Hey guys!
After 12 weeks that flew by way too fast, I am back home in the States. It's nice to be back but I miss Tanzania and all my friends there SO much. It was really hard to leave them so I'm hoping to make my way back there as soon as possible. Despite all the "roughing it," I felt so at home there and loved every minute of it.
Our last week in Babati went really well. After World AIDS day and the testings surrounging it, our testing number skyrocketed. For the overall program, we tested over 3000 people which is appartently an amazing amount. I think we had a really strong program and we accomplished a lot in our short time there.
After that, I had to say goodbye to my Tanzanian friends. It was particularly hard saying goodbye to Mershil, Joseph, Gerald, and Waziri. I hope that we will stay in touch because we grew to be very close and I can now truly say that they are all my brothers. It didn't help that I had to say goodbye to Jen at the same time since she didn't come to Zanzibar with us cuz that meant that I lost my strongest support system. I felt very alone on the bus ride from Arusha to Dar and the few days in Zanzibar kind of felt like an awkward limbo where I had already said goodbye to everyone but wasn't at home yet.
Despite that, Zanzibar was amazing! It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent most of our time on the beach and also went on a one day snorkeling trip where we saw such a variety of fish, it was amazing! One night we were true locals and bought some fresh fish off a guy and then had some other random local cook it for us. We had tuna and red snapper and it was DELICIOUS. I ate a lot of fish and calamari over the weekend cuz that's what they're famous for and it was all amazing. Unfortunately, there was no elecricity on the island (some government thing) so things were run off generators that were only turned on at night. We're pretty used to that at this point though so it was no big deal except for that it was super hot and humid and it would have been nice to have the fan working the whole night.
After a couple days in paradise, I had to say goodbye to my American friends and head home. It wasn't as hard to say goodbye to them since I know we'll see eachother again. I mean we already have a Vegas trip planned for March and Kalen and Marissa have both already planned trips down to San Diego before the end of the year so I'm not too worried about that. It was still weird to leave the people that I've lived everyday with for the past 3 months though. It's definitely been an adjustment being away from them and it's also quite a culture shock being in the states. Right now I mostly just want to go back but I know that feeling will fade with time, especially if me and the Tanzanians do a good job of staying in touch. It's nice to be back with my mom and I can't wait to talk to all of you and tell you more detail about my trip and show you pictures.
I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog. Thank you to everyone who's followed my progress the last three months. To everyone who has really liked what they've read about what SIC does overseas, feel free to contact me about ways to donate. Or for those of you still in college or almost finished, contact me about potentially participating on the program. I really feel like they make a difference in the lives of Tanzanians and hope you've all gotten a sense of that through my entries.
Thanks again for reading! Asante sana squashed banana!
Ilana
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Week 2 in Babati
Things in Babati are going super well!!! We've already tested over 800 people in less than a week! World AIDS day was on Tuesday and it was awesome. We had testings, teachings, art projects, middle school-like facts posters, performances, a soccer tournament, and a net ball tournament (for those of you who don't know net ball is like messed up basketball haha). It was great and we tested over 200 people that day!!!
Our group's project has been going well too. We've been going around to all the bars, restaurants, and guest houses to see who wants to get taught and who is willing to put up fliers that we made advertising the importance of using condoms and getting tested. We have our work cut out for us cuz there's over 50 bars and restaurants and more than 20 guest houses. We might inlist the help of some of the other groups cuz the group in charge of testing and educating the prison doesn't have as much to do now that the prison is being super uncooperative.
Other than that, I'm trying to hang out with the Tanzanians as much as possible since we only have like 9 more days together (insert bbm smiley that's crying uncontrollably here). I'm not as worried about leaving my American friends cuz we still have Zanzibar together after the program is over plus we've already planned a Vegas trip for March. Ya that's how we roll haha!
That's all that's really going on right now. Nothing too exciting. For those of you who asked, I get back to the states December 16th and have no fear I have already told my mom what I want my first meal to be and I plan on going though all the foods I have missed that first week and getting incredible sick haha
Also, I promised to get you guys the final numbers for our time in Qash and here it is: We tested 1237 and taught 6594!!! Yay!!! I'd say testing in Babati is definitely easier but getting people to sit down and be taught is harder since everyone's so much busier. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Bye for now! Asante sana squashed banana! Can't wait to have real phone conversations with you guys in less than two weeks! Love you all!
