In a couple of weeks, it will have been ten months since I arrived in country! How it flies.
Hope everyone is well at home. I’ve been quite busy lately! My scope of work is now officially laid out for this year. I’m involved in many different things in Ihanja, now, and it feels great. Teaching is the biggest part of my job. Each week I teach Life Skills at the local secondary school and general health at the Health Centre. It’s been challenging, rewarding and a learning experience. I’ve got over two hundred Form 4 students at the school. We crowd into small classrooms with about four students per desk and about two students per chair. There are no teaching materials except a blackboard. So for tests I write the questions on the board and they copy them down in notebooks. Crazy! It’s been good, so far. We’ve covered communication skills and have moved on to HIV/AIDS education. The students are excited to have an American teacher and participated better than I expected. I begin each class by answering any questions about America or health. I also have them teach me five words each class in our local language. My objective in doing this is to instill confidence and boost self-esteem. I told them they should be Nyaturu and know multiple languages. Plus, it’s just good to expand my tiny Kinyaturu vocabulary. Teaching at the Health Centre is going well, too. On Mondays and Tuesdays women with new babies come to have them checked and weighed. Usually about a hundred women come and wait to see one nurse. While they wait, I teach. Right now, we’re covering malaria prevention because, due to the rains, we have mosquitoes in Singida. After I finish the day’s lesson, I stay and help weigh babies. It’s one of my favorite jobs!
My orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) project is also coming along nicely. My goal is to get all the orphans in Ihanja located, identified and officially registered. It’s a big undertaking but needs to be done. I’ve had several meetings with an official from a neighboring village who has created a successful OVC database for the village of Puma. He is coming to my Ihanja this Thursday to teach us how to do the house-to-house survey. This week I’m trying to recruit a team of people to help me.
I also have a health group now. It’s comprised of local “vijana” (ages 18-24) and we meet to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention. The long-term goal of this group is to later offer assistance to the caretakers of the OVCs in our community. I asked the group what Income Generating Project (IGP) they wanted to do and they decided to start a…chicken project! Haha! I have a chicken group! You never know what you’re getting into when you decided to do Peace Corps. I’m currently writing a small grant to buy chickens and roosters.
I’m planning on taking a few vacation days around Easter. A bunch of folks from my class are heading to Mafia Island to spend the holiday together. It should be a blast. Who doesn’t love beach time on the Indian Ocean? I’ll try and take lots of pics.
Biggest news from me? My big brother just got engaged! So exciting! I was sad to miss out on all the activity but my family and Sara Beth were kind enough to include me in everything they could. My brother called me the day before he proposed and I got a text message when she said yes. SB has already chosen a date, church and reception venue and keeps me abreast of the wedding plans. I had absolutely no plans to visit the States during my service but now, it looks like I’ll be coming home briefly for their November wedding! I can NOT wait! Is is bad that I want to go straight from the airport to the nearest barbeque joint?
