Another day of teaching

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Monday morning we came back from the hostel. Gotta love those dala dala rides! It was time to lesson plan again before our next class. About 20 kids were absent from before, and about 30 more kids were there- up to 130! We're planning to take role every day because there is no other way to keep track of the children. The school systems definitely do not have an up-to-date list of who is in school.We gave out a pre-test on HIV to see what the kids know already or what they think, so those should be interesting to review. I've learned a lot about the stigma that comes along with HIV here. People are so religious that they think HIV is a punishment from God, but that it can also be cured by the prayers of a priest. In addition, husbands are rarely monogamous, and it is common to sleep with prostitues. Also, they do not see the benefits of using condoms. Let's give a sarcastic shout-out to a male-dominate society.

In class we started into cell biology and blood and how HIV affects the immune system. On Wednesday we'll finish up the lesson on how the immune system fights pathogens. We went to site after lunch to tutor. Frank helped translate, and we worked together with Ema. He currently has ameobas and typhoid, which was a struggle. We also did site work today. Yay for digging more holes! I have blisters and am starting to get callouses from all the shoveling.

Juliet told me she'd teach me how to cook wali (rice) tonight. She can cook it in twenty different ways- it never gets old. After watching the sunset over the village from the top of this hill, one of the girls and I walked back to our homes. It was nice hanging out in the kitchen with the girls. Rice was fun to help with. I walked outside to look at the stars. They don't understand my wonderment with the vastness of the night sky. There are MILLIONS of stars, and they are all so visible without the lights of a city- without any lights, rather.

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