some cloth over the bodies when we drove by. There were no policemen or doctors anywhere to be seen, and also no car that seemed to have been the one that hit the children. Supposedly when this happens here, the driver just keeps on driving because if they were to stop and pull over they would be beaten or stoned to death by the bystanders of the crash.

When we pulled away I became increasingly nauseous and could not get the image out of my head of the children on the road. I told Zach that there was no way I could go give a presentation right now, so Mama dropped me off at the house and Zach went back to the CWCD to talk to Peter about rescheduling our presentation. For some reason Peter was really insistent on going, so Zach told him to at least call and confirm and tell them that they were going to be late. The head teacher at the school told Peter that they would not be able to go because the two children who were killed on the road were students at their school and they were trying to put together a school assembly to calm all the children down. Zach came back home right away.

When I got home I walked straight to my room without talking to anyone and shut myself in the bathroom. I immediately started sobbing. I composed myself as much as I could and went into my room and crawled into bed to try to rest, decompress and try to make sense of what happened. I lied there crying for probably a half hour before finally falling asleep. A few of the girls in the house came in to try to check on me, but there really wasn’t anything that would make me feel better or make those kids live. That was the first dead body I have seen and definitely the most graphic display I have been exposed to. I think the reality of life and how quickly it can end hit me really hard. The fact that it was two children only made it worse. It was also a reality check at how brutal life can be here, especially for children.

(The picture here is of the security fence around the CWCD. Many of the houses and buildings in town are surrounded by these walls...pretty intimidating.)

Written by Whit

Termites

18 November 2009

Before today, our last two presentations were to very large groups of students: 140 at Meru Primary School, and 175 at Makumbusho Primary School. Although it seems like we could be very efficient presenting to that many people, it was very hard to keep command of the classroom. The classrooms of the government schools (which both of these were) are cinder block rooms with many large windows as the source of light, but there is no glass in the windows, so external noises infiltrate the classrooms very easily making it very hard for the students to hear at times. Even with the outside noise and other distractions (sitting four students to a tiny desk, heat with no air flow, ADD) the children are extremely well behaved and seem to pay great attention while we are presenting and Peter is translating. However, once we finished at both, and started taking questions, they completely lost focus in these large groups. The most frustrating part was the questions that they asked. Many were very simple and were easy concepts that we had just covered during the presentation; many pertained to the ways in which HIV is spread and we thoroughly cover that for a large part of the presentation. I don’t know if my frustration stemmed from the fact that we just covered it and were being redundant when we could be answering other questions, or if that is just the level of knowledge is so elementary because they never talk about reproductive health at all.

These large groups do allow us to convey our message in a very efficient manner, and Whit and I just hope that some of our message sinks in.

We have been looking for apartments the last few days since Basecamp is finally refunding our last 6 weeks worth of room and board. They held out solving our rooming situation just long enough for us to pay for the more expensive, first 6 weeks of our time in the house, but I guess some is better than none in our situation.

Looking for housing here is so frustrating (surprise, surprise…what isn’t). None of the apartment building have an office, and if we find a phone number, we have a horrible time trying to communicate what we are looking for and what services they provide. You really have to know someone who knows someone who might have a spare room available; since Whit and I don’t know too many people yet, we are having a very difficult time. Plus it is going to be our first house on our own as a married couple and we don’t want it to be too horrible...the search continues.

This morning it rained harder than I think I’ve ever seen it rain anywhere. Arusha, and the whole area, has been waiting for the rain since last April, the last rainy season. This intense rain brought out one of the survival foods in the area: TERMITES. They emerged from under ground by the thousands, and the two puppies were completely enthralled with trying to catch them in midair for breakfast. Apparently many people catch them and fry them, but Isaac, our cook, walked out in the rain and grabbed a handful and gobbled them raw. Of course I had to try one (When in Rome…), and there really was no taste, and the crunch that I was expecting was replaced by a very soft texture. The closest I can describe it was a flavorless raison. I could easily survive on tasteless raisons; Whitney couldn’t, but I could. The intense rain along with the plague of flying termites made for a very fascinating morning.