Ilana
Our group's project has been going well too. We've been going around to all the bars, restaurants, and guest houses to see who wants to get taught and who is willing to put up fliers that we made advertising the importance of using condoms and getting tested. We have our work cut out for us cuz there's over 50 bars and restaurants and more than 20 guest houses. We might inlist the help of some of the other groups cuz the group in charge of testing and educating the prison doesn't have as much to do now that the prison is being super uncooperative.
Other than that, I'm trying to hang out with the Tanzanians as much as possible since we only have like 9 more days together (insert bbm smiley that's crying uncontrollably here). I'm not as worried about leaving my American friends cuz we still have Zanzibar together after the program is over plus we've already planned a Vegas trip for March. Ya that's how we roll haha!
That's all that's really going on right now. Nothing too exciting. For those of you who asked, I get back to the states December 16th and have no fear I have already told my mom what I want my first meal to be and I plan on going though all the foods I have missed that first week and getting incredible sick haha
Also, I promised to get you guys the final numbers for our time in Qash and here it is: We tested 1237 and taught 6594!!! Yay!!! I'd say testing in Babati is definitely easier but getting people to sit down and be taught is harder since everyone's so much busier. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Bye for now! Asante sana squashed banana! Can't wait to have real phone conversations with you guys in less than two weeks! Love you all!
Ilana
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Week One in Babati
Look I'm already on the internet again! Babati is awesome! haha
So first week in Babati has been going well. We talked to all the restaurants and bars and asked them when they would like us to teach their staff as well as asking permission to put permanent fliers up advertising the importance of using condoms and getting tested. We've already taught at 3 restaurants and they all ask really good questions and seem really interested in learning.
We also had a testing yesterday. Don't ask me why we psychotically had a testing after only being here for like 3 days when most people probably don't even know we're here yet and when we only really advertised for like a day but it still went really well and we tested 108 people. I think people here are just a lot more inclined to get tested. They're like "a free, fast way to know more about my health! Why wouldn't I do it right now?!" ...which I think is the proper response. :)
I got a request from Sonic asking how the test works. We use a rapid response test that looks for the antibodies to HIV in your body. So they take a couple drops of blood from the persons finger or the crook of their arm and put it in this little test. Then they add a solution to it and 10-20 minutes later some lines show up. If it's just the control line, then you're negative. If you have HIV, one or two additional lines will show indicating whether you have HIV 1 or HIV 2. The thing about the rapid response test is that it takes about 3 months for your body to build up antibodies (this is called the window period) to HIV so if you were infected very recently you might get a false negative but to combat that, we recommend that you get tested every 3 months if you're participating in risky behaviors. So since there was an SIC program here in Babati in May/June, we're kind of doing window period testing for those people now that it's a little over 3 months later. Any questions wanafunzi (students)? hahaha
My new homestay has been good. My mama is super nice and a really good cute. We get a starch, a meat like beef, chicken, or fish and a fruit platter with every meal which is SO much better than my last homestay. She just lives with her grandson who's like 16ish and then it's kind of a complex so there's a bunch of other families living there and there's a couple really cute kids so that's cool.
This morning, my group ran to the field office, did some yoga, had breakfast with the coordinators, and then ran back. It was super fun (it was like visiting my old roommates haha) so we're planning on doing that pretty regularly.
Since we're working in Babati now, we're only allowed to drink on the weekends so we're planning on all getting together tonight for dinner and drinks to celebrate a good first week. I'm super excited to hang out with everyone again, especially my old group and Joseph hasn't been here all week cuz his mom had her appendix out but he called me last night and is coming back today so I'm SUPER excited. Can't wait for tonight!!!
Next weeks going to be busy cuz it's World AIDS day on Tuesday so we're having testings Sunday through Wednesday and having special events all of Tuesday so I'll be sure to tell you guys all about it in my next post.
Love to all! Asante sana squashed banana!
Ilana :)
So first week in Babati has been going well. We talked to all the restaurants and bars and asked them when they would like us to teach their staff as well as asking permission to put permanent fliers up advertising the importance of using condoms and getting tested. We've already taught at 3 restaurants and they all ask really good questions and seem really interested in learning.
