back in the city for my 21st

Well, the week in the village, called Moshono, was very interesting. I LOVED doing community training. We did our trainings in a Pentecostal church, and we had a variety of people and ages…from 17 to circa 100…the oldest woman did not know for sure how old she was. It was really cool though because she and her great granddaughter were both there, sweet. It was also crazy to be doing condom demos in a church, with the pastor and his wife sitting right there. They seemed to think it was hilarious and were totally down with it. I cannot see that ever happening in America. People here are serious about stopping HIV though, at least in theory. I worked with Summer and Edita was our translator, so the three of us lived in a room in a bibi’s house. Everyone was super welcoming and warm, and seemed to be completely concerned with making us comfortable. Different from Arusha, were you always feel like people want something from you – and you are usually right.

The bad part about the village was that it was dirtyyy. I did not shower for an entire week, lol, I was super gross. Which really was fine, I am not necessarily one of those hyper-clean people. But I actually turned out to be still sick. On Monday, when I was still in Arusha, I felt fine. When I woke up Tuesday morning and left for the village, I was feeling a bit queasy again…and then by the afternoon, I felt awful. I proceeded to throw up every single morning there, which was just really gross considering the bathroom conditions. GSC send “provisions” for food, which turned out to be white bread and peanut butter for breakfast and lunch. That got old after about two minutes, lol. But since I could not really eat anyway, it did not matter too much. Meanwhile, the bibi bought me medicine and prayed over it, and then the Pentecostal dancing group that was visiting from Kenya prayed over me…and I got better on Friday. I was kind of nervous to take the medicine, but at that point I felt awful and did not think there was much chance of getting worse, so decided to go for it. Luckily, it worked out.

On Friday after we were done in the village, we headed to Moshi/Marangu to meet up with the entire original group of GSC volunteers…everyone who is still here anyway. Some of the girls are doing an international health program and are now scattered at hospitals all over northern Tanzania. It was very nice to all get together again. And we all stayed at this AMAZING house. Two of the girls are working in Marangu, near Moshi, and there are two German nurses who work at their hospital. These nurses have a mansion that they rent out to visitors…it was sooo great. We honestly did not feel like we were in Africa anymore, it was like being in Europe – which after a week in the village and being sick, was much appreciated. On Saturday, we went hiking in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro and saw some stellar waterfalls. It was kind of difficult, but it felt great to actually be pushing myself physically for once. Then Saturday night, we got to make dinner together…actually I did not do much, but a couple of the girls took the lead and made great spaghetti, omelets, and a bean salad. Plus we made legit jungle juice with these cheapo packets of vodka, juice concentrate, boiled water, and sprite…yumm. We saw Kilimanjaro both on our way there and on the way back to Arusha, which was breathtaking. Even better than the pictures on the bottles of Kilimanjaro beer, haha.

Today is a bank holiday in Tanzania, saba saba [seven seven] – also my 21st birthday. In a bit we are going to attempt again to go to the snake park, which hopefully will be a success. Last night my cousin here, Erick, warned that he is making/doing something special for my birthday…I told him not to trouble himself, but he seemed pretty set on whatever it was, so we will see. I would also like to make no-bake cookies with my dadas, but I am not sure if we will have time.

I hope everyone had a great July 4 and ate some good American food for me. And watched some American television and partook in all of my favorite American things. I will be home in just over three weeks, crazy stuff. This countdown is getting annoying, I will stop for awhile now. Let me know how you are doing please.