A long update

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its been a long time since i last updated ... probably around 3 weeks or closer to a month. that is actually really crazy for me to think about not being around a computer ... i don't think i have been away from a computer this long ever since ... well ever ... ever since my first computer when i was probably 10 years old in our apartment in Haifa.

So what have i been up to? /

well i have been reading A LOT!!! here is my list so far since i arrived here and more shall join before i leave. There is a cute small library in the school so i got to read a lot, plus when you don't have computers or tvs you start thinking of other ways to keep yourself busy in the quiet nights. That is why reading became such a great part of our night activities but we also had a guitar there and i learned new cords and new songs which is always good 😊 so here is my list so far, the first 3 i brought from back home 😊
1.The Hobbit
2.Man's Search for Meaning
3.Atlas Shrug (my all time favorite and a must read)
4.The Host
5.The Giver
6.Lightning
7.Isable's Bed
8.Ivy Chronicles
9.The Eternal City
10. A is for Alibi
11. J is for Judgment
12. N is for Noose
13.The Witches
14.The Chronicles of Narnia- The Magicians Nephew (number 1)

Now to the more interesting updates of what actually happened in school. well lets starting with first reaching there ...

well we reached shamba (which actually just stands for a field or a farm) of hananasif academy after riding in two daladalas (buses). now i want to tell you all about the buses ... so the buses are probably meant for no more then 30 people but we were at least 50 on it. it was like dominoes you guys ... if someone from the back needed to get off the bus n the whole bus had to shift itself in a weird way so the person can pass. The smell, oh i wish you can all smell it ... they don't really use deodorant in here so the whole bus is full of different body odor and because they all pick their arms up in order to hold to the poll on top you get a good weefe every second!!! now if you get lucky you get a sit half way through the ride and then you get to have someone sitting on your lap ... thank god in our case it was Emily that had her back pack on and almost squished the face of the baby that was sitting on his mother right next to me with a look as if he saw a ghost. now just to clarify the ghost was us ... 7 white people riding the bus! we finally got off in the main bus station and had to look for our other group that came on a bus after us because we could not all fit like sardines inside the bus we came in. we finally found them after million stares by the locals and headed with another bus to our village ... the ride was interesting ... i had the cleavage of an older woman in my face half the ride and on the other half i got the privates of a gentlemen about 10 inches from my face ... if you wonder which one was better ... till today i am not sure they were both equally bad, both equally uncomfortable for me

When we finally got to our village, we got off the bus ... the other volunteers went to buy some home made breads/donates on the street and we started our walk to the truck, the walk was not so bad it was actually pretty cool with the beautiful colors of the yellows and greens of the area plus some beautiful trees and flowers. we reached the river that the truck was waiting for us across and thank goodness it was not flooded we crossed it and the truck gave us a ride the rest of the way. it was quite funny because the trees kept hitting all the volunteers in the face/body and you kept hearing people scream from shock and pain of the incoming items. When we finally reached the school everyone took a deep long breath saying “ we survived” and then we went to the office to grab the bags that the truck brought earlier today so we didn't have to carry it on the dalla dallas and our bottles of water because we cannot drink the water from the river like the locals. After grabbing our bags we headed to our rooms and divided the sleeping arrangements. Emily and I got big bed in the guest room with the kitchen we were kind of glad we didn't have to sleep on the floor with the mattresses but i think they gave us the big bed because we are older and they felt bad for our poor backs ha ha i didn't complain.