We also had a testing yesterday. Don't ask me why we psychotically had a testing after only being here for like 3 days when most people probably don't even know we're here yet and when we only really advertised for like a day but it still went really well and we tested 108 people. I think people here are just a lot more inclined to get tested. They're like "a free, fast way to know more about my health! Why wouldn't I do it right now?!" ...which I think is the proper response. :)
I got a request from Sonic asking how the test works. We use a rapid response test that looks for the antibodies to HIV in your body. So they take a couple drops of blood from the persons finger or the crook of their arm and put it in this little test. Then they add a solution to it and 10-20 minutes later some lines show up. If it's just the control line, then you're negative. If you have HIV, one or two additional lines will show indicating whether you have HIV 1 or HIV 2. The thing about the rapid response test is that it takes about 3 months for your body to build up antibodies (this is called the window period) to HIV so if you were infected very recently you might get a false negative but to combat that, we recommend that you get tested every 3 months if you're participating in risky behaviors. So since there was an SIC program here in Babati in May/June, we're kind of doing window period testing for those people now that it's a little over 3 months later. Any questions wanafunzi (students)? hahaha
My new homestay has been good. My mama is super nice and a really good cute. We get a starch, a meat like beef, chicken, or fish and a fruit platter with every meal which is SO much better than my last homestay. She just lives with her grandson who's like 16ish and then it's kind of a complex so there's a bunch of other families living there and there's a couple really cute kids so that's cool.
This morning, my group ran to the field office, did some yoga, had breakfast with the coordinators, and then ran back. It was super fun (it was like visiting my old roommates haha) so we're planning on doing that pretty regularly.
Since we're working in Babati now, we're only allowed to drink on the weekends so we're planning on all getting together tonight for dinner and drinks to celebrate a good first week. I'm super excited to hang out with everyone again, especially my old group and Joseph hasn't been here all week cuz his mom had her appendix out but he called me last night and is coming back today so I'm SUPER excited. Can't wait for tonight!!!
Next weeks going to be busy cuz it's World AIDS day on Tuesday so we're having testings Sunday through Wednesday and having special events all of Tuesday so I'll be sure to tell you guys all about it in my next post.
Love to all! Asante sana squashed banana!
Ilana :)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Last 2 weeks in the Vill plus our week off
Let me start by saying that I'm sorry I haven't posted any pictures. I retardedly didn't bring the cord for uploading pictures from my camera but I promise to get them up ASAP when I get back.
Also, shout out to my Hellions! Amazing job getting 4th at Sean Ryan and 2nd at SoCal Warmup! I'm super proud of you guys. And thanks to Sonic for the update. Miss you all so much! :)
Last two weeks in the vill were amazing. We had a testing in Mpakani which was like right by our house with the Endodash clan and we tested 90 people which was awesome! We also had a second testing in the main part of Qash that was actually run by our peer educators and we got 80 people which was the most out of all the second testings other than the Mpakani testing which was a combined effort. In the end we tested over 1200 people and taught over 6000 so we're pretty happy. I don't have the exact numbers with me right now but I'll be sure to let you guys know later.
Peer educators ended up getting a lot better as well. We had them do some mock teachings to us that went very well and some of them came out to the testing to help walk around with us and advertise. It was so great to see them finally seem to be motivated. I hope that they actually keep up with teaching and testing now that we're gone because they have all the resources they need and a lot of potential. We're going to try to go out and check up on them but I'm not sure if we'll have time.
So 3 Saturdays ago we said goodbye to our homestay family and Qash village. It was sadder than I thought it was going to be although I think a big part of that was just knowing that the SIC program is coming to its final leg and I really don't want to go. I've gotten to be really comfortable here. It doesn't even feel like I'm in another country anymore. Every time I think ahead to when I'm going to have to say goodbye I just know I'm gonna lose it.
On a happier note, last week was our week off. 13/16 of us spent the first half of the week in Jinja, Uganda, rafting the Nile. It was AMAZING!!! It's like a 20 hour bus ride over crappy roads with a stop in Nairobi to switch buses in the middle of the night but it was SO worth it!!! We got there Monday morning and just chilled at the campsite of the program we went with called Adrift, which had a bar/couch area that overlooked the Nile. It was gorgeous! That day, a big chunk of the group went bungee jumping. I wasn't interested. I would skydive in a second but bungee jumping has just never appealed to me. Two of the girls went tandem and one was topless and one was completely naked. It was hilarious!