As soon as I started to complain about presenting to too large of a group, Whit and I were blessed with an extremely small group to present to this afternoon. We talked with 9 students and two teachers from a training college (similar to a tech school). I was quite disappointed that the school only brought 9 students, but I guess I’ve learned that nothing is as I would hope or expect it to be over here. The presentation went very well. The students were older with more life experience, and they asked us questions that tested our knowledge at times. We spent over 2 hours with these 11 men (no women came today).

There were a few comments from the group that were great chances for discussion:

- One person asked that if people are on ARVs and become healthy, they will continue to spread the disease, so wouldn’t it be better if they just died?

- One person brought up Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, who denied the connection that HIV causes AIDS. The man wanted to know the real connection between the two. It is amazing how detrimental a few of the African leaders have been to the fight against AIDS in all of Africa. I had no idea that Mbeki had that much influence throughout the whole continent.

- If I were HIV+, how would you talk about me to others or treat me? Why do people always treat HIV+ people badly?

- Many people here believe that if someone is HIV+, they can have a religious leader cast out the virus from their body and they will become negative.

At the end of the presentation, the teacher and the assistant expressed their extreme gratitude for the work we were doing for their school and other schools in Arusha, and they also extended a challenge to us that we needed to also convey our message to the villages (which we will and have tried). He said that people in the urban areas have a good grasp of HIV, but those in the villages are clueless. Based on their questions, I could tell that their level of understanding was not anywhere close to par, and it scares me to think that they are the people who feel knowledgeable about the disease. I extended the challenge back to them that since now they have heard and know more about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health that it was their duty to talk with their friends, family, colleagues, and future children about the things that they weren’t taught growing up.

This presentation was one of the best yet, but it is so hard to think that there were only 11 people there to witness it. There are so many people and so little time, at least with what we are doing in the here and now. Whitney and I are definitely realizing that we want to be involved in policy making that will affect very large populations. I guess you can’t make it to those positions without having done this type of dirty work.

(This is our view of the class at Makumbusho of 175 students. You can see Peter towards the back translating.)

Written by Zach

Christmas Starts in November Here

14 November 2009

Today was a really fun day. We went to the Christmas Fair at the TGT Coffee Hotel, and we had a great time. It was of course mostly mzungus, but a lot of the proceeds from the fair go to charities in Arusha. It was mostly local people selling crafts and other goods, but some of the people came all the way from Mombasa, Nairobi, the coast and other parts of Tanzania and Kenya. Zach and I made a few purchases, including an Advent calendar made out of kitenge fabric, some Christmas ornaments, a bag with Maasai beading on it, and three jars of chutney made by a local group of women. One of my favorite things, though, was a bag made out of sisal, a kitenge, and a recycled flour bag. The bags were made entirely from scrap materials by women who are HIV+ and they are paid good wages to support themselves and their families with. The program was started and run by a woman from Florida. I was pleasantly surprised at all of the booths filled with crafts made by people with HIV that seemed to be doing quite well. And although I say that I like buying things that are “for a good cause”, here almost everyone and everything is a “good cause”.

Zach and I also finally got the go-ahead to move out of the Basecamp house and get our own place. For those who didn’t know, when Zach and I got here we were told that we didn’t have our own room and have been living in boy-girl separated rooms with bunkbeds in them. After a month and a half of fighting with the company, we are getting the last of our money back and moving out early. We are excited to finally get into “our first place” J, especially since we have yet to call a space our own since the wedding. We are going to start looking tomorrow and calling around to see what we can find for a reasonable price. Technically everything here is a reasonable price, though, so it will probably more come down to location. To have to be completely independent from here on out makes me a bit nervous, but we have met people here who have treated us like family that we could call should we ever need to…let’s just hope we don’t.

(The picture here is of me swinging at CWCD that Zach took.)

