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 :)