The next two days were full of rafting and it was SO much fun! We were all pretty nervous cuz it's class 5 rapids which is as high as it gets but once we flipped the first time we realized it wasn't that bad and just went with it. We went in two rafts and our raft ended up flipping 4 times over the two days. Our guide said that when we flipped he was the one flipping us though so I dunno. The highlight of day one was going down a 10 foot waterfall backwards and the highlight of day two was when the other raft flipped right in front of us so we lost all of our momentum and everyone fell off except for me, Jen, and our guide Lee. We ended up holding on for a couple extra waves "surfing" and then Lee flipped us. It was so frigging fun! And the food on the trip was amazing. Sandwiches, beef skewers, lasagna...it completely made up for the repetativeness of the African food.
The second half of the week 10/16 of us went on Safari. Day One was at Manyara Lake and Day Two was at the Ngorogoro Crater. Over the course of the two days we saw EVERYTHING...except leopards but they're hard to spot cuz they live in the trees. We even had a lion literally right outside our car that had just tried to get into a new pride and lost so it was hurt. It was crazy. The break was not much of a break since we were pretty rushed and didn't have much time to relax but it was SOOO fun!!!
Now we're back in Babati where we'll be working for the next 3 weeks. The groups got split up :( :( :( so now I'm in a group with Jen, this guy Robert, and this chick Vikki, a female teaching partner Stella and a new male teaching partner Yona (two of our teaching partners had to go back to school so we got new ones). This group is fine but it will never be the family that our last group was. Joseph and Gerald were pretty much devastated when they heard we were getting split up cuz them, Jen, and I are super close. I still got to have lunch and dinner with Gerald yesterday though and Joseph isn't back from Arusha yet cuz his mom's having surgery but I'm sure we'll all hang out tons once he's back. At least I hope so.
On Sunday, everyone was supposed to move into their homestays and I was supposed to be living with Stella at this one house but Stella wasn't back yet so it was going to be just me. But then there was some sort of mixup and the Mama wasn't there and no one else there knew anything about us staying there so I was homeless! haha It was cool though cuz I just stayed with the coordinators at the SIC office and had a slumber party for two nights til they found me a home. They finally found one last night and Stella and I moved in this morning. It seems nice. Although I'm going to miss living with the coordinators. It was really fun! :)
So our group has been put in charge of educating and testing all of the restaurants, bars, and guest houses. I think that'll definitely keep us busy plus we just have to do a bunch of testings and World AIDS day is a week from today so we're planning something big for that.
So that's pretty much all that's going on here. I can't believe I'm going to be back in less than a month but I'm so excited to see all of you. Thanks for all the shoutouts on facebook and such. I have a feeling some changes have been made to facebook again that I'm not gonna like but I guess we'll see. I'm so out of the loop! I don't know any of the new music and I haven't seen any of the new movies. Has anyone seen New Moon and if so how was it?!?! hahaha
Love and miss you all!
Ilana
PS for all you lion king lovers out there:
simba= lion
rafiki= friend
mufasa= courage
pumba= warthog (kind of; it's not the real swahili word but everyone calls it that)
Scar= bad guy (just kidding haha)
Also, shout out to my Hellions! Amazing job getting 4th at Sean Ryan and 2nd at SoCal Warmup! I'm super proud of you guys. And thanks to Sonic for the update. Miss you all so much! :)
Last two weeks in the vill were amazing. We had a testing in Mpakani which was like right by our house with the Endodash clan and we tested 90 people which was awesome! We also had a second testing in the main part of Qash that was actually run by our peer educators and we got 80 people which was the most out of all the second testings other than the Mpakani testing which was a combined effort. In the end we tested over 1200 people and taught over 6000 so we're pretty happy. I don't have the exact numbers with me right now but I'll be sure to let you guys know later.
Peer educators ended up getting a lot better as well. We had them do some mock teachings to us that went very well and some of them came out to the testing to help walk around with us and advertise. It was so great to see them finally seem to be motivated. I hope that they actually keep up with teaching and testing now that we're gone because they have all the resources they need and a lot of potential. We're going to try to go out and check up on them but I'm not sure if we'll have time.
