Wow what a crazy couple of weeks...i don't really know where to begin! We've been teaching like crazy and have also picked up an extra school to teach which is actually next to our village but not officially part of it. We have also started teaching the village football team (thanks to the boys amazing footie skills) along with the schools and farms we had already arranged to teach *phew* This Thursday was our first village-wide testing day...which was an amazing success. We managed to test exactly 199 people! (the ave. for a testing day is around50!) however, it was a day of mixed emotions...it was unbelievable to see people so happy to find they we're HIV negative (198 people were!)..we barely know the effect this can have on people's lives...but it was also incredibly sad to discover the one person who tested positive was a young school girl we had been teaching. Working at the preventative end of HIV often we forget just how life changing and important what we're teaching actually is.

We've also begun to plan for our community day which is on the 13th September...we're aiming for this to be a HUGE event, where people come from villages all around to be tested, learn about HIV and generally have some fun! We're gona have the children we've been teaching perform some drama/raps/songs about HIV. We have also arranged for our HIV positive mother to be the guest speaker at this day :D her insight into living with hiv is invaluable and she has great views on why for her letting everyone know she is HIV positive is the best thing for her life...we try so hard to teach about stigma and how to fight it here in this community - she's out there leading the way already!

Other interesting news (perhaps);

-I have been a bit sick with bacterial infections but am making a fast recovery :)
-Next week we have a long weekend off in which we are going to raft the class4 rapids of the Nile (you may actually hear me screaming in England)

-one of my sisters is waiting to get a HIV test before she will marry her partner so hopefully we can give her that opportunity and make them very happy!
-a fellow volunteer had a painful toe so we took him to the doctor and the doc cut open his toe to find worms inside!
-i have finally mastered showering with the cockroaches so no longer have to kill gods creatures everyday!

Hope all is well in England...will try to reach a computer again soon,

Badaaye...lucy xxx

Photographs!

Finally the hotly anticipated photos!.......

A few of our brothers and sisters!

This is our mama...showing us how it's done! She is HIV positive and has 8 children, all of whom are HIV negative :D She is truely amazing!

This is the choo (toilet)...we managed to get a photo early in the morning...cockroach free...luxury!

Some of the team in the local public transport - a daladala...these usually contain 20 people and up!

Evidence that i did actually make it to Africa and i'm not just sunning myself on the Costa Del Sol!

This photo = an elephant crossing the road!! Does it get any better?!?!

This is the Ngoragora Crater...before we descended into it!!! :O

A panoramic view of the Lake Manyara national park...can you spot the elephant?!

Here we have our view from last weekend's campsite - Lake Manyara....the next daywe actually went into this scene - crazy!!

Karibuni Mlangarini Juu

I have officially been living rurally now for 4 days! It takes a lot of getting used to..a process which is very draining but it's also unbelievably awesome and each day i fall more in love with my homestay family, the village and all it's people! My homestay consists of my mama who is HIV positive and her eight healthy, happy HIV free children (unbelievable!). She is managing to stay so healthy and lead such a busy life...not including looking after me and another volunteer (Rachel) on top of her own brood. Our house is made of concrete and has a tin roof. Outside there is a wooden construction which is the kitchen (you can tell when dinner's up as the smoke seeps through the log walls!), another small concrete building which is the choo (toilet), complete with all your cockroach friends! and another wooden building which houses the ducks, hens, rooster, goats and cow :D during the day we are busy walking around the vast area which is Mangarini Juu village, setting up meetings, assessing and generally making our presence known and accepted across all communities. Evenings are spent indoors with our family (yes that's 11 of us in the one room!) enjoying trying to communicate, learning about each other (through pictures, books etc) and just enjoying the great environment that is the home of a large african family...definatly one of the best experiences of my life.

On the work side of things we having been incredibly successful in just our first few days...we have managed to track down the village leaders, sit down with them and they have given us their blessing to teach all over the village in whatever capacity we see fit...amazing! We have been accepted by all 3 village schools to teach the children, and arranged to teach at three of the huge flower farms which surround our village...(these teaching will be to 300plus people at anyone time!) So far, so very good! More village news to follow...

Badaaye, Woollams xxx

Habari za soma??

Hello everyone...so we have been at Mt Meru University for the past week or so (i seem to lose all track of time! :S) where we have had training from 8am to 5pm everyday involving everything from fast track Swahili, to how to teach village elders about sexual transmission and protection to teaching primary school children about the immune system! The university was quite a shock at first as there are quite a few rats, no showers and our first 'traditional toilets'! But iv have realised this is all part of our training and i have learned to always carry toilet roll, wash out of a bucket and just be thankful for what i have. How can i complain when i wake up each day to the view through my window of Mt. Meru and the owl (Jethro) who lives in the tree outside! The training so far has been diffcult and exhausting at times to say the least. But i feel i am fast becoming more equiped for the challenge that lies ahead. Once we enter the villages (which will be on Tuesday so all prayers greatfully recieved!) we will initially be undertaking an assessment of the village's health services and other services avaliable, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards those who are HIV positive. This will then enable us to plan and undertake teaching which is appropriate and culturally sensitive to each particular village.

We are spending the next few days back at the university training and undergoing teaching assessments. On sunday i will have to undertake an individual teaching assessment in front of a panel of SIC staff...this is well...a little daunting! Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers :) Like i say we will then be moving to villages on Tuesday for aprrox two weeks...this is a crucial time where we need to put all our energy into getting to know the individuals in our village and building strong relationships with the village leaders. We need people to trust us and what we are telling them. Please keep us as a team of volunteers in your thoughts and prayers during this time. For now my 'morning off' is up so it's back to the university. I will next be able to reach a town in about 3 weeks but until then please keep messaging me as it is so encouraging to hear from home! I hope you all enjoyed the heat wave!

love love, Woollams

Karibu!

I made it! So here I am in Arusha, Tanzania on the west coast of Africa which I can only describe as amazing but heartbreaking all at once. Unbelievable it’s quite mild and wet which is nice as I feel right at home! (well the Tanzanians say its really cold but its about 15-20degrees!) I arrived on Thursday into the busy city of Dar Es Saleem where I spent one night in a hostel. I then took a ten hour bus ride north to Arusha with some amazing views including Kilamanjaro and Mt. Meru. (hopefully photos may follow J) I have been staying in Arusha since then, taking in the town and the Tanzanian people…which at times has been quite overwhelming but given time I have adjusted to the way of life here and enjoyed improving my Swahili in the busy markets (which put our idea of markets to shame!) and with the people I pass on the streets who are all so keen to chat! It’s funny to think how often we pass people on the streets in England and never even say hello, here you would be rude if you didn’t ask a stranger how they, their family, their job and their day is!!

So far we have spent most of our time adjusting to the environment (our digestive systems are having a pretty difficult job of it to say the least!) and learning about the culture here which is so important. We don’t want to be clumsy tourists who impose ourselves and our culture on Tanzania but educated volunteers who embrace the people here and all that their culture involves and stands for. We started intensive Swahili lessons today which was difficult but fun! It’s really important for us to at least try to speak Swahili even if not very well! Now that all the volunteers have arrived we will be going to an opening meal later tonight to meet many of the English, American and Tanzanian people involved in SIC and then they start tomorrow the hard work of moulding us into super dooper teachers! I will keep you updated on how successful that is!


Kwaherini!