what a week!
so the Arusha Project made the newspaper! www.arushatimes.co.tz
check the sports section this week, there's an article about the soccer game we played on tuesday against the Positive Test Club, a club for people who are HIV positive. they have a soccer team, a choir, and other activity-oriented gatherings. they play matches against other soccer teams and then spend what would be the second half of the game educating spectators about HIV and AIDS. we only played at a park, didn't get to play in the stadium, but it felt SO good to play soccer and the people in the club were so welcoming. a bunch of widows and children came out. the club invited the children because they heard we like kids :).
speaking of kids, i'm not so sure i like them anymore. i'm kidding. but this week has been crazy. i've been working at the orphanage all week this week because one of the two volunteers placed there has been very ill, some kind of nasty stomach flu, but she started her cipro on thursday and her malaria tests are negative. this week has consisted of trying not to gag while we change 12 diapers each morning, getting snot, food, and drool all over me, and carrying kids around. thursday was especially great, the local women who work at the orphanage put all the children outside but neglected to lock the front gate. while Lauren and i ran after the older kids (3-5 years) down the street, the three volunteer girls from another organization attempted to manage the 12 infants, including one with malaria. always exciting at the orphanage.
the child who is ill is named Baraka. the orphanage is on the same grounds as the hospital and Dr. Mbise checks on them regularly, but he comes when they're asleep and the mamas (the local women who work there) neglected to tell him that Baraka hadn't eaten in 5 days. on thursday i went and found the doctor at the hospital and we took Baraka and the 5 week old down to the hospital for malaria tests. i'll find out on monday how they are doing. one of our program directors told me that a child at that orphanage died of malaria this year. i tell ya, carrying an orphan to the hospital for malaria tests is quite an experience.
also this week we talked to a nun from the Medical Missionaries of Mary who works with the Maasai people here, a rural tribe that lives in mud huts with thatched roofs. we visited the homes of a woman with HIV, and a few maasai families, one where the husband had TB, and one where a girl was married at the age of 13. it took about 40 minutes on a eroded and dusty dirt road to get there. the children were covered in dust. EVERYTHING was covered in dust. i don't think the children had ever seen white people before. when i took a step toward them (about 30 of them) to shake their hands, one of the young girls screamed and they all started to run away. when the man who escorted us said it was ok, they came and shook our hands and laughed. it was pretty entertaining for them.
i'm running out of time. those were the highlights of my week. i'll try to post more later.
check the sports section this week, there's an article about the soccer game we played on tuesday against the Positive Test Club, a club for people who are HIV positive. they have a soccer team, a choir, and other activity-oriented gatherings. they play matches against other soccer teams and then spend what would be the second half of the game educating spectators about HIV and AIDS. we only played at a park, didn't get to play in the stadium, but it felt SO good to play soccer and the people in the club were so welcoming. a bunch of widows and children came out. the club invited the children because they heard we like kids :).
speaking of kids, i'm not so sure i like them anymore. i'm kidding. but this week has been crazy. i've been working at the orphanage all week this week because one of the two volunteers placed there has been very ill, some kind of nasty stomach flu, but she started her cipro on thursday and her malaria tests are negative. this week has consisted of trying not to gag while we change 12 diapers each morning, getting snot, food, and drool all over me, and carrying kids around. thursday was especially great, the local women who work at the orphanage put all the children outside but neglected to lock the front gate. while Lauren and i ran after the older kids (3-5 years) down the street, the three volunteer girls from another organization attempted to manage the 12 infants, including one with malaria. always exciting at the orphanage.
the child who is ill is named Baraka. the orphanage is on the same grounds as the hospital and Dr. Mbise checks on them regularly, but he comes when they're asleep and the mamas (the local women who work there) neglected to tell him that Baraka hadn't eaten in 5 days. on thursday i went and found the doctor at the hospital and we took Baraka and the 5 week old down to the hospital for malaria tests. i'll find out on monday how they are doing. one of our program directors told me that a child at that orphanage died of malaria this year. i tell ya, carrying an orphan to the hospital for malaria tests is quite an experience.
also this week we talked to a nun from the Medical Missionaries of Mary who works with the Maasai people here, a rural tribe that lives in mud huts with thatched roofs. we visited the homes of a woman with HIV, and a few maasai families, one where the husband had TB, and one where a girl was married at the age of 13. it took about 40 minutes on a eroded and dusty dirt road to get there. the children were covered in dust. EVERYTHING was covered in dust. i don't think the children had ever seen white people before. when i took a step toward them (about 30 of them) to shake their hands, one of the young girls screamed and they all started to run away. when the man who escorted us said it was ok, they came and shook our hands and laughed. it was pretty entertaining for them.
i'm running out of time. those were the highlights of my week. i'll try to post more later.