So 3 Saturdays ago we said goodbye to our homestay family and Qash village. It was sadder than I thought it was going to be although I think a big part of that was just knowing that the SIC program is coming to its final leg and I really don't want to go. I've gotten to be really comfortable here. It doesn't even feel like I'm in another country anymore. Every time I think ahead to when I'm going to have to say goodbye I just know I'm gonna lose it.
On a happier note, last week was our week off. 13/16 of us spent the first half of the week in Jinja, Uganda, rafting the Nile. It was AMAZING!!! It's like a 20 hour bus ride over crappy roads with a stop in Nairobi to switch buses in the middle of the night but it was SO worth it!!! We got there Monday morning and just chilled at the campsite of the program we went with called Adrift, which had a bar/couch area that overlooked the Nile. It was gorgeous! That day, a big chunk of the group went bungee jumping. I wasn't interested. I would skydive in a second but bungee jumping has just never appealed to me. Two of the girls went tandem and one was topless and one was completely naked. It was hilarious!
The next two days were full of rafting and it was SO much fun! We were all pretty nervous cuz it's class 5 rapids which is as high as it gets but once we flipped the first time we realized it wasn't that bad and just went with it. We went in two rafts and our raft ended up flipping 4 times over the two days. Our guide said that when we flipped he was the one flipping us though so I dunno. The highlight of day one was going down a 10 foot waterfall backwards and the highlight of day two was when the other raft flipped right in front of us so we lost all of our momentum and everyone fell off except for me, Jen, and our guide Lee. We ended up holding on for a couple extra waves "surfing" and then Lee flipped us. It was so frigging fun! And the food on the trip was amazing. Sandwiches, beef skewers, lasagna...it completely made up for the repetativeness of the African food.
The second half of the week 10/16 of us went on Safari. Day One was at Manyara Lake and Day Two was at the Ngorogoro Crater. Over the course of the two days we saw EVERYTHING...except leopards but they're hard to spot cuz they live in the trees. We even had a lion literally right outside our car that had just tried to get into a new pride and lost so it was hurt. It was crazy. The break was not much of a break since we were pretty rushed and didn't have much time to relax but it was SOOO fun!!!
Now we're back in Babati where we'll be working for the next 3 weeks. The groups got split up :( :( :( so now I'm in a group with Jen, this guy Robert, and this chick Vikki, a female teaching partner Stella and a new male teaching partner Yona (two of our teaching partners had to go back to school so we got new ones). This group is fine but it will never be the family that our last group was. Joseph and Gerald were pretty much devastated when they heard we were getting split up cuz them, Jen, and I are super close. I still got to have lunch and dinner with Gerald yesterday though and Joseph isn't back from Arusha yet cuz his mom's having surgery but I'm sure we'll all hang out tons once he's back. At least I hope so.
On Sunday, everyone was supposed to move into their homestays and I was supposed to be living with Stella at this one house but Stella wasn't back yet so it was going to be just me. But then there was some sort of mixup and the Mama wasn't there and no one else there knew anything about us staying there so I was homeless! haha It was cool though cuz I just stayed with the coordinators at the SIC office and had a slumber party for two nights til they found me a home. They finally found one last night and Stella and I moved in this morning. It seems nice. Although I'm going to miss living with the coordinators. It was really fun! :)
So our group has been put in charge of educating and testing all of the restaurants, bars, and guest houses. I think that'll definitely keep us busy plus we just have to do a bunch of testings and World AIDS day is a week from today so we're planning something big for that.
So that's pretty much all that's going on here. I can't believe I'm going to be back in less than a month but I'm so excited to see all of you. Thanks for all the shoutouts on facebook and such. I have a feeling some changes have been made to facebook again that I'm not gonna like but I guess we'll see. I'm so out of the loop! I don't know any of the new music and I haven't seen any of the new movies. Has anyone seen New Moon and if so how was it?!?! hahaha
Love and miss you all!
Ilana
PS for all you lion king lovers out there:
simba= lion
rafiki= friend
mufasa= courage
pumba= warthog (kind of; it's not the real swahili word but everyone calls it that)
Scar= bad guy (just kidding haha)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Third an fourth weeks in the vill!
Nick, I'm so so proud of you!!! I told you that you passed! Good luck with the rest! I know you'll be awesome! And amazing that you already have your first client. You're so big time...stacking up those papers! :) And sorry about the traffic...I DO know how you feel about that haha Tell CLam I say hi! Love/miss you mucho mucho!!!