Written by Whitney

Street Pedicures

10 November 2009

Things are still going well here. We are still presenting to groups daily and have presented to about 325 people so far, which feels good. It is nice to be able to quantify somewhat our work here. With each group we get different questions, but the last groups we have been getting some interesting ones about the origin of AIDS. There was one question about whether AIDS was sent from Europe in contaminated condoms, and another about whether the US has a cure for AIDS, but is hiding it from the African people. Although these types of questions are frustrating and heart breaking, I am glad that people feel that they can ask them and that we are able to clear things up. Peter, our presentation partner, says that mostly uneducated people believe things like that, but that question came our during a presentation to a group of college students, and unfortunately, many people here are uneducated.

Since the days are getting a little more monotonous and there is less and less to write about, I am going to start supplementing my entries with little fun facts and interesting things that we see here. Today’s topic is ‘street pedicures’.

So, on the streets of Arusha there are men who walk around carrying little, dirty old plastic baskets. They are full of half filled bottles of no-brand nail polish, old files, pumice stones, nail clippers, etc. For the equivalent of about $0.75 you can have these men give you a ‘pedicure’. Since they are so cheap, many of the women here can afford this luxury and have manicured looking feet, which is a feat on its own in Africa (no pun intended). Despite the fact that it is the deal of the century for a pedicure, I am hesitant to try it out. If I end up braving it sometime I think I will probably only request the paint and opt out of the probably germy tools. I’ll let you know how it goes J

(The picture here is of the back side of Central Market, near the center of town. This is about average for the number of people around all the time. Sometimes its pure chaos.)

Written by Whitney

Progress in Schools

5 November, 2009

We were scheduled to go to the village of Monduli today to talk with a group of adults as well as a group of students at the Maasai Girls School. However, as happens frequently here, plans changed, and that trip is postponed til next week. But, we did pay a visit to the Patandi Primary School and spoke with a group of Standard VI and VII students (about 12-15 year-olds). This school is quite amazing as it serves hearing and speech impaired children, mentally disabled children, and children who have no disabilities.

We took the very reliable yet very awkward and uncomfortable dala dala to and from the school. It still amazes me after a month to see the sheer number of people they stuff into the one dala dala. It feels like people are so crammed in that they mesh into one big, stinky, human blob, and when a member needs off, the blob shifts like a rubix cube until the person is somehow spit out where they need to be; then three more members join the fun of the blob with their luggage. I can’t believe Whitney hasn’t had a terrible fit of Closterphobia yet because dala dalas seem to be the breeding grounds for it.

We went to present at the school with Peter, our translator, who is a social worker fresh out of school. He has had a little training in HIV/AIDS counseling so knows a little about the topics we present. I was a little worried that since he already knew about the topics that his translations would turn out much like the first village we visited, where Mama Hindu already knew everything and so Whitney’s and my part of the presentation would seem pointless. This was not the case at all. Peter knew the information well enough to be able to explain the points that Whit and I were presenting in English, but would not have been able to present on his own. Hopefully presenting with him a few times will make him comfortable enough to visit schools on his own and we can pick up a new translator to “teach”. On the flip side, I can pick out a lot of the words and phrases that he says in Swahili that match what Whit or I said in English. We made a good team.

There were about 60 students in the classroom that we presented to, and the trend that we have seen in students once again held true; they asked so many wonderful questions about puberty, pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. Their questions were so in depth about some aspects that Whit and I felt we needed to leave them condoms with them, because they obviously could use them. The teacher said that she didn’t want to promote anything, but we told her that they were obviously active with or without condoms, and she caved and told us to bring back more the next time we present there (we were invited back to talk with more students and the teachers) for all of the students. This was quite a large victory for us as we at least changed one teacher’s outlook. It is easy to see how the AIDS epidemic is so bad here, as children begin to have sex at an early age, have nobody to talk to about it, and the leaders here are in denial and don’t take the measures needed to protect their people. I feel like we took a baby step today.

After this presentation, we walked across a field to the neighboring Patandi Teaching College, where they train pupils to teach to special needs students. It’s good to see a resource like that here. We talked with Principle Mahoga (over tea) about presenting to the classes at the college, and he offered up every Monday afternoon from 3-4pm. There are about 250 students at the college, so our Monday afternoons will be busy for the next few weeks.

