Im so sorry about my rubbishness of blogging but I have been in the middle of nowhere.....

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Ok, so an update, for practically the last month. I have my excuses. I havent been near a computer for a while...also apologies for the lack of apostrophies....i cant find them on this exotic tanzanian keyboard. So I guess, there is a lot to update you with.

We finished pre field training at Peacehouse, splitting up into practise teaching groups to work out how we were going to teach various groups of people..... village elders, school kids etc etc. Finally we got split into our REAL teaching groups for the villages. MARUVANGO is my village, i have a group with 6 other volunteers, 3 other americans and myself, as well as two teaching partners.... We moved to the ward of Leguruki - and moved into our homestays.... Baba Marco is my dad, he is a farmer, has a whole load of children, a cows..,. and goats. My mama thinks Im fluent in swahili...clearly im good at bluffing nodding my head, pretending I know what she is on about....

Took a while in the villages to sort everything out - meeting with the village chair person, organising school timetables etc etc, as well as getting used to village life and a whole load of walking in our sexy african skirts - no exposure of knee boobs, shoulder boobs or boob boobs allowed!! Getting used to getting covered in dirt and dust, bucket showers and using the cho - a hole in the ground in a shed - yes, that is my toilet!! So we did our first 2 lessons to primary school kids - one to 87 kids and the next to 98 girls about reproductive health - when I go back to the villages tomorrow, there will be a lot more to cover as well as more to secondary school and a football team, who also provided me with 5 marriage proposals. Also managed to teach a church group, after having to sit through a 4 hr service of a whole load of hallelujahssss. waaa

Food wise - a lot of rice, greens, maize, potatoes...CARRRRRRBS. and no chocolate. but a whole load of bananas.....leading to several days constipation. pahaha However foreign bowel movements also go the other way....unfortunately.... had a nice visit to a swanky clinic in Arusha. Others have been ill too, emma got malaaaaria, but no cheryl cole moment, she is ok now!!

Just had a long weekend in Arusha - went on a Three day safari, which was incredible to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro crater, and hopefully heading to Zanzibar in 10days, when our next weekend break is....after that 9 more days in the villages where we hope to set up community days and testing days.... I will keep you informed. i hope.

and if anyone wants to text my tnz phone, i will reply - just ask james or m or d for my number. messages are greatly received..... i will always reply from under my mozzie net after a lonnnng day in the village 😊 xxxxx

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