Thursday I resumed teaching at Faraja and we had a great day. I had read “The Giving Tree” previously and the kids loved it. So, we re-read the book and had the kids learn the words from the tree. They learned tree, trunk, branches, apple, leaf, leaves, stump and boy. We had our local volunteer, Octavio, draw a tree with leaves, branches and apples hanging off of the branches. This was fun because I got to see Octavio’s fantastic talent as an artist!! He is a wonderful local volunteer as well. He interprets our stories beautifully and is an enormous help in the classroom. While we teach he is very good at keeping the kids’ attention and helping them to understand what we are saying. This evening we had Swahili lessons – we worked on words that we use in the classroom – and then we had a guest speaker talk about HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. This was an interesting learning experience. We talked a lot about the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in the community and the situation that people who have it are faced with. In addition to the stigma surrounding it, the people in the community deal with their own guilt and chastisement. Many people will confess that they tried to commit suicide or shut themselves away. However, there are groups and clinics that are taking steps toward alleviating the life situation for these people. The clinics require women to take blood tests when they are pregnant and coming to the clinic for check-ups. The women’s groups (Jipe Moyo, Weiss, Sibo’s group at Kalaleeni) they help women who have HIV/AIDS by providing opportunities for them to have businesses and make money. They also help women and men afflicted by HIV/AIDS by going to visit them within their homes and encouraging them. Their focuses are to provide empowerment and opportunities to make money and raise healthy families.
Friday was the last day for both Nate and Susan to go to their placements. This was a bittersweet experience, but Susan was preparing to climb Kili the next day so she had a lot to look forward to! After lunch we decided to go into town and get some pants from Unique Batik. Here they allow you to pick out any fabric and they make pants for you that cinch at the bottoms and have a band at the top so you can wear them high-waisted. J They are so cute! I love all of the clothes here…so I am pretty sure I am just going to come home decked out in African clothes and jewelry. I’ll be totally African with my tan, my clothes and my Swahili! Get ready for it haha. So after we got back from town we went out to dinner at Panda Chinese and then went to Glacier and La Liga for Nate’s last Friday night. Panda Chinese was really delicious. I got a hot and spicy noodle dish and it was actually hot and spicy! It was really delicious. We also got yummy spring rolls that were divine. The restaurant was a five-minute drive from our Home Base, but I have no idea where it is. The streets get so dark at night nearly everything becomes indistinguishable. At least to me. Maybe in three months I’ll be able to map out Moshi in the dark J.
Glacier is an outdoor bar that has “huts” and a large open area. There is a bar, a stage, a dancefloor with a strobe light, a covered open area and a place to order food/kitchen. We got there and got our drinks then hung out on the grass. It was Bob Marley night in honor of his life and death, so there was a lot of Reggae music. There is also a structure that has hanging lanterns on it and the lanterns were arranged in Rastafarian colors. It was fun to hang out here, but I had the best time at La Liga. We ended up going in Musah’s truck to get there. This meant a lot of wind, plenty of speed bumps and occasional screams. I was glad we got Corinne to come with us in the truck because it was fun with her there. I seriously ended up sitting in a tiny ball with my dress tucked around my legs because it was freezing! Once we got there we found a place to hang out near the pool tables outside. Becca and I went into the main dancing area and did some people watching. It was really funny to see the people sitting above just watching everyone dance and have fun, to pass the bar with all of the people crowding to order drinks and it was even funnier to watch the mzungu people dancing! Not to say that I’m not a mzungu…but I am glad I don’t do some very mzungu-ish things. For example, we saw a couple making out hardcore on the dance floor, we got to see a girl looking a little bit uncomfortable with dancing – but this was more sad - , aaaannnnddd we got the pleasure of seeing a very drunk girl dancing pretty sloppily on the stage next to an African man who had ridiculously good moves. It was a funny experience. After that we went back and all of us hung out near the pool tables and then we went and danced! We danced all night long! Needless to say I was so glad to sleep in the next day! J
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