We talked with a teacher at the CWCD, and he told us about how poor Sex Ed is in the schools here, and it is basically up to the teachers to decide what they teach, but apparently most just don’t do it. Whit and I have been tossing around the idea of trying to talk with the City Council (if that’s what its called here) to talk about a possible mandatory syllabus for this subject that would be implemented into the schools, even if they have to train new Sex Ed teachers who only present on that info. It’s a lofty goal, but we could affect so many more students in that way. Guess we’ll see what happens.

6 November, 2009

Today we went with Peter to another school, Ilkiurei Primary, in hopes of talking with more students. This was a governmental school, and governmental schools are not English medium, so we needed a translator again. Once again, there were about 60 students in this class, and we saw very similar questions from the students to those asked at Patandi: very in-depth and obviously from experience. However, before we even started, the teacher told Peter in Swahili that we could not talk about condoms, we could only briefly mention them to the students. We didn’t even get a chance to talk with her about the issue before she was gone; I guess you win some and you lose some. But we did share some very important information with these kids, and once again, the head teacher invited us back to present to more classes.

It is amazing how days like this can make us feel so good about ourselves, and then there are other days where there is absolutely no point in us being here. We keep reminding ourselves that we are here for those good days. I think the hardest part of being here so far has been the total lack of control that Whit and I have over anything we do. We haven’t been involved in talking with the schools hardly at all, though not for a lack of trying; we don’t have control over the translation of our message, though we’re still slowly learning Swahili; we have no routine yet, although we seem to be filling our schedule at schools. We’re still not used to the relaxed lifestyle where there is no urgency to get anything done.

We still love the food here, and I love learning from Isaac how to make some of the dishes. We might be having a cake (keki) celebration for either Thanksgiving or Christmas in the form of a goat keki; we would cook the goat whole with hair on it’s head, face and feet…I can’t wait. One thing I hate is how awkward it is to pull out a camera here. Our big Nikon seems like a curse at times because I just want to use it, but I always chicken out if there are people around. Hope all is well back in the States and we love hearing from you all. Thanks for all the support and love.

Written by Zach


5 November 2009

Today was a good day…the whole week actually was good. Tuesday we went to Mama Africa with the kids at CWCD as a reward for doing a good job at graduation. They loved it so it was fun watching the kids’ reactions rather than watching the show for a second time.

When we got home we talked to Mama about our concerns about the village visits, especially since on Wednesday she had planned for us to go to Longido, which is really far and would have cost us a lot of money for only being there a couple of hours. We feel that our time would better be spent talking to the village men or continue in the schools, so that is what we are going to try to focus on with the presentations. I don’t think Mama really understood what we were talking about with the effectiveness of the presentations with the women, and us feeling like she didn’t really need us to talk to the women, but she just nodded and said “Yes, okay! I think this is good.”

Today we went to a school on the east side of Arusha called Patandi. The presentation was to a group of about 60 students in Classes 5 & 6, and it went really well. They listened intently and asked lots of good questions. I really felt like they learned something and enthusiastic about it. I love the feeling I have after giving a presentation in the schools here. I think I biggest triumph today came at the end of the presentation, though. The teacher had come back to the classroom and we asked her if we could give out some condoms to the kids. She said after thinking for a minute that the children were too young and that if we gave them condoms that they would “practice” with them. Although we have to respect their opinions, we also wanted to mention that the students are doing it whether we give them condoms or not. She turned to the class and asked them if they wanted them, and they all raised their hands and were yelling “yes!” She turned back to us and said, “I guess they actually do need them.” I know it is hard to admit that 12-14 year olds are having sex here, but it is starting even earlier than that and they need to be learning about condoms, HIV/AIDS and protecting themselves as early as possible.

(The picture here is of a “traditional Maasai medicine” stand that is found on the streets of Arusha. On top there are various plants that look like herbs, roots, etc.)

(Also, a note about the spelling of Maasai – it is supposed to be spelled as I have it here, not Masai. They sometimes change it for Westerners, but coming from a real Maasai, it should have two ‘a’s’.)

