Finding my nitch....

Laziness will destroy you and your life...Sometimes I think about how lazy I can be especially when I have to wake up extra early and the sleep is so good lol. Yesterday on my way back to the hospital from the school, I was thinking about how lazy I was feeling that morning and how I had even tried to think of ways that I could get out of the early sessions that I am doing with the students at school. Yea I know, how could I come that far to Africa and think that lol....but thankfully my good inner little voice made me snap out of it.

I have been keeping pretty busy here and I am loving it. I am trying to find my nitch and I feel like I am able to create a schedule that I can keep.
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Monday I was able to do a presentation for 200 girls about the menstruation cycle. Thanks to a former teacher Peace Corps Volunteer, Lori and her organization
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Empower-Women-in-Africa/182591221781269, we were able to distribute 600 re-usable pads from http://www.gladrags.com to the girls at the school :)...After we passed them out and told them all to raise the pads in the air to take a picture they alll said ALLELUIA...it was really funny but so good to see them happy like that :).

The main thing that is keeping me busy everyday are the Life skills/HIV prevention program that we are doing at the local school in the village (Andara Combined School). Along with the HIV prevention officer from the hospital, we are facilitating sessions on HIV prevention methods and behavior change (<= mostly grades 9 &10). Along with the teachers however, I am doing primarily life skills sessions with grades 7&8. I enjoy teaching. I think mostly because I get to be around the kids everyday and because I get do it my way lol. There are def guidelines that I need to follow but because life skills is a "non-promotional subject" (kids do not need to pass it to go on to the next grade) then nobody has taken it seriously in the past. It is usually not taught much or at all. So this gives me the room to create a curriculum and lesson plan that will benefit each specific class. This first week went well. Grade 7 students had a harder time understanding me. Language is definitely a barrier and one of my challenges. I really have to speak extra slow and use a combination of words that I would probably not use in the states. We call it "Namlish". It is not right and I try not to use often especially things like "Madame, borrow me a pencil". Some of the students from grade 7 were trying really hard to keep up with me, and they did a good job. My main goal for this week was to establish an environment where they can become comfortable enough to ask me questions so we can elevate the dialogue, I am not a teacher by trade so I am not trying to spend hours a day just in front of the classroom talking. That can def become boring for them. So my lessons will include activities and games and more :). Hopefully, I wont look to silly lol.

You know what though, that other day when I was feeling lazy because I had to wake up extra early, the grade 8 learners surprised me a lot. It is wrong of me in the first place not to have expected that they would know the information. I was very satisfied with the lesson that day. That class was everything I had hoped for. They were asking questions, they were defining the vocab terms before I explained it to them and they even gave me examples and stories about different things. That really re-assured me that things will get better, like always. That's life right? even when things seem one way one day and even when things seem like they are not going to change, someway...somehow something reminds us that things will get better. The grade 8 students did that for me :). They helped me realize to be more patient, to just go with the flow and really let the wind take me away :). Even with the language barrier, even with the fact that some of them are not at a level that they should be for their age, there is HOPE "Once you choose hope, anything’s possible" -Christopher Reeve. So I am choosing to stay hopeful always.

The other hours of my days are spent at the VCT, the Volunteer Counseling & Testing center. Doing outreach, working with the different support group who will start being a bit more busy after the rainy season, so now planning and organizing is at the utmost importance, will write more about "Twayapa Shotuyowe...I am not afraid"support group soon. So stay on the look out for more news.

until next time...

Oshi iwete...
(that is def not the language from this village but the village that I was at before, still trying to get down with Thimbukushu..sigh one day...one day.... hopefully :)

ps.Pics will come soon as well but the net is just so slow, its hard to upload :(. but one day :)