The next morning the group started working once again at building the girls formatter while Emily and i headed to talk to the head master about our plan of teaching for the upcoming month. the next few days we had many interesting experiences ... from a wise grasshopper which i took bunch of pictures of ... a scorpion bite that stung yuan, to many jokes about accents ... i actually loved hanging out with them even though they were a bit younger. they came from all over the world and i got closer to a few of them, Julie and Tina from French and Germany though one goes to school in japan and the other in england. we also started a soccer team ... something mazungas which means white ha ha ... lets just say the local girls kicked our ass BUTTTT i got a goal ... the only goal we got actually. the first part of the game i was the goalie and then i became an offensive player ... me and Emily went toward their goal and kept passing to each other saying, “you shoot. no you shoot. no you shoot “ so i finally kicked it and it actually went in. i think its because the girls didn't know what was happening and were confused but hey at least it was 3-1 and not 3-0 ha ha. we also played with them again even though we were a bit sick that day all of us but they were only able to get a 0-1 and it was an offside which was unfair but the referee was totally on their side ahhh.

I also became the champion of Bao, the local game. i was able to win everyone including the academic master which is told to be the best. they all wanted to play with me when they saw everyone losing it was quite fun and got me closer to the male teachers. why did i say male teachers only? well apparently girls don't learn this game nor want to play it because it has too much math and thinking so they are not encouraged to learn how to play it ... i found it so disturbing that i started teaching a few female students how to play it well the ones that wanted to learn how! so now a few days before i left they told me they will make me my own set of bao that is actually easily to play with. you see i bought one but its so small comparing to the one in the school ... its nicer looking well way nicer looking but its not easy to play with because the holes are too small and the pebbles are as well small ... the one in school is not as pretty but its playable and that is all that matters ... so now i am excited to get it when we come back from our traveling.

As for teaching i was assigned a business project class as well as math classes. i absolutely adore my business class! those kids are so bright and they want to change the world, starting with Tanzania of course. i got to teach them all this business concepts that i remembered from my economics classes that i took as well as with the help of the books in the schools library. we came up with a project that has to do with growing vegetables and using local resources and we talked about net profits and how it needs to be put back in the business in different percentages as the time goes. so now when i head back to the US i will have to fund raise around 400 dollars for the project to start ... hopefully in the late September when they come back to school from a one week vacation. my math class was also cute but was harder to teach ... i guess in my business class i was given the older students as well as students that speak great English while in my math class they weren't as good at language skills i got the younger classes. i had to teach them different tricks and show them different things because i guess their teachers taught them differently but they didn't really understand. at times i was really frustrated because i couldn't understand why the teacher keep advancing in math if the kids didn't understand the previous topics but i guess thats one of the many things they need to change in the educational system here. after a while i decided to make it more fun for the class and divided the students to 4 different teams. every class i would make a contest between the teams and who ever can solve the most equations will receive a prize. the prize was a handmade bracelet by no other person by me ... it was hard to think of what to give them considering we were in the middle of no where and the only thing i could think of is that Emily and i bought strings a few days before we got here ha ha.

Another great experience we had is that we got to teach an STD class that we wrote. we divided the boys and the girls to different sessions and we started with the girls. the class started with asking them what is sex both boys and girls answered its a way to get babies.. we explained that its not the only reason people have sex and then went future more into explain what sex is actually unlike what they thought that its just intercourse ... we explained about the different types of sex and a few of them looked really shocked ha ha. we then talked about the advantages and disadvantages of having sex which was interesting because they all thought it was mainly for starting a family ... imagine their face when we told them it was also about pleasure. one of the girls actually said its a way to earn money which i found interesting because even though its also true in America no one would have said that as an option out loud in the American classes. we then explained about the common STD you can get and how you can get them and last we explained about condoms and then there was a presentation of how to put a condom correctly. which was presented on a big cucumber ha ha. the girls were giggly and it was really adorable ... after the presentation we opened the floor for questions and they asked a lot about oral sex and as well as homosexual relations ... how did we get into homosexual relations questions? well they asked how else can you get pregnant unless you have sex? so we responded with artificial inseminations and they asked who does that and why so we explained about cancer patients as well as some gay couples.

