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