Written by Whitney

Halloween in Arusha

1 November 2009

This morning we went to church again at the Arusha Community Church and finally met Dave and Eunie Simonson, who were missionary friends of my grandparents back in the 50’s and have stayed in Tanzania most of their lives. It was Dave’s 80^th birthday so we all sang to him. Even though he is struggling with his health, when Eunie said “Bob and Esther Johnson’s granddaughter”, he knew exactly who we were. Eunie seems like one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met. It is easy to see why the two of them have made such a huge impact on Arusha and Tanzania as a whole. We also met another handful of white people who are all working on various projects around town. Since there are so few white people here, they really stick together and have a close-knit community. It is nice to know that there are other people here who have had similar experiences to support us when we are struggling to adjust to life here.

Yesterday we went to the graduation ceremony at the CWCD. They definitely operated on Africa time…we were there for six hours and vowed to never complain about the length of a graduation in the states again. J The ceremony was very nice, though and had tons of singing and dancing. The speeches were in Swahili so I could only understand bits and pieces, but it is good to keep listening and trying to comprehend. Swahili is coming around slowly but surely and if we keep progressing as we have been, we’ll be pretty close to fluent when we leave.

Yesterday was also Halloween, and even though it didn’t feel much like Halloween here, the mzungus still celebrated. Zach and I dressed up and went to a party with a bunch of the lawyers that work at the ICTR. Zach dressed up as Indiana Jones and I was a black cat, which we thought was pretty good for being in Africa and not having much to work with. The party was pretty fun and the crowd was very interesting. Plus, they had American food there like Doritos and Mac & Cheese, so it was a little taste of home. Even though I haven’t missed the food much thus far, last night was a nice break from the usual rice and beans.

(The picture here is of one of the graduates watching the ceremony. They made their own hats out of paper which were adorable.)

Written by Whitney

Sambasha

October 28

Today we presented to a class of 30-35 middle school students. They filled the classroom nearly past capacity and the students were within a foot of Whit and I as we stood with our backs to the wall at the front of the class. Three students occupied each desk instead of the allotted two. Although the students were in an English medium school, they were still not quite fluent so we needed a translator. However, the man translating was much more reliable than Mama Hindu was in the village. We could tell he was portraying our message rather than his own as we would break every couple of sentences for him to catch up.

The students were very attentive, just like the first class we presented, and they asked many questions. Many of their questions pertained to transmission of HIV, the effectiveness of condoms, and the origin of the disease. Even though we present about pregnancy, puberty, and general health, their questions and attention is always directed at HIV.

Our interaction with this group was very intimate despite the translator. Even though each presentation we give is just as important as the next, it is so nice to present to groups like these students who have just as big of an impact on the our self-esteem as we do on their educational experience.

October 26

We visited our first Maasai village today called Sambasha. It was a beautiful little community right at the base of Mt. Meru and was about a 30-minute dala dala ride from our house. Upon arriving, we were greeted by a group of women who sang and danced for us, and they were amazing at trilling their voices. It was such a warm and welcoming gesture that gave me a sense of comfort and belonging.

Whit and I started the day working in the very small antenatal clinic, which is about the size of the house we live in. The clinic has no electricity or running water and plywood walls and curtain doors separate the few rooms. Several women were in line to see the one nurse who would weigh their babies on an apparatus that looked like a fruit scale in a grocery store, but the metal basket was replaced by a meat hook. The mothers then put their babies in a cloth sling that then hung from the hook...it was quite innovative. The mothers are also responsible for bringing their medical records in the form of a card, as well as their babies’ cards as there is no filing system. In a way, I am envious of their system because they actually have access to their medical records.

We then went to the other side of the wall with the lone doctor who spoke enough English to help us understand what he was doing. He was administering vaccines to babies, checking the progress of pregnant mothers, performing HIV tests, and teaching us the paperwork in case we go back, which it looks like we will. The vaccinations seemed fairly routine, but his examinations of the pregnant women boggled my mind. He started with a sheet full of data to collect, such as weight, blood pressure, gestation, HIV status, and others, but two-thirds of his list he couldn’t record because he lacked the equipment. There is no scale other than the baby scale, no blood pressure cuff, urine test strips, or even a stethoscope. I never would have imagined a doctor without a stethoscope, but that is the poverty these villages have to deal with. In order to determine how far along the women are, he simply asks them, and one lady told him that she was 10 months pregnant…not very accurate. We could easily see the lack of nutrients in the village because all of the pregnant bellies were very small compared to what we are used to.

