Catholicism...sponsored by Coke!

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Hello All!

I hope you enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend. My second week of volunteering ended up great. I introduced the concept of playing games in class to reinforce what I've taught. They students were skeptical at first but by the end of the day Frank told me that he felt challenged and the games were a good way to make him think. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet or not but all of the volunteers have noticed that the students here do not do a lot of independent. It seems most teaching is done by writing something on the board and having the students copy it down. I'm trying to avoid that at all costs but do end up putting vocabulary on the board and then try to demonstrate concepts and use real life examples. I've noticed a difference with my students in just a week. I can't tell you how lucky I am to have the Safari college as my placement.

Some of the other volunteers have shared their stories and it breaks my heart. There is a local orphanage here that just kicked out all of the volunteers. I'm not sure why other than our volunteers have complained to CCS staff about the lack of care provided by the workers there. Our Mama Betty went to talk to the owner of the orphanage and she responded my saying that the CCS volunteers there can't come back. There are 3 and they are furious! First, because there isn't enough care for the children even with them there and they know if they leave there won't be anyone who plays with the children. Second, because it's so frustrating that this woman won't take constructive criticism. If anyone reading this is thinking of putting their child (or volunteering at) Light in Africa orphanage in Moshi please think twice!!! Every day when I get in the van, and again at dinnertime some of the volunteers ask me to tell stories about my day. My students are so funny and some of the achievements they make help to inspire the other volunteers. I found out that two of my students will be finished with their studies at the end of the month. I didn't know that they both are living in a hostel in Moshi, away from family, and paying a lot of money to attend this school. I feel like I need to be doing more to prepare them for the outside world. Frank is worried about finding a job and I told him about internships and told him that might be something for him to consider. And Friday at the internet cafe I helped Marupa research scholarships for American universities because he wants to come to the US. I've really built up a rapport with them where they are finally asking me questions and talking a lot more. Marupa asked if it were possible to mail things from the US to Africa like books. I told him yes and asked him if he wanted me to send him something when I got home. You will not believe what he asked for - a computer. I guess it's not too surprising but I explained that it was very expensive and hard to ship. We were walking by a computer store so we went in to see how much they cost here. A basic desktop is $450 so I told them I would think about it. I would love to buy them computers but I worry about it getting stolen from them at the hostel, and what would happen if it broke. Also, could they afford to buy software. Sorry to drone on about this but these are the things on my mind this weekend. I told them to think over the weekend of other items (cheaper things) they might want from the US so they promised to do that. 😊

I skipped the Kili hike on Saturday and took the opportunity to be very lazy. My stomach has decided to revolt a little bit and I thought it would be nice to hang out at home while everyone else was away. My roomie Katie and I hung out, read, wrote postcards and tried to get a suntan. We are so close to the equator you'd think that wouldn't be a problem but for some reason we aren't really getting much sun. The sun is strong but I don't even need sunscreen, it's strange. We'd all gone out to dinner on Friday night to this awesome Indian restaurant called El Rancho. It's an Indian place with a Mexican name that serves the best pizza in town. Go Figure. Seriously, all the restaurants in town have over 100 items on their menu. No joke. It takes about 2 hours to get your food so we joke that they only know how to make a few of the items and they have to call other chefs to figure out how to cook the rest and that's why it takes so long. I don't know, I find that my mind is really turning a little crazy here.

Today I went to the local Catholic church with two other volunteers. We were told that it was close so we left 15 minutes before the service. 45 minutes later we showed up at a concrete shack that was a church, but not the Catholic church. 15 minutes later after hiking up a hill and walking through peoples houses we found the church. Seriously, people are so nice. Two gentlemen who spoke English came over to help us find our way and one let us cut through his house to get to the back gate of church. When we arrived the childrens mass was just ending. The kids were so cute and after mass they all stared at us and some just walked up to us to touch us. An old woman grabbed my hand and greeted me. I responded and then she said a bunch of Swahili that I didn't understand but she touched her heart and then mine and bowed to me. It was so touching and it felt like she was welcoming me. We stayed for the next mass and it was interesting. Surprisingly, the format was a little different, and much longer, but we followed along as best we could. The best was the choir - Mom, yo would have loved it! They stood and clapped and swayed and played instruments. They were amazing. The strangest thing was that the women sat on one side and the men on the other. I don't know why but they did. People also clapped when they liked something the priest said. During the homily he said something about muzungus and pointed to us and then in English said, "Have you seen it? If not, someone will show you." Luckily two girls who work at CCS were at the service and explained it to us. They also showed us a shortcut home so we were thankful.

Well, that's all for now. We're having another blackout - 3rd day in a row so we need to conserve energy. Miss you all!

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