Day 11

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My last day of volunteering--bittersweet. Saying goodbye to my students was tough--especially the little ones, but I won't miss the long walk. And it's a milemarker that means I'm one step closer to seeing my husband. I nearly cry when I walk into my classroom at Jecaan. In such a short time, I've really grown to love my work here and I understand how much these kids could use an opportunity like this--to be able to color and sing and have fun and be praised. I give my last lesson, "E is for elephant" and the kids get to color an elephant and we go through the alphabet phonetically one last time. We sing Old McDonald and I give the extra copies of the worksheets to Teacher R as I have each day and she's just as thankful as she was the first day. But, I decided before I came here that on my last day I would give her all the supplies I brought at the dollar store--3 sets of crayons, 48 colors each, 3 sets of 3 gluesticks, (unused since I didn't bring scissors and they didn't have any so there was nothing to glue-had to pray that they get scissors so the glue will be useful somehow) and 3 sets of flashcards-sight words, addition and subtraction. She is so overjoyed she is nearly crying when I give them to her. She hugs them to her chest and the look on her face is a mixture of joy, surprise, and humility. "God bless you" she says. And I cried. Something that was so simple and so easy to buy for me, was such a treasure to her. We have tea and scones and the kids go play outside. Just as they're finishing, A comes in and we take pictures and he takes a video of me leading the class in "If You're Happy and You Know It" and then I leave....

In my last Adult English class, we reviewed the lessons I had taught and had a debate on whether or not HIV should be kept confidential (No HIPAA in Tanzania). Both sides come up with some interesting points, but one in particular was rather striking. One young man who was on the side arguing that it should not be kept confidential, gave the reason that it's just a normal disease, like malaria, gonorrhea, or syphilis. I was shocked! I didn't realize how very unaware they were about protection against these diseases. It's so heavily taught and promoted in the US that it's just second nature to me. I relay that story to T at dinner and she mentions she'll be teaching an HIV awareness class twice a week--it's quite needed. On the way back to the hotel from class, I get to take a picture with a Masai man in his tribal dress--too cool. I tell him how I mistook his brother for him at the bar Saturday night and he laughs. Back at the hotel, I get ready for dinner and I look forward to 3 day vacation to Zanzibar!

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