We saw the doc run an HIV test (they test all pregnant women), which was a rapid test that took only 5 minutes for results. If any tests come back positive, they have enough ARVs to give them during their last month of pregnancy to reduce the chances of infecting the child. He wrote down the result, and in the book, 1 out of 6 mothers were HIV positive. This was a very shocking and scary moment. They have a high percentage of positives, but give no long-term ARVs, counseling, or services; they only can refer positive individuals to hospitals in Arusha, which are easily an hour walk from this village.

We then presented to the group of women who first greeted us, as well as some of the mothers from the clinic. We shared with them how to reduce transmission of HIV and how to protect their babies from the disease, among other things. The building we were in was their community building made of cinderblock with a dirt floor and tin roof, and the rain started to fall on the tin drowning out our voices for nearly ten minutes.

I have very mixed feelings about our presentation. The message we shared was very important to the well-being of these people and is something they need to hear over and over if their behaviors and attitudes are to change for the better, in terms of spreading HIV. This made me very excited about what we were doing. However, we had very little control throughout the whole presentation as we had to use a translator. Mama Hindu, the coordinator of the CWCD that we are working through, translated for us and asked us to present a sheet at a time, which was a lot of information. We would present our info to her in English for a few minutes, but she would check her phone several times and not really pay attention. She would then speak to the women for 2-3 times as long as Whit and I had talked for. I really felt like she either already had a good grasp on the info and didn’t need us, or she didn’t want to share some of our points, or something, but it was very frustrating and disheartening to feel like our help wasn’t really needed, once again.

The only question that was asked after our presentation was about how the men in their village are not open to the idea of condoms, and they wondered what they could do about that. I don’t know much about Maasai culture, but know that this has been a struggle for them ever since the fight against HIV started. It was difficult to think that this was still their only concern, and that I have no simple answer for them…very difficult.

We were waiting for the dala dala after the talk, and received word that it was stuck just down the road. It took about 15 people nearly an hour to push our bus out of the 6-inch-deep dust. It amazes me how green everything is here despite the drought. Huge banana trees sprout up out of the thick, dry dust and they seem to be the camels of the plant world. It’s quite remarkable that they can still grow such large amounts of fruit.

Written by Zach

Oldonyo Langai

25 October 2009

Today was the worst day of my life, physically. There were 8 of us the in house that decided it would be fun to climb Oldonyo Longai, which means Mountain of God in Maasai. The Maasai climb it whenever they have a drought to pray to rain. It is the only active volcano in Tanzania and its last eruption was in February 2008. It is good for us on the weekends to try to get out of the house and get our minds off of whatever we were working on for the week if possible. Since climbing Meru and Kili are much more expensive, we decided this would be a good alternative. For $100 plus transportation, divided by eight people, the cost to climb was about $100 per person. We had heard that this climb was harder than both Meru and Kili, but then again, we have also heard that Kili and Meru aren’t that difficult to climb. Some past basecamp volunteers have done the climb, along with Moses, the coordinator here, and no one advised us against doing it. I guess the last group went with 6 people and 2 of them gave up part way through, tried to go back down by themselves, got lost and had to sit there until someone found them the next morning. Although that made me a bit nervous, the girls that gave up were not exactly physically fit. The story that did make me nervous was that some guy who had climbed Kili took one look at Oldonyo Langai and said, “No way”.

