A step toward a better future

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Its been rough first days i must admit in Africa. Just with the culture shock and the bad luck of cutting my leg and then getting it infected to the whole stealing my money but now i think i know a bit better.

I had good past two days. I guess i just had to accept it that its just going to be harder here and not as comfortable. i mean i always knew it in theory but its one thing to know and one thing to go through it. So the past two days were pretty good i got to hang out with the kids more now that i am not as jet lagged. They taught me how to make new kinds of bracellets which now i know how to do pretty well! And they kept making ones for themselves. I started taking pictures now but will take much more in the future. i want to put up some but i have to figure out how to do it so i think i am just going to do it on facebook!

I was helping this kids out in math and chemistry and it was actually very suprising. I think they knew better math then the kids i teach in America and sadly they dont even have resources to do so well. I mean the kids had everything memorize from the basic rules to the more complicated ones! You can see that the ones that want to learn REALLY want it. Like they WANTED me to teach them on sunday! SUNDAY!!! i can barely get the kids i tutor to study during the week let alone during the weekend which is resting time!

It seems that most of the older kids that have a decent amount of knowledge want to become engeeniers of some sort so they can come back and help their country. It was great to see so many young persons wanting it and wanting to help their people out ... i dont think we really get to see much of the team spirit in america. hence it was my pleasure to teach them during the weekend ... what else we already had a birthday party and that was really fun. some church members heard that one of the orphaners had a birthday so they brought a cake and soda and donated rice and wheat and salt to the orphange which was great and the kids were so happy. you could hear them singing from probably miles away! I then proceeded to have my first hair wash in Africa ... that included me staning bend over and "mama" which is the mother of the house pouring refreshing cold water on me ... then me putting soup and her pouring more water until its clean ... then i went and wash myself in the "bathroom" which really included a room that was suppose to be a showeroom but have no running water so i was washing myself ith a bucket and a glass. Its actually getting easier and faster. like you have to learn the order of things ... like dont put soup in the clean water because then you cant brush your teeth later during the shower and so on ... i learn something new every day what can i say 😊

Other then that i have been eating lots of fruits now that i know it makes me feel better then the local food. I mean ugali is good and all but ah i cant handle much of it ... but i eat that with beans i mean i would prefer rice but i found out rice is more expensive and thats why most of the time they have ugali instead of rice ... Mama has been really nice and been making me too much food which i cant eat that much! like eggs and salad (which i had to teach them what it is because they dont really have that concept here of cutting a few vegis together and putting some lemon and salt ... see i even educate them on food ha ha) i told her when emily comes we will cook them some meal one day so they get a feel of what we tend to eat ... i am thinking maybe salsa? and a good salad or something because vegis here and fruits tase SOOO much better then the US! and are quite cheap ... thoug sometimes not so much... i payed about 40 cents per apple which i think is about the same as trader joes which is considered more on the pricey side!

Me and hazakia are talking about ways to deal with the local problems. like this place is really really corrapted ... they wanted him to close the school because he wouldnt brib the officers which is SO wrong! I mean the guy is helping out kids with this money and feeding them and you want him to pay you so you will pass it quietly? I mean come on! That really got me mad. We were working on marketing ideas anyways because we are going to planet some watermalons next week and tomatos in the school! we also were talking about dripping system where i offered him to do it specific way (no i cannot take credit for it is a common way in america) and he loved the idea ... which was funny because its the ordeniery way we do it in America!

On another note i heard that they kids dont know much about STDs. when i talked to a few of them they actually thought that condoms only prevent pregnancies and not STDS! i was shock to hear that so i wrote up a class to teach in the school next week and Hazakia loved it! so now that Emily will come which is in 2 days and i am so excited ... we will go through the class together and twick some things out and then teach it to girls and guys separtly so they can ask questions and feel comfortable! As i said Hazakia loved it and said that we must train a few of their teachers to teach that class so when we are gone they will have continious education about it! I think its a great idea ... 😊

Other then that i met two american girls today that came with the family they are staying with. They are both going to volunteer in the hospitals around the city for the next 2 months i believe. i found out then that they will be in zanzibar the same time Emily and I will be there but they are going with their programs so we exchanged numbers and we can probably be with them and their programes they said! It felt so good to meet other people from the US that have been ehre for a while. It was also nice to know i am not the only one with stomach aches but they told me it will pass in a day or 2 ( it takes about a week for the body to get used to it).

Anyways I should go now ... but i miss home ... my family ... my puppies ... my friends ... and the AC ha ha... love you all and stay in touch !

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Comments

[Boaz]

drip irrigation
Wow...it seems like they could use help in all aspects of life. I don't know what landscape you're in...but take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_irrigation It's really great that you are there helping them out! love, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz