December - The beginning of Feb

Going all the way back to Xmas… The holidays were spent at my site, Xmas in the village consists of going to church all day to sing and dance while stuffing yourself with rice and meat between breaks. The New Year was spent with some friends and my fiancé at Matema Beach – Lake Malawi or Lake Nyasa – it’s really close to Mbeya, depending on the roads and buses only about 5 hours. It was a great trip, absolutely gorgeous!! On New Year’s Eve day, we all hiked to this beautiful waterfall, a great way to bring in the New Year.

After the holidays, Paul (my fiancé) came to my village for work leave to help me start a tree garden with the Environment Committee we planted 6 different types of trees – however, I just went to check it out and only 3 out of the 6 grew but apparently that’s great for tree seeds. In Jan. I also attempted to teach English, but it was just not good timing because there were funerals EVERYDAY preventing people from being able to come. In Tz when someone dies it’s generally a 3 day event and people will stop all their work and spend all day with the families, some may even stay the night, whether they knew the person that passed away or not. I am still asked frequently when I will teach English again but I think I will wait on that because it is not really a priority for me.

Together with Bibi Kili, we have started a People Living with HIV AIDS (PLWHA) group – the 1st one ever in the village. The group initially started with only 3 members, but we are now up to 7. It may not seem like much but it is a huge accomplishment because the biggest challenge here is fear and stigma causing those living with the disease to not come out and reach for help. Right now, my main goal for the group is for them to learn about the disease they are living with, and how to continue living a healthy long life. Later we will focus on fears, stigma, income generating projects, and anything else that may be of interest to them. Around our 4th meeting, I read a very emotional and touching letter my amazing uncle wrote to share with the group about living with HIV. It really inspired all the members (as well as myself) and helped them to realize if you are living with HIV it is not a death sentence – it is possible to continue living a happy and healthy life! We have a great group, they are all motivated, they really want to learn about HIV, and want to help themselves.

In Jan, I held a meeting with the village officials to share some ideas I had for the future. During one of my 1st meetings, people expressed the needs for a water system – preferably pipes as oppose to wells. For that project, a water engineer must come out to the village and survey the land to see if it is possible. Before the water engineer can come to the village, a water committee needs to be established to show we are serious about this problem and to express the village’s ideas and concerns about the current water situation and why the village needs a water bomba system. The committee has been started – there are 8 members half male, half female and we have our first meeting next week.

Currently there is not group or committee organized to help Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs). Together with Mama Stella we have gathered all the names of the OVCs within the village and hope to start a group in the near future. The aim of the group will be to provide support and help for the OVCs through education, income generating projects, and receiving help from various NGOs in Mbeya and from the district office as well.

The School Feeding Project is slowly on its way - I have talked with the teachers but still have not been able to schedule a meeting with the school committee and parents. My school is not the most organized and although the teachers are good people, they are not the most motivated to help more or less teach their own students.

I started teaching at the primary school in late Jan - I'm starting with HIV/AIDs and then will move in to more Life Skills, other health topics, nutrition, and environment. The first lesson was the Bridge Model which introduces Life Skills - it is definitely the most difficult for me to teach as well as the kids to understand which was a little discouraging but every lesson after that has been great the students are really getting involved and opening up much more. I also started teaching at the secondary school - again starting with HIV/AIDS and will move on to different topics later. The secondary school is about 5K one way from my house so I'm only teaching on the first and last Tuesday of each month. All the students are great and the teachers seem more motivated and wanting to help there students more so than the primary school. The first lesson went incredibly well the form 4 students even started to get into a debate over different questions I was asking, it was great watching them discuss the topic between themselves and not just with me.

My time is about to run out I'll update more later about Valentine's Day, International Woman's Day, and my trip to Dodoma..

And for those who didn't see on Facebook - Paul proposed to me and we hope to have our wedding at the end of July at Utengule in Mbeya TZ!