Hellooo.
I can’t believe I’m writing with just 5 days left. Oh dear god.

School.
School has been great. My kids are so cute I want to eat them. They are really getting the animals because I’ve been putting actions and sounds to each one. Last Thursday Betty really wasn’t feeling well so I basically ran the show. It went well actually, but I was glad she was there to quiet them down at certain points. I gave her pepto bismol and she said it helped (obviously it helped, pepto= life). Today I had to give them an exam. It’s a little bit absurd that I had to give 4,5,6,7 years olds an exam, but I had to do it. It was on 5 questions and each child came into the room and we asked them the questions. I felt really bad when they didn’t get it but how I could I expect the 4 years olds to get it?!


Last Wednesday we went to the home of a lady with AIDS. She sleeps in a room with her ducks because there is no other place as her children all sleep in the other, very small, room. We went to build bricks for a new room. She seemed well, smiled a lot and was very grateful that we were there. I officially know how to build bricks which is kinda cool. Next time a group goes they will actually finish building the room.

Last Thursday 3 other volunteers and I went to a secondary school in the area to talk with some of the girls. I really wanted to do this because I feel very strongly that girls here don’t feel empowered, and there are countless statistics about girls dropping out of secondary school due to pregnancy and such. I was a little bit disheartened at the beginning because there were only a few girls that were actually talking. They told us that many of them can’t speak English well (which I was surprised about because they are expected to learn all their classes in English). Also, many of these girls were painfully shy, especially when it came to talking about guys, relationships, sex and protection. In this culture, relationships and sex is not spoken about- it is extremely private. No one talks to their friends or family about it. It’s no wonder that girls are pressured and mistreated in relationships here- they have no one to talk to about it. Mama C (our program director who I’ve mentioned before and absolutely love) came with us. She was amazing because she translated a lot for us. The girls were so surprised that talking about relationships and things like that is very normal in western culture. One girl told us that boys are “shit” (her words exactly) and that girls are weak. Another girl said that many times, a guy will SAY he will bring a condom but never actually does, and that the girl will engage anyway. This is a huge issue here. Although teaching about protection happens in school, it doesn’t seem like it has picked up momentum yet. One girl said that girls did worse at school than boys. Because it is not a boarding school, the girls go home and night and are expected to help out with chores while the boys study. All these things were very hard to hear. In the middle of our talk, Mama C’s phone went off (I’ve gotten used to the song on her ring tune and I love it), and I started dancing a little and the girls all laughed. They got more comfortable after that because I guess they saw that I’m not just some foreigner whose coming to preach. By the end, I felt so much better about the discussion and I truly feel that we accomplished something. We are going to try to get back there before we go. We made plans to meet them at the beach on Sunday. I left them with the message that education is absolute priority and that nothing should stand in the way of their goals. I told them the stat that 8% of secondary school girls dropped in 2005, and it grows each year…I told them not to become part of that growing number.

On the way to school on Friday morning Kara and I saw a little girl get hit by a motorcycle. There is a main street here that I walk on for about 10 minutes to school and the cars/motorcycles are just insane. At home pedestrians have the right of way- it is NOT like that here! A huge crowd surrounded the girl and the motorcycle driver. After about 10 minutes someone stopped a card driving by and took the girl to the hospital. She seemed to be find except for the large bump on her head thank god. The driver looked like he was in shock. It was a pretty crazy thing for us to see., we were pretty upset about it.

On the same token, I kept meaning to write this because it truly is a culture shock. Last weekend one of our staff, Christine, got in a very bad accident. They have these things called “bagagees” here. They fit three people and looked like little motorized trolleys. They are very small and windowless. They are also cheaper than taking taxis. They’re great for a getting around in town here but Christine took on all the way to Dar (an hour drive on main roads) a week ago Friday night. The bagagee got hit and the driver ran away. Christine was left lying in the middle of the road for about half an hour, without a single car stopping to help her until one guy finally did. He called her husband and our country director (mama Thea) and put her in his car. In Tanzania, there are no ambulances and you cannot just go to the emergency room. You must first go to the police station and sign all these papers before you go. So Christine was lying in this guy’s car bleeding like crazy while he had to go sign papers. Finally, she got to the hospital. Apparently she is at the best hospital in the country. She ended up fracturing her femur. They said it was a miracle she survived. She is in a ward with 30 people and is very uncomfortable. Hopefully we’re going to visit her on Saturday on our way to the airport.

On a lighter note, I had a great weekend here in Bagamoyo. Friday night we went to our favourite bar and Al (one of the volunteers who we all LOVE and was leaving the next day) brought his ipod and I brought mine and we had the guys there plug them in. So we had some great music going and had a blast. Saturday morning I woke up at about 5:45 with several other volunteers to walk to the beach to watch the sunrise. 3 of them were leaving a few hours later so they wanted to go. It was BEAUTIFUL. I took some great pictures but they really don’t compare. After breakfast, we went Nick’s school (a volunteer) because he was teaching them a music class and brought his guitar and everything. It was so adorable. The kids are older than most of the classes that the rest of us have. He teacher 10-12 year olds, so their English is a lot better. He taught them some songs including “I’m yours” by Jason Mraz and they caught on so quickly. I caught some on video- it was awesome. We then had to say goodbye to the volunteers leaving which was extremely sad. After they last we all just kind of sat around being sad for a while until we cheered up enough to go to the beach. It was a beautiful day and I really just don’t get tired of going there! After dinner, there was a Ms. Bagamoyo pageant that some of us went to!! We were SO excited. We were told that it started at 7:30, so we went, bought our tickets, walked in and saw that there was not ONE person there. They decided to tell us then that the show did not start until 9. We went to a bar for a bit and went back for 9. Surpise surprise, not many more people there than than an hour before. We wait until 10:00 (our curfew here) and the show still hadn’t started! Typical Tanzania. We were upset about the show but just couldn’t stop laughing because the whole situation was so absurd. Anyhoo, our friend John, Kara and I took a Bagagee home because we just really wanted to experience it. I was sitting the middle and laughing so hard the entire time. Kara was freaking out the whole time because he was going super fast. It was quite the experience. A group of 20 new volunteers arrived late Saturday night. It is weird to see so many new people here since we were used to have just 15 of us. They are really nice but I will only be with them for a week! On Sunday I wanted to go to a church to see what the service was like (I heard there was lotsof music and singing and I thought it would be cool to go). But of course, we were told the wrong time and got there an hour early. Haha. Anyway, a Norwegian lady who teaches dance at the arts college was holding a free yoga class in this large hot right on the beach so a bunch of us went. It was FANTASTIC. I have never felt so relaxed in my life. She had us all sleeping at the end and when she woke us up, it turns out we had been in the class for an hour and 45 minutes! It was a good challenge and felt amazing. We’re going to try to get another class with her before we leave. We went back to the beach in the afternoon to meet with the secondary school girls. Well, they are almost 2 hours late and a couple of them came. I didn’t care- I was just happy they came! We sat and talked with them for a while and they listened to my ipod and we all sang Rihanna together. We had a great time with them.

OK. I think I’ll leave it at that. I’ll try to get back here again before I go but I may be too busy trying to pack everything into my last week.
I hear the weather is crap at home so hopefully I can bring some sun with me!!
I hope everyone is happy and well.
xoxoxoxoxox