Sonic!!! Miss you so much! How's Hellions going? Good luck with your first tournaments!!! How's recruitment going??? Life in the village is awesome! It's totally safe for us to walk around at night although I probably wouldn't by myself. It's always us 3 girls walking together though so it's good. As for pictures, we usually try to hide our cameras because otherwise they ask you to take a million pictures but they're all just super excited about them and want to see it in the camera after you take it. Everything's super awesome though :)
Smelly!!! I miss you so much too! I can't wait to come back and tell you all about it! We'll go get margaritas or something...or the sushi place!!! haha
Sonic!!! Miss you so much! How's Hellions going? Good luck with your first tournaments!!! How's recruitment going??? Life in the village is awesome! It's totally safe for us to walk around at night although I probably wouldn't by myself. It's always us 3 girls walking together though so it's good. As for pictures, we usually try to hide our cameras because otherwise they ask you to take a million pictures but they're all just super excited about them and want to see it in the camera after you take it. Everything's super awesome though :)
Smelly!!! I miss you so much too! I can't wait to come back and tell you all about it! We'll go get margaritas or something...or the sushi place!!! haha
Alli! So good to hear from you. Ya Gerald was on your trip. He said he remembered Nicole! :) Things are so great! We've tested 600 people and taught about 4000. The nutella has been discovered haha. First and last is our number one place we go to for lunch on Babati weekends for chips myai delicious!!! I am having plenty of chipati for you have no fear haha. Thanks for all your help prepping. Can't wait to tell you all about it!!!
Okay now for updates!!!
Things in the vill are still amazing! We spent the last two weeks mostly on advertising for our testing day which was this past Tuesday. We tested 166 people which is super awesome!!! Endodash tested 203 but their dad is like the head of the village and everyone loves him and does everything he says including getting tested and other than them we tested the most out of the 5 villages and we did it all on our own haha. Plus we advertised to one of our subvillages to go to their testing cuz it's closer so they tested some of our people too. So it was amazing! It was a lot of hard work. We made like 15 posters and about 1000 small fliers that we all wrote out by hand and handed out to people so we could talk to them individually. "Tunafanya upimaji wa virusi via Ukimwi Jummanne pale Ofisi ya Kijiji...Karibuni!" - "We are testing for HIV Thursday at the village office...everyone is welcome!" haha We walked like 4 hours a day in addition to our teachings at the schools. It was totally worth it though to see all the people that came out! We're doing another combo testing with Endodash on Thursday and then next weekend is our big Community Day (or really weekend) where all 5 of the villages will be working together to put on this big testing event with DJs and a soccer tournament and performances. So we're going to be busy busy for the next week but I'm so excited!!! I think it's going to be amazing :)
The schools teachings have been going really well too. We had some trouble with Form 3 this past week (that's the equivalent of like Junior/Senior year in high school and is the oldest students we teach). They just like randomly went to Galapo secondary to do a lab practical cuz they don't have a laboratory at Qash secondary so the students just weren't there when we went to teach them. Kind of frustrating but we'll reschedule a make-up session.
We've also been having some trouble with our peer educators. We're the only village with a secondary school which means we teach twice as much as everyone else but it also means we get to do something called peer educators. It's where we train some of the best students at the secondary school to take over for us after we leave. We've had a lot of cancelled sessions and other road blocks but we have some ideas about how to make it better that we're going to implement starting this week so hopefully things will turn around. I was so excited to be able to do peer educators so I really hope it works out!!!
Other than that things have been great! Our group gets along so well so we're hoping they don't mix up the groups when we move to Babati for the last month. I guess some of the groups are having problems though so we'll see. It's rained a bit the past couple weeks but never for very long and then it goes back to being super hot! :)
We have two more weeks of crunch time in the village and then we get our week off. I'm going to Uganda for the beginning to go river rafting down the nile and then we have a two day safari in this huge crater thing!!! So friggin excited!!! We're definitely going to need the break after all our hard work in the village. And there's Americanized food there so I'm SUPER excited for that!!! I miss cheese and salads the most! haha
To end this post, I'll leave you guys with a couple jokes our group made up: (For your information, when you first greet someone older that you, you have to say Shikamoo and then they respond with Marahaba)
What did the baby cow say to the mama cow? Shikamooooo!