With the boys we did the exactly same presentation but the questions they asked were quite different. they asked how come man get erection and how come they cannot control it. they also asked about homosexual relations but they asked why would they do that? they were under the misconception that gay people don't get an erection and they do not enjoy the sex. i feel like we answered the questions as truly as possible and as straight to the point. we explained that gay sex is pleasurable and that its not something that one can control if they are gay or not. we explained that they enjoy sex as much as straight people and they get turned on by males as much as a straight male get turned on by a female. we explained more ab out oral sex because there were a few more questions ... oh i just remembered a good question one of the students said that he heard that if a girl has a big vagina then he could not get STDs while if a girl has a small one he could. we told him that is not correct and that he can get STDs no matter the size of the female genitalia.

I also had the opportunity to take emilys art class which was so much fun. i made bunch of drawing/painting that hopefully will get back to the US with me. she also wanted to teach them all about shading so she asked me to be a model for her in the class ... now you know how much i love when people stare at me ... not ... but if it was for a good cause i was up to it! so here i am being all adhd not being able to move for an hour and a half ... but hey at least i got a nice drawing to put on my wall back home of me by one of the students.

What else there is so much to tell you guys. we cooked a lot when we could but ah the food kind of ran out and then we had to eat with the teachers which meant rice and beans you guys and if we walked an hour each side to the next village we could get oranges ... now you would think in Africa one can lose weight but let me tell you I'm scared i even gained weight here all we eat is carbs ... im like dying ... i wont be able to have Mexican food for at least a year with all the rice and beans we have been eating here ha ha. the breakfast is good here though i became a fan of mandaze which is kind of like the sufgania which is what jews eat on Hanuka its like this jelly donut but with out the jelly ... i know it doesn't sound amazing but heck its not rice nor beans so its pretty yummy if you ask me ha ha. and one day we decided to go get cassavas which are very fiberish roots that are like potatoes ... so we walk for like 25 minutes toward the coconut tree just to see this little farm that was so cute with chickens running around ... we had to look for the lady of the house and found her next to the river. the river was sooo beautiful with floating flowers like you see in all those romantic movies. then nema which is one of the students that i adore told us not to get too close to the water because it has crocodiles in it ha ha. i was also told a story that on rainy days there are hippos coming out of the river and once they chased after one of the female students in the school ha ha ... i mean its kind of funny to picture but i would be scared shitless if it was me and i know it. so there we are asking her for cassavas ... well i didn't know much about cassavas until then but apparently its this really deep root ... so we ask her for like 1000 shillings worth which is like 80 cents ... you guys she kept pilling it up ... she must have given us at least 10 kilos of it ... we could not believe it. so we walk back to the school as the sun is setting singing bunch of songs ... and nema carrying the cassavas in a bag on her head ... she wouldn't let us carry it ... and Emily said its actually safer for your back to carry it on your head rather then in your hands. that nigh t we cooked one cassavas just to find out that its harder then it looks to cook those roots. Emily cooked it one more time the next morning and we gave up on it and gave it to the students to it ha ha.

so talking about crocodiles it brought up the issue of animals ... you guys have no idea what kind of animals i have dealt with there. you know me i am such a chicken but you guys back home its nothing comparing to what we went through ... so at first i shall name the nonthreatening animals we had as pets or passer buy. one of my favorite was the stick bug which i took bunch of pictures of ... it just looks like a stick but its actually a bug. it was a really windy day and we decided to keep him in our restroom till he can walk outside free with no worry. another one came as a knock on my door, a man was holding a baby bunny tied up ... i couldn't let him make that bunny suffer he was so scared and looked so sad. so Emily and i decided to keep it as a pet for a few days till we can figure out what to do with him. so we made him a cave from rocks we found out side! problem was when we went to dinner when we came back we couldn't find him. the next day we asked the male teachers to come help us take him out because he was hiding behind emilys bed, he caught him and we released him into the wild ... you guys have no seen a bunny hoop so fast like that little guy did. he cost Emily and i 5000 shillings and we had him for less then a day.

now to the list of not so happy pets

lets start with the scorpion that at first stung Yuan, he of course killed him but he had bunch of symptoms. 2 weeks later guess who got stung? lucky me ... i got stung in the thumb and i lost sensation and control of it. i felt a warm itching sensation going up my arm and i became really tired. now i guess i need to explain its not like we can just go to the hospital here we are at least 3 hours away ... and well the scorpion didn't kill Yuan so i figured i was safe. well with hurting finger and being really tired i fell a sleep but Emily said she made sure i was alive ha ha ... that bugger took all my energy away from me ... and luckily Emily found him and crushed him! ha that is what he deserved if you ask me.