On the way there, the scenery was beautiful. We saw our first giraffes, wildebeest, ostrich and several types of antelope. We drove along the Great Rift, which is the largest continental rift in the world. It was so beautiful and there were many little villages along the way. We drove in an 8 passenger Land Rover that had a lift top. The driver let us put it up during part of the drive so we could stand on the seats and look out the top. It was very fun and made me look forward to hopefully going on safari. After quite a while our driver pointed out the mountain that we were going to climb and we all started to get a bit nervous. The volcano was completely black and gray and its only contours were big cracks and crevices created by the lava from the last eruption. We all kept making jokes about paying the driver to drive us to the top, or just paying someone off to take some photos and we’ll photoshop ourselves into them, etc. We all still wanted to do it, but it was much more intimidating than we had expected.

We got to the base of the mountain at about 5:30pm and were going to hang out at this little campground until we were ready to start climbing around 11pm. Our driver, Douglas, drove our group and the guides to the base of them mountain and we were ready to start climbing around midnight. The whole drive we couldn’t see anything, not even the mountain in front of us it was so dark. All we could see was what the headlights lit up, which was the "road" made out of cracked lava that we were driving on.

When we got to the base, we got out to start our climb. Within the first 10 minutes of climbing I was already thinking that I wasn’t going to make it. We were walking at a very fast pace up a hill that you had to lean in to. I knew that at this pace, we would never make it to the top. After about a half hour, I surveyed the people around me to see how they were doing and after getting the general consensus that this was too fast, I yelled at the people in front and the guide to stop for a break and to slow down. After about a three-minute break, the guide was started back up the mountain. A foretaste of what was to come...

We were told that the climb would get cold and that we should bring warm clothes, but that was an understatement. None of us really prepared well with warm clothes, so when the wind picked up and brought freezing temperatures we were miserable. After climbing we were quickly moist with sweat, and when the wind blew it was almost unbearable. There was a little bit of moisture in the air that was making the dust and ash stick to our clothes and skin. The wind dried out my eyes, and also blew in dust and dirt, but it was impossible to wipe anything off because my hands were covered in dirt and I couldn't wipe my hands off because my clothes were completely caked in dirt.

Since it was the middle of the night, all I could see was the small circle of ground that my headlamp lit up, but it almost seemed like a blessing that I wasn’t able to see the distance below or above. The climb was about 1600 meters, but every meter was a challenge. We were doing about 50 meters every 15 minutes and at some points I thought that every step would be my last. I would look to the side of where we were climbing from time to time, half expecting to see the bones of climbers past. During much of the climb we were walking up deep dirt and ash, so every step I took I would slide back down half the amount of my step. And it was so steep that all of us had to monkey the climb the whole way up on our hands and feet. For every 5 steps taken, maybe the distance of 2 was gained. Sometimes it was so slick and steep that you would take a step and slide back down a good 3-4 feet, trying to cling with your hands to the crumbling rock. By the end of the day, my hands were completely raw. Each step took every ounce of strength and concentration I had.

About five hours in to the hike we took an hour long break, which was bitter sweet. I was so physically exhausted that I could not have possibly kept going, but the wind blowing on my sweaty body made me feel as though I might freeze to death. I was torn between not being able to climb any more and freezing. I didn't want to go on, but I REALLY didn't want to be left behind.

We had about another hour of climbing after our break before we would summit, but we made it in the 6 hour time frame that the guides gave us. When we made it to the top, finally, I was in such a bad mood and so mad about the climb that I didn’t even care to look into the volcano. It was very cloudy and we couldn’t see the sunrise, nor anything else around us. There was only about a three foot rim around the top of the volcano to sit on and the wind was so strong you could not stand up. The guides offered for us to walk around the rim once and we all just stared at them dumbfounded. Obviously we did not take them up on it. We sat there for about 5 minutes and were begging to go back down. Although I had been dreading the climb back the whole way up, there was nothing more that I wanted than to be as far away from Oldonyo Langai as possible and as fast as possible.

Descending the mountain was like skiing down a mountain of ash in tennis shoes, except for the times it was like scraping your butt on a cheese grater. There was not one inch of me that wasn’t caked with dirt. Most of the time we were sliding on our butts because it was too steep to walk down. Rocks along the way would get pushed down and would often come within inches of someone’s head. I was hit in the arm or leg by several coffee mug sized rocks on the way. There were certain times during the climb when I thought my life calling after this would be to tell as many people as possible to never climb this mountain. After the longest 12 hours of my life, we finally made it to the bottom. I have never been in such a bad mood in my entire life. Our driver was incredibly impressed that we had all made it, but I was not in the mood for praise. I was just mad.

