Life as usual

Firstly my little calf died :( I came back from Njombe and it wasn't there and Fledita informed me that kitoto kimekufe (baby cow has died). I was so sad, i bet it was those damn ants!!

Anyway other than that sadness things are good. I went to Njombe on friday on a motorcycle (2.5hrs) and my god...pain!!! The roads are pretty bad here so it was extremely bumpy and the motorbike didnt have very good suspension, i almost flew off a few times but the pain was intense. When I got off I almost fell over and had to get a taxi to my hotel because i couldnt walk properly haha. I aint never doing that again, id rather the 6.5hrs on the bus!! Bought a new phone (have had much trouble with phones these days) and then came back to village. Neema returned on friday which is good.

Sunday we had a CAG meeting to finalise our sports league and to discuss our community festival which will be around August 19th and should be a good day with our netball and football finals, traditional performances, guest speakers, seminars and HIV testing for the village. Yesterday we planned our lessons, went to the market to stock up on food and then I walked to one of our subvillages, Lusapo, with one of the cag members to greet the village chairman who is a fantastic man. He asked me a while ago if I could help put 6 orphans through secondary school and he is just so sincere, he's not asking for anything for himself he just wants to help 6 kids get an education and I would LOVE to help him. It only costs $45AU for one student for a whole year...I have ideas hehe.

Anyway I went to his house and Mzee John (village chairman), and his wife and the Cag member (called Mary) were telling me really heart-breaking stories. Mary was born one of 10 children and now only 3 have survived, the rest died of AIDS. The Mzee John had 5 children and only 2 have survived. It's everyones story, its just normal life and they speak about it so openly. They all ask me to help them but for simple things, like a sweater for their children, money to buy a pig. It breaks my heart not to be able to do everything...but i know my ties with this village wont end when I go home and because I now have a personal relationship with the village leaders and the kids in the community I know that if I ever send money back here, I know who it will be helping and I know it will go where it is needed. I plan to do this too. Anyway after this he sent me home with a chicken, 6 eggs and a whole bucket of mandarins. This is so generous, eggs and chickens are the most expensive food you can buy...I was so touched.

Everytime im having hard time here, missing home, feeling unproductive, something like this will happen to remind me why I'm here. The education we're giving the students, even if they only take in little bits of it, is so important and hopefully what they learn from us will help them to protect themselves from the same fate that has claimed so many of their brothers, sisters, mothers, grandparents and children. This is what i hope anyway..

Hmmm...other than this, just been deflecting marriage proposals (one guy was a little too serious...haha), trying to explain why i'm not christian (a concept hard to understand in this extremely religious village) and trying not to be so clumsy...i can't count how many times ive knocked hot water or food off our stove, quite dangerous really haha.

Only 5 or so weeks left in village, big events in the next few weeks and lessons as normal. Looovvee zxxx

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