Tooooo Long, Again. :-)

Well, I'm hoping to get some pictures up on here, but they seem to be taking FOR-EV-ER....so I'm not sure if that will happen. Oh well, I'll give it a few more minutes than I'm gonna quit for today. I still have two meetings before I teach at the primary school at 2:40 (and it's 12:30!) Yikes....

I'm already quite busy after just getting back from a bit of a trip. I went to Morogoro for a Community Theater Workshop. It was awesome! We learned to combine drama and BCC (Behavior Change Communication) to teach people about difficult topics. I loved the way we had to break down the problem (it's causes, side effects, etc) and I especially loved getting my acting shoes back on. I got to play a bit of a harlot in our group's play. HAHA...it was fun. I'm a bit worried my counterpart thinks I was type-casted though. The whole thing is recorded, but with the way downloading seems to be happening, I'm not sure it'll be online anytime soon. Can't wait to start a drama group here in village though. Should be lots of fun!

After Moro I went up to Tanga to be a "PCV of the Week." No, it's not a cool award or anything....sorry to disappoint you. I just got to go meet the newbies that arrived in June and help with their training a bit. It was really fun. They're a great group and are gonna do good work here! I had fun answering their questions and it was crazy to see what a difference a year makes!

Now after two weeks plus a little I'm back to work. I'm having a great time teaching again. I love teaching life skills. The last lesson i taught was about the relationship between STDs and HIV/AIDS. Did you know that in Africa you're 350% more likely to contract HIV if you have an STD? The lesson was quite serious, but we had a lot of fun with it. Who knew a basketball hoop and a washbasin could be sample vaginas? Ha....

My PLWHAs group is doing well too. The garden survived the cold and things are starting to come up! It's so exciting! Hopefully this month we'll have a guest speaker come and help us set up our rotating credit group and I am starting to write a grant to get them all started in chicken farming!

There are some other new developments too. We haven't started building the choos because we're waiting on money, but I have just been approached by some elderly women who care for OVCs (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) and we're going to start a group for them! I'm really excited.

I don't have much time but just thought I'd write a few quick notes of things that have made me happy recently (in no particular order):
*The death of Michael Jackson....well, not that he died. Just the amount of sympathy I got from my neighbors. I haven't heard about any news since Obama won the presidency, but Jackson was all over the radio. Don't think I've heard "Thriller" so much in my life! :-)
*Fourth of July....no fireworks or parades....but we did kill 2 goats and 2 chickens and had a big old party!
*Calzones. Homemade. Enough said.
*The US's showing in the Confederation Cup. It was a rough final, but I was still proud and rocking it out in my Obama khanga and American flag headwrap. My host father called me to apologize after the game.
*Emails from home
*Tons of support for the choo grant....Thank you!
*Ice cream cones (I love the city....)
*The cards and pictures that are decorating my living room
*Giving myself a french manicure (and then promptly rubbing it all off doing laundry...oops)
*Running away from Bulongwa during the coldest season
*Reading lots of good books (A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos, The Shack by William Paul Young, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, The Long Lonliness by Dorothy Day, Blood Memory by Greg Isles, Happy Birthday Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Importance of Being Ernest and other plays by Oscar Wilde)
*Mastering the art of carrying water on my head. :-)

Well, I'm giving up on the pictures for today...sorry. Hope this update finds you all well!