The ups and downs of the Village days

What a week. what a few weeks! I spent the middle of Jan. in Iringa at a seminar about PEPFAR-and I got to bring a counterpart..a teacher from my school. and, i know i brought the right one. I have never seen a more aggressive Tanzanian! The day afte we got back, he asked when we could start our HIVAIDS projects...he started writing proposals, started asking around for speakers to come....its wonderful! I'm very encouraged. The day after I returned to my village, I started teaching. Well...school started at least. I was exhaused from staying up late at night with my friends and getting up early...a wise person once told me you should never soar with the eagles and fly with the owls...smart! I got a new housegirl Monday also because Florida is now at school-struggling with her Enlish. Ester is an amazing 17 year old girl, with a baby, who helps cook chai and lunch, do my laundry and help weed my garden. Soon my veggies I planted will be ready!!!! Fresh produce will be so great! A requirement I made to Florida, who I'm helping go to school is that she comes over everday after school to practice Enlish. This has become one of the most daunting tasks I have faced yet. Its like talking to a brick wall somedays! but she is trying so hard....my heart goes out to the new form one students. I have been allowed to teach a few BAseline classes-the intro to english, 6 week crash course-and im getting a really positive response. Physics is interested-the first day thre were 40 students, and then th 2nd day, there were also 40 studnets, but half of them were new. then the third day I had about 70 students. I can't get it straight! what is going on?! Maybe next week it will iron itself out. I've introduced Sudoku to my students-they ahve to complte it by the following week to get extra credit on their homework...and they are SO into it! My class uses protractors and rulers in all ts calculations, yet there are only about 5 rulers and 2 protrctors for ALL my studnets, so i have deided to start a program where there first person to complete the puzzle and give it to me will get a prize-ruler/protractor/pencil/notebook.....out of my pocket. Its the best I can do. The weekend after my irst week of school, I went to visit my Mzungu neighbors(the othr white people in the area). I spent the weeken discussing plans to better the district ith hospitals, orphangages, computer labs...these people are actually doing it too. I am inspired every time I talk to these people. And then, besides talking about our aspirations, we went canoeing, played croquet, went hosebackriding, watched movies...i took a HOT BATH!!!!!!!(when the heck is the last time i got to do that?! Water was yellow, but it was hot! Thats so amazing to me! and i was in a bathtub-haven't seen one of those since I left the US! Mr Fox has been an inspiration to me, and i really think that if I start working with him, we can combine our resources and get some groudn shaking in our community. He introduced me to a couple running a program called Village Schools...they have /will build 12 schools in my area and have started an amazing English program in the Primary schools so maybe when the students get to secondary school they will actually understand things and Pass with B's and A's instead of D-'s. The woman in charge is up to her ears in HIVAIDS work-if anyone in the area is tested positive for HIV and shows here the doctors note, she will give them bus fare every month so they can go to a nearby village to get free ARV's. Their family lives about a hour bike ride away from me...and are some of the most energetic people I have met. I'm going to discuss some HIV projects/English projects I want to start in my village with them this weekend! So this weekend was a HIGH..great ideas, great foods, great friends.....I was ready to get the balls rolling. Then Monday came aroun and i went to the hospital, saw the facility. There is one nurse running the entire thing, day in day out. The doctr had already left for the day, and the other nurse had left because her child had died. The maternity ward had 4 beds, no sheets no blankts...pnes of glass missing from the window. The largest baby there was almost 3Kilos....the other two in there were what I would call preemies. SO SMALL. The woman who was almost in labor didn't even look pregnant. These ladies starve themsleves because there are no drugs to be had...or they can't fford them. So, the samller teh baby, the less painful. Which creates sickly babies. I left, after tourin the entire factiliy, wanting to cry. My heart just hurt. And of course, I had to offer to ehlp on the weekends/...how can I just enjoy my weekends when I see somethig like that happening!? Then Tuesday rolled around. i am training to be Teacher on Duty-to make sure all students are behaving properly, that they go to class, come to school on time, that th boarders don't have problems, etc....and I'm being trained by 2 other teachers. I tlked tot hem both about how I didn't like corporal punishment and how maybe this week we might be able to try different forms of puishment and not the stick. Well, one listened to me, the other idn't. The Form 4 students that are the 'leaders', making sure that other students clean the grounds in the morning apparently didn't do good enough job. So kthe one teacher takes out her stick. I had to walk awaw. I got the other teacher, and he grabbed the other students before they were hit, and I set them up with helping me in the library, organizing books and papers. I still felt so guilty...even though I didn't hit those students, i couln't stop them from being hit. Any suggestions on what I could do? I suggested detention, library duties....but i dont think my ideas are flying very well.....

So, I have a millin and one projects I'm working on....thanks for all you letters and packages, they keep me going. love you all