living on a prayer

Right now, I am sitting in a wonderful internet cafe, having just finished an amazing seminar on how to help, pschosocially, OVC's and PLWHA. After my last blog, majority of you must think that I am in the pit of despair-do not be fooled, life is hard here-full of corruption and poverty and sadness....yet there is also that flip of the coin-and this week I had a chance to work with some of the people that make that side of the coin GLEAM....We worked on a project on making memory books, made by parents for their children, telling them about their family history, their goals for their children....letters of pictures the children might like to have when they are older....and also how to encourage OVC's(orphans and vulnerable children) to self actualize by making HERO books. nani ni shujaa? MIMI NI SHUJAA!(who is a hero? I AM A HERO!) I am excited to take this project back to my village-and my counterpart I took with me may be even more enthusiastic than me! it helps the kids focus their goals, discuss their obstacles in life, what challenges they face and how the 'hero' of the book (them) can overcome the obstacles to obtain their goals. Its really a beautiful project for those children living here-some have never had a chance to use crayons or markers, had someone say soemthing nice about them, or thought that they might be able to obtain their future goal in life. The people at this seminar were very inspiring for me-not only did my vocabulary triple in size(the entire seminar was ONLY IN KISWAHILI-for 1 whole week), but the ideas and stories of these people's lives and projects they are working on are really encouraging. Even if they never read this blog, I want to give a cheers to every one of those people in the seminar. Inspirational is an understatement.

In my life, things are going ok-my semester is continuing forth, I had a wonderful fall break-i was able to visit my friend from the US-she was in Kenya working and had a chance to make her way to TZ....went to a coffee plantation and learned the entire process of harvesting/selling....and was able to help a little-tried to see the crater for the second time, but was efforts weren't enough. the prices were just raised in April to some astronomical price($50 per non resident, $200 for the entrance fee OF THE CAR, and about $150 to rent the car). a little disappointing, but it was still fun to go on a hike around the coffee.

In my village, half my adult education students just left to start the preform class at a private secondary school and the other half is continuing with me until January(they will ALL start form 1 in Jan.) I was able to see most of those that went to preform over the weekend, and they are doing so well, and love being at school-they are working off their tuition by building the school. It's an amazing thing-giving a person a chance at an education. My appreciation for my schooling and all the opportunities given to me in extra curricular activities has exponentially increased by living here. Most schools had at least 5 extra curricular activites...we have none. no arts, no music no sports. imagine the potential most of these kids have and will never get to try.... Form 4 just graduated last friday and we had an all day celebration-students prepared songs and dances, raps and skits....even a karate demo! It was great! soon the Form 2's will be taking their national exam and leave school for the year, and form 1 and 3 will be the last one's left. Unfortunatly for me this year, I am only teaching form 1 and 3, so my job doesn't finish until the very end....Lucky and unlucky for me next year is that I will be teaching Form 2 and 4, so I will finish teaching early, but will also have a HUGE work load while they are in school.

My beans are all harvested, my wheat is just being started to harvest, and I have1.5 months left to teach. 8 weeks of craziness! wish me luck!!!!