What did the mama sheep say to the baby sheep? Marahabaaaaah!
hahahahaha
Asante sana squashed banana! Miss you all so so SOOOOO much!!! I hope you're all doing really well!
Lots and lots of love!
Ilana
Sunday, October 18, 2009
First two weeks in the village
Hey guys! Thanks for all the comments you've been leaving me. It's so great to hear from you cuz I miss you all soooo much!!!
The skirts are pretty much just like normal skirts that people wear back home; they just have to cover our knees when we sit down so don't get too excited. The fabrics here are super cool though so you can get excited about that haha
For those of you who have said you want to learn Swahili, I am so down to teach you when I get back. I actually like the language a lot and I feel like I'm picking it up pretty fast now that I'm exposed to it like 24/7. It's just 3 of us American girls living in our homestay so we had to pick things up fast if we wanted to communicate with our families haha
Speaking of homestays, we got our groups and mine is great. I'm with Jen and then if any of you know Becca Lynch who's also from USC. I don't know why they put three USC people together but I'm certainly not complaining. Me and Jen share a room and then Becca has her own. Our family is so nice and really patient and really helpful. We have a mom and a dad and a 19 year old brother (kaka in Swahili) Afith, a 17 year old sister(dada) Alima, a 15 year old sister also Alima haha, a 12 year old sister Shaam, and a 9 year old brother Abudina. They're all so awesome.
The rest of our group is made up of Joseph, a 22 year old Tanzanian teaching partner who's just a big goof and a really good teacher and Gerald, a 27 year old teaching partner who we call Baba Bear (Baba means dad) He's the dad of the group and so nice and a really good teacher. They live at another homestay. I'm super happy with my group; we all get along really well :)
We've been really busy in the villages. We teach primary school everyday from 8:40-10. This week we taught secondary school everyday from 11:25-12:45 but starting next week it'll just be Monday Wednesday and maybe another day. We will also be training the best and the brightest from the secondary school to be peer educators so we'll be meeting with them Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 3. Apart from the school teachings we have to do community teachings. The first day we were there we were hanging out at this duka (store) that we always go to now and randomly ended up teaching like 50 people. The next day we went to watch Qash secondary school play the villagers in soccer and taught like another 150 people. We also taught 80 people in one of our subvillages last Tuesday and randomly teach small groups of people that we pass by when we have some time. So pretty much we're rockstars haha. We're started a little competition between the villages to see who teaches the most people and we definitely won the first week haha
We're having a free testing day in our village on October 27th and then there's this big community day (or really community weekend) on the 7th and 8th where all the villages will come together and have this big free testing campain. So hopefully we'll get lots of people tested.
Just to give you an idea of village life, our bathroom is a little brick thing with a hole in the center that leads to a like 30 feet deep hole (except ours is really full so it's like 7 feet away- gross! they're building another one) Think porter potty. Our shower is water in a bucket that's heated on coals and we pour it over ourselves with a bowl. Our homestay is a 45 minute walk to Joseph and Gerald's homestay and then everything is near them so we try to limit that to just walking there in the morning and back at night. We're also looking into getting some bikes but Becca doesn't know how to ride one so she'll have to ride on the back haha The food is a lot of carbs like rice and rice and rice and this thing called ugali that I can't even explain. There's also lots of beans and spinach and we buy ourselves a lot of fruit to subsidize. The thing I miss most is cheese. The only calcium I get is from my power bars.
So things in the village have been super awesome. I feel like we're really accomplishing a lot and my group has so much fun hanging out together. We want to try to find a soccer ball and a deck of cards while we're here though.
Guess that's it for now. Hope everything is great on your side of the road. Can't wait to hear all about all your lives :) I'll be back in Babati in two weeks so that's when I'll have internet again.
Asante sana squashed banana!
PS Fight on SC for beating Notre Dame!!! Fuck ya!!!