Second bad pet would be our little bats that came at night and slept in top of emilys net ha ha. every night 1 bat would come flying around even with the light on ... we would just hide underneath our nets till he goes ... later to find out that he brings friends with him and sleeps above emilys net. she then told me how they found that bats gives you rabies so we had to close all outside holes for the guest house which finally worked ha ha.

Last and worst were the rats! well its more mice but they are evil. so one day a few days after the other volunteers left Emily finds poop pebbles above her nets ... and i mean lots of them. then she said she heard the rats running on her net at night and decides to jump into my bed which is a queen size and sleep there because she is scared. in the middle of the night i hear a scream and i say whattttt a and she said i felt something walking on my leg. so me being rational i said ... well i just moved my blanket its probably what you felt ... two seconds later i felt something on my leg. so now i am thinking its must be her blanket when she jumped ... i move the net which is suppose to protect us from the outside mosquitoes and such and there there is a mice running on the net ... we freak out and run out side. now keep in mind its about 3 in the morning and we have no idea what the heck to do. i finally decide that we have to wake someone up because i am not spending the night outside the room looking in through the windows. we woke up the 2 male teachers and they came in and found a mice and he ran out the door just past me that i jumped so high i don't think someone my weight is even capable of doing! they then head back to bed when we see another one and they come back and well there was one casualty. Emily and i were freaked out and headed to sleep in the truck but the doors were locked ... so we stayed outside for a few hours ha ha and finally went inside when it was light ... i got to sleep about 3 hours i believe from around 6 till 9. i did get to see the sunrise which was beautiful colors. now in the house of being awake i had the chance to think ... now mice they don't come in 2s so i figured there are many more where they come from. the next few days was me not sleeping till the light was out and being freaked out by the noises of the little mice running around our room. though Emily and i didn't give up and we started blocking all the holes in the walls. we figured they were coming from the attic of our room/roof and i also upgraded my bed with bunch of wood sticks that if the mice did come close to me i would not feel them touching my legs. i also got a serious tuckage by Emily every night, she shoved the mosquito net so deep underneath the mattress that it took me at least a min of pulling every morning in order to get out of the bed ... oh yeah and she returned to her bed now that it was mice free our room.

oh so yeah another exciting thing that happened is that the solar panels actually worked well this time and we got to have electricity all over school! i got to charge my phone and ipod and enjoy not going to sleep every night around 8. it just made life so much easier having light though it kind of killed part of the night for me because well ah before they worked so well we used to walk around just looking at the stars. i mean you guys don't even understand the stars you can see here. first of all you can see the milky way so clearly here and all the million stars around it. on a day with out the moon so bright you can see them all just shining at you. and on the day the moon is up and bright you don't even need a flashlight to walk in the darkness because its so bright ...i was telling Emily its gods flash lights pointing at us looking that we are being good ... yeah yeah i am silly like that because heck we are always good ha ha.

ah now talking about “light” it reminded me so there was a huge fire next to the school last week. Emily and i looked at it and freaked out it was so big at some point and there was black smoke and you can smell it everywhere. so Emily and i decided to pack up that way maybe we can leave with the truck because it was getting worst but everyone kept telling us that this is small and they can control it. now all i kept thinking is ... how the heck can you control it? i mean the water pump would take too long to keep pumping water and well there is no other source of water ... but then the guy reassured me that in 2007 there was a huge fire and it surrounded the whole school but they were able to control it and that this is tiny comparing. well Emily and i are not used to such fire 50 meters from us and when we started seeing flames we freaked out ha ha but then all of a sudden we saw the kids heading to the fire and they actually put most of it out. how you might ask yourself ... by cutting tree branches full of leafs and hitting the fire with it! talk about cost affective way ... maybe we should learn back from them at home. anyways after an hour or so the fire was out and we were safe to stay ... ohhh and during that time Emily and i took two videos ... its something we do we record things that are happening to us these days, from like trying a new fruit, to shamba cribs, to our classrooms and such ... i even did a cooking one where i showed what i cooked for dinner one day ... that one was funny.