As we felt we had not been adequately warned about the difficulty and dangers of the climb, on the drive home we asked our driver a lot of questions. He told us that it is definitely the hardest climb in Tanzania and that many people die on it every year. We were also told that 80% of people don’t make it to the top. I just continued to get more and more angry when I thought about how stupid it was for us to climb the mountain. Every decision for the rest of my life will be affected by our experience on that mountain.

Sorry for the long blog about nothing really with our work here, but none the less it was an experience for us here that will definitely leave a lasting impression.

(The first photo is a picture looking back up after climbing part-way down. The second photo is of us on the way down. I didn't know they were taking a picture so my tongue was hanging out and I have a unibrow made out of ashes, but it is a pretty accurate portrayal of how I felt the whole time :) You can also get a slight idea of the grade of the climb.)

Written by Whitney

New Possibilities

21 October 2009

First off, thank you all so much for your prayers and e-mails. All of your advice and encouragement helps to keep us motivated yet keep things in perspective.

Although our frustrations with St. Elizabeth still linger, we have created a completely new plan, and have regained our excitement. We found a contact through fellow volunteers at the Arusha Center for Women’s and Children’s Development and heard that they periodically go to rural villages to present certain topics and issues. Whitney and I let them know of our interest in possibly joining them to present on the topic of HIV/AIDS and whatever other health related topics that they saw fit. So we went in to meet with a lady named Mama Hindu, who runs the organization, and it turns out that she had big plans for us. Little did we know that she already had big plans for us after the other volunteers told her of our ideas. So we discussed our ideas over a ginger soda (which is offered every time anyone visits her).

Our new goal is to visit 8 villages (some far and some near to Arusha) over the remainder of our time here to convey our message about healthy living and how to prevent disease transmission, especially HIV/AIDS. In a way, it sounds like a small prevention campaign in a very rural setting. After our first visit to each village, we will return and work on ideas and find supplies that are greatly needed, and will then plan a follow-up visit to each. Also, each village on our schedule has a hospital of some kind, probably a one-room hut or a simple awning, that we are going to help out in.

Transportation is a major cost for this project, and the close villages will cost about 65,000 Tanzanian shillings (about 50-55 USD) and the far villages will cost about 95,000 Tsh. Five of the villages are far enough away that we are going to stay there for a week to reduce the transportation costs and make our time the most cost effective. I can't wait to live out in the "bush"; it will be kind of like elk camp. If it works out, some of the money that we received through the spaghetti dinner at our church in Buffalo, WY, and any subsequent donations that we receive will be used to help fund the transportation costs and to take minor medical supplies, such as gauze, needles, and ointments if possible, for these villages.

Part of our plan will involve bringing people in from the villages to get tested or to receive treatment in Arusha, and we are going to try to find some HIV tests that Whit and I can take to the villages to administer ourselves. Working with the villages should only take up 2-3 days per week, so we are still planning on working at St. Elizabeth’s; we hope to gain more of their trust in hopes that they will be able to utilize our skill sets. We also hope to refer some patients to them that we meet in these villages, if possible. We will need a translator to go with us who knows English and Swahili until we feel fluent enough (if we get that far), but apparently we might also have to find a translator who knows both Swahili and the tribal language of the village that we are in because some of the village members don’t even know Swahili. Communication will still be very difficult, but we are getting used to that fact.

This is a great opportunity, but we know that it will not be easy and we are keeping our expectations at a reasonable level. We have realized that progress will be slow, and are just grateful for another opportunity to meet new people.

(The picture is of the school at CWCD that Mama Hindu oversees. A few volunteers in our house teach at this school. The building on the left has most of the classrooms in it, and the building on the right is a library and computer room in progress. It could take them 10 years to finish it since they are strapped for funds.)

Written by Zach