Blogs from Usa River, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 2

The start of the educational piece of the malaria initiative took place on Saturday morning - I did a speech/presentation to roughly 75 kids at Lukendane, discussing what malaria is, how it's contracted, the importance of preventative methods, and the seriousness of the disease... I had a translator and talked for about 30 minutes, than we did a "community clean up" for an hour after the talk. My logic behind this was that if we can reduce the number of resevoirs that are host to many bugs, including mosquitoes, than we can overall reduce the density of mosquitoes present which in turn will lower the prevalence of malaria. There is SO much trash here and by teaching the young generation of the importance of not littering and keeping the community clean, it may help to change ... read more

Saturday, May 28th @ 5:45pm Well, I've been introuduced to the place -- very interesting. Yesterday was the first day that I walked around, and I was with Moody -- he's a Tanzanian guy that also runs Tamiha. Turns out he is of about 3 people here that speak English.. hm. We walked to all the Tamiha projects and through Usa River, which turns out to be much bigger than I expected. The roads are dirt (or mud) and are so bumpy i have no idea how people drive (they acutally dont, theres like 5 cars here). Everyone walks, some ride bikes, and not necessarily in Usa River, but towards Arusha there are people with motorbikes. There is heaps of plants and trees, very green and beautiful, but they ruin it by littering EVERYWHERE. This place ... read more

Monday, May 30th 2011 @ 1030pm I'm laying in bed after the longest day yet. I'm quite up and down with feelings all day everyday. I miss home like never before but I am getting more comfortable here. I know that this will be such a great experience, but the thought of being near anyone I know/love is seriously tugging at my heart. I woke up at 730, had breakfast (which is a piece of plain white bread.. woo) and tea, than we walked 20 minutes to the orphanage. As soon as we walked up, the children all race to us in order to hold our hands - they will literally push each other just to get to a white hand. They break out in song (there's litterally a song for everything) and we play for ... read more

Friday, June 3rd @ 4.30pm Play Day Today was great- Friday's at the orphanage is play day, so there are no lesssons and the kids just play games all day. It is seriously the cutest thing. There were about 55 today and when we arrive, the kids are playing all over the place - soccer with punctured balls and no skin left; jump ropes that are retied and retied (except for the 2 new ones i brought) and kids with sticks and nails and trash playing with whatever the can find. There is no 'school yard'; its just an area that there are no buildings. The ground is dirt everywhere but Ana and Sabrina, the orphanage keepers use the homemade mand broom to sweep the dirt floors each day. Hm. They have a song for EVERYTHING, ... read more

Three days later, IM HERE. I'm sitting on my piece of foam bunkbed in my mosquito net, and its wonderful. Crispin was there to get me at the airport, I met some nice kids on the place; there are also 2 guys that are volunteering here as well - one Aussie and on Danish. Seem like nice kids. I came in when it was dark so I havent seen much... cant wait for tomorrow. I saw heaps of people walking/biking; women balancing massive loads on their heads with baby in toe wrapped on their backs, and the drive here was quite terrifying... had my first african meal - vegetarian and perfect... i dont think i will have a problem with the food here, that was delish!! Time to sleep, tomorrow I have my orientation and check ... read more