Other things i am getting used to and half enjoying at this point is ... going to the restroom in a hole ... its quite interesting oh yeah and you kind of learn how to pee standing up ... have you tried to do that ? i am so happy about that new found skill i am sure it will make camping a whole lot easier when i am back in the states. and showers oh you guys don't even understand ... after a while you totally learn how to enjoy bucket showers ... they are actually quite refreshing ... most of the time the water is really cold unless you go during the day if you have time so the water in the river warm up with the sun ... or if you leave a few buckets out so the sun will warm them up then its warm but other then that they are pretty cold. so yeah the first splash is sooo cold but after that its becoming nice and refreshing and you kind of learn to dig it ... i might even miss it when i am back home ... but don't quote me on it ha ha. i also learned to deal with doing laundry by hand and putting it out to dry. i mean i actually did my laundry today even though now we are back in the city. anyways there is actually a few more articles of cloths out side right now because its night and they haven't really dried out just yet ... i am wondering maybe i should take them in actually ... oh well but yeah i totally now know how to clean my cloths by hand how to soap them and take the soap out even though never really completely because it seems impossible. and gosh dude the cloths get soooo dirty here i mean after you put maybe like 6 items in the water the water becomes dark black thats how much dusk is happening around here.

wow this entry is really long you guys ... hope i am not boring you guys too much its just lots have happened i am sure lots more then i am telling you right now but its hard to remember it all and its kind of late and the lap top i borrowed from Hezekiah is life half size so its so hard to type so you guys better appreciate ... anyways we got back in town two nights ago, back to our $6.50 a night guest house which i don't know if i told you but apparently in Africa a place you call a guest house is usually a place guys bring their girlfriends or hookers to ha ha. god knows what have been happening on the bed i am at this moment sitting on. anyways so now that we are back in town we are eating lots of vegis and fruits. we even invented a new sandwich called “anything you can get your hands on sandwich” which means literally what the name says. we put avocados, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, and sometimes even papaya with lime and salt yummy.

yesterday we also headed out to munagi which is the carving village and got to look at hand crafted things and after that headed to the westernized mall and you guys guess what ... i saw harry potter! they finally got it in and i was like a small kid when i saw that they have it so Emily, David and i went to see it. we also got to buy things in the market and we got nuttala and peanut butter and nice bread which is extremely exciting for us considering its usually as i said rice and beans or if we are lucky vegis and fruits. we got on the dalla dalla back pretty late which was kind of scary but we were happy with our purchases. oh by the way the nuttala was for the kids because we decided to treat them to something good so tonight for dessert we made them chapati with nuttala and bananas ... they seemed to have loved it and said thank you ... which is a big deal because in Africa they rarely say that!

anyways i should head to bed its almost 11 at night and i shall post it tomorrow morning from the office. ah i will try to come online as much as i can which should be easier then the past 3 weeks because we are planning on traveling next. we are actually heading to the city tomorrow to talk to some traveling agencies we are thinking of heading to a safari, then head up north to Moshi which is a small little town with bunch of villages around then head to Arusha and then hopefully to Kenya if we have enough time but i guess we will be smarter tomorrow.

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Comments

[alexis]

Wow Liron! It sounds like your learning a lot, and having many different experiences! We miss you lots, and can't wait to see you! The kids response to STDs was really interesting..do the guys think that if you rape a girl, they will get rid of aids? I have heard that many times before! Be safe, have fun, and can't wait to see you when you get home!