June 21 ~ 7am Ntenjeru

Wasuzeotya! Good morning! (I need to remember this one, we are tested constantly on our vocab).

Oh man I am in bad shape. I don't know if I have ever had such a bad burn. Luckily only my chest, shoulders, neck, and face are burnt (opposed to all over burned I guess) Anyway, it hurts really bad. The African equator sun is brutal. I know everyone is probably saying "Well, duh." but it wasn't much hotter than an Oregon summer day, it was just more intense, and we had to work (hike and haul) so I didn't notice much.

I meant to put on sunscreen, but I forgot. No one else here uses it because they're not really capable of being burned.

This sucks.

Today we are going to a secondary school to teach HIV/AIDS. I hope it goes well, I am kinda nervous about it.
Wish me luck!
 

June 21, 2007 (later)

Today was a full day.
We started talking about how we could have a better sponsorship program at VOLSET (don't even get me started on the ways..).
We also did a cost break down of how much it costs for one child's expenses for a year, which is 988,800 shs or $618.00 usa, $51.50 a month, or $1.69 a day. Ouch if you want to be a sponsor.

After that we went to a school to check on the remaining sponsored kids. VOLSET is putting reports together on all their kids and their living conditions.

One boy told me he didn't have a tooth brush or tooth paste, so he brushed his teeth his a stick (don't ask me how that works).

Erin told me how she was helping this 17 year old girl whose husband threw acid on her. Apparently, here it is common practice for someone to throw acid on someone for revenge because it permanently scars and maims them. It is common for wives to do it to other women (if they find out they are sleeping with their husband).

There is an Acid Relief Center for victims, so it happens enough. Yikes.

After lunch we went to the school and gave our presentation. It went well except there were 200+ kids so I'm not sure the kids in the back could hear well. Also when we asked the kids to do anything or someone said something mildly scandalous there was an uproar and chaos ensued.

We were there for 2 hours, and i think overall we did really well.

We are also trying (on top of everything else) to set up some sort of after school club. Because after school many kids have nothing to do (literally) and just sit for hours. Not the kids that live with us though, they have to wash their own clothes, cook their own food, and everything else on top of doing their homework. They are really hard workers.

I think it would be neat to start a girls club, there is still a lot of sexism here and girls need the encouragement.

There is so much to be done in this organization, I don't think there is enough time to do it all (for me anyways).
They all mean well, but I don't know how they manage with the way things are set up (as an organization).

It is hard not to compare them to a NGO at home, but I know things just work differently here, and that I need to learn to abide by that rule in order to help.

Okay so that is it for now guys. Hopefully I'll be able to report on how my rafting trip goes on Sunday! Wish me luck!!
LOVE YOU! MISS YOU!