The skirts are pretty much just like normal skirts that people wear back home; they just have to cover our knees when we sit down so don't get too excited. The fabrics here are super cool though so you can get excited about that haha
For those of you who have said you want to learn Swahili, I am so down to teach you when I get back. I actually like the language a lot and I feel like I'm picking it up pretty fast now that I'm exposed to it like 24/7. It's just 3 of us American girls living in our homestay so we had to pick things up fast if we wanted to communicate with our families haha
Speaking of homestays, we got our groups and mine is great. I'm with Jen and then if any of you know Becca Lynch who's also from USC. I don't know why they put three USC people together but I'm certainly not complaining. Me and Jen share a room and then Becca has her own. Our family is so nice and really patient and really helpful. We have a mom and a dad and a 19 year old brother (kaka in Swahili) Afith, a 17 year old sister(dada) Alima, a 15 year old sister also Alima haha, a 12 year old sister Shaam, and a 9 year old brother Abudina. They're all so awesome.
The rest of our group is made up of Joseph, a 22 year old Tanzanian teaching partner who's just a big goof and a really good teacher and Gerald, a 27 year old teaching partner who we call Baba Bear (Baba means dad) He's the dad of the group and so nice and a really good teacher. They live at another homestay. I'm super happy with my group; we all get along really well :)
We've been really busy in the villages. We teach primary school everyday from 8:40-10. This week we taught secondary school everyday from 11:25-12:45 but starting next week it'll just be Monday Wednesday and maybe another day. We will also be training the best and the brightest from the secondary school to be peer educators so we'll be meeting with them Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 3. Apart from the school teachings we have to do community teachings. The first day we were there we were hanging out at this duka (store) that we always go to now and randomly ended up teaching like 50 people. The next day we went to watch Qash secondary school play the villagers in soccer and taught like another 150 people. We also taught 80 people in one of our subvillages last Tuesday and randomly teach small groups of people that we pass by when we have some time. So pretty much we're rockstars haha. We're started a little competition between the villages to see who teaches the most people and we definitely won the first week haha
We're having a free testing day in our village on October 27th and then there's this big community day (or really community weekend) on the 7th and 8th where all the villages will come together and have this big free testing campain. So hopefully we'll get lots of people tested.
Just to give you an idea of village life, our bathroom is a little brick thing with a hole in the center that leads to a like 30 feet deep hole (except ours is really full so it's like 7 feet away- gross! they're building another one) Think porter potty. Our shower is water in a bucket that's heated on coals and we pour it over ourselves with a bowl. Our homestay is a 45 minute walk to Joseph and Gerald's homestay and then everything is near them so we try to limit that to just walking there in the morning and back at night. We're also looking into getting some bikes but Becca doesn't know how to ride one so she'll have to ride on the back haha The food is a lot of carbs like rice and rice and rice and this thing called ugali that I can't even explain. There's also lots of beans and spinach and we buy ourselves a lot of fruit to subsidize. The thing I miss most is cheese. The only calcium I get is from my power bars.
So things in the village have been super awesome. I feel like we're really accomplishing a lot and my group has so much fun hanging out together. We want to try to find a soccer ball and a deck of cards while we're here though.
Guess that's it for now. Hope everything is great on your side of the road. Can't wait to hear all about all your lives :) I'll be back in Babati in two weeks so that's when I'll have internet again.
Asante sana squashed banana!
PS Fight on SC for beating Notre Dame!!! Fuck ya!!!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Moving to the villages
I only have like 5 minutes on my internet time left but just wanted to let you know that orientation ends on Monday and we move to the villages on Tuesday and finally get to start teaching!!!
So from now on I'll only have internet access on weekends when I come back to Babati and we have to stay in the villages through the first weekend so no posts til the weekend after that.
Finally got our skirts! They're awesome (for those of you who don't know girls have to wear skirts everyday that go past our knees and no tanktops...and it's hot!) I love the skirts though. So cute.
We find out our teaching groups tomorrow. Can't wait!
Miss you all so much! Can't wait to tell you more about the Tanzanians. They're all so friendly :)
Asante sana squashed banana!
Ilana
So from now on I'll only have internet access on weekends when I come back to Babati and we have to stay in the villages through the first weekend so no posts til the weekend after that.
Finally got our skirts! They're awesome (for those of you who don't know girls have to wear skirts everyday that go past our knees and no tanktops...and it's hot!) I love the skirts though. So cute.
We find out our teaching groups tomorrow. Can't wait!
Miss you all so much! Can't wait to tell you more about the Tanzanians. They're all so friendly :)
Asante sana squashed banana!
Ilana
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)