Warrior Princess Mama

We moved into our homestays this week! I am living with Lucy (one of the volunteers from the UK). Our homestay is in Mlangarini Juu Village and we are living with a warrior princess mama who has 8 kids. She is so fantastic and even though we speak almost no swahili and she speaks less english, we are having a great time! She is the belozi (leader) of her 10 cell (the villages are broken up into sub villages and then 10 cells, which is like a row of houses). This is unusual for a woman, but I can see how she is a leader so it makes sense. She is also the only homestay mama who is HIV positive. Her husband is dead (presumably from AIDS) and he left three wives when he died (we don't live with the other wives or anything). Mama Zena (like Xena!)'s niece comes over to help out and she speaks a little english so we ask questions and communicate desires through her. Although we have mastered "i would like, we are going, we are returning and we would like a shower" in swahili, which are really the only things you need to know :) Showers are pleasant here, hot water in a bucket in a little room next to the choo (bathroom). The choo took some getting used to (it is a whole in a cement slab) but really after you use it once, it's fine. It's hard at night though because the cockroaches come out (i saw a two headed one yesterday!) but once you scare them away they don't come back so you can bathroom/shower in peace. Lucy is freaked out by the bugs (we caught a huge spider in our room the first night) so i've learned to suck it up. Lucy and I share a nice room with a large bed and cabinet for our clothes. The food is a lot better than during orientation and our mama asks us what we want to eat practically every meal. We are always served first and usually eat alone, which makes us unconfortable, but that it their custom for guests. My favorite meal is Chapati (it's like a really really really good tortilla, but made from flour) and maharage (beans). And we always eat umchicha, which is Tanzanian spinach. And avocados and bananas and oranges, which are way better than even california fruits.

On Monday we start teaching in our village. We are teaching the primary school (public) and a private secondary school for girls run by french nuns. we have also set up to teach at 4 different flower farms in the area. The flower farms are a major source of income for the village and it is a great way to reach 250 workers at once to teach about HIV transmission and prevention. we will be using a megaphone and speaking in a huge room. this will pose problems for our condom demonstrations (both male and female condoms, since there are female flower farm workers as well), so we are working on strategies to fix this problem.

We are also in the process of scheduling community teachings that are open for anyone to attend. We are booked almost everyday for a teaching for the next 6 weeks so we are going to be very busy. My teaching group is awesome. It is me, Lucy (from the UK), Taylor (from LA) and our teaching partners Kelvin and Gertrude who both teach and translate for us.
Today is Nane Nane (8/8 in swahili) and it is kind of special today because it is 2008 so it is 08/08/08. Nane Nane is a harvest festival and so we travelled out to this fair-type thing right outside of Arusha town (we are staying in town tonight) and I bought some Masai earrings, which are so cute. The Masai tribe are stereotypical Africans with long earlobes, tons of beaded jewelry and multiple wives.

Tonight is the birthday of two of the people in our group so we are going to go out dancing in Arusha. And a happy early birthday to you Dad!!