Two awesome days and two sick friends

So I've had a couple of AWESOME days at placement this week. Wednesday
was up there with one I the highs of the whole trip. I think I've
mentioned before the. We girl in my sewing class. Her name is Witess
and she is 14. That is the youngest in the class, but she has had the
same amount of schooling as the others. She started the week after
Easter ad it was soon apparent that she was not getting anything I was
saying. Now I get that her English needs work, but I was stunned when
she didn't know how to do multiplication. After 5 weeks, my class has
moved on to using addition, subtraction and multiplication in the form
of a ledger book. But she wasn't getting it at all. She would add 4 +
4 instead of muliply. So, on Wednesday I brought a stack of worksheets
I found here that work on multiplication from 0s to 10. Instead of
going into the other classroom after break (Rachel -the new teaher -
has it under control) I sat down with Witness. We started from the
beginning and I used plastic stacking blocks to illustrate the idea.
But she wasn't getting it. At all. I was getting so frustrated, when
somehow the light clicked on. You could see that she just got it and
started to use the blocks on her own to solve the problems. Amazing! I
immediately burst into tears. I was so proud!! What a breakthrough
moment. I was so proud of her.

The only thing I've really taught before is swimming and water skiing
- but the reward of seeing someone get up on skis or float just can't
compare to seeing someone grasp a concept that will really change her
life. Knowing how to multiply will improve her ability to have a
business one day and thus elevate her and her family from poverty.

So we sat together for another half hour and until our bus came an I
had to go. I got up to leave and she had about 4 problems left. As I
gathered my things she quickly finished the worksheet and came running
after me, "teacher, teacher!" I looked at the paper and she had gotten
them all correct! So I gave her a hug and a high five and she had the
biggest smile on her face. Until then I hadn't even seen her smile -
but this was a HUGE smile - I could see all her teeth!! So that was a
great day. :) Then Thursday was just as good!

One of the women in my class, Miriam, has a small business in her
village. It was described as just selling a bit of cooking oil and
chicken feed from her home. Yesterday we planned for me to come back
to her village with her after class so I could see her business and
where she is from. Mama Fortunata came with us and we travelled about
10km further out from
Moshi to Miriam's village - Kiamewze. The village has about 500
families and is extremely rural. We were surrounded by fields! I was
surprised to find that Miriam's "small business" is actually much more
legit than described! It is an actual shop in a small concrete
building that houses three little shops in a row. It would me the
"downtown" of the village, if you could call it that. The shop is
probably 50sqft and she sells everything from the cooking oil and
chicken feed to soap, matches, candy, spices, sugar, nuts, cell phone
minutes, and tooth paste. Out front she sells bananas, (which, as a
side note, are SO much better than at home. There are dozens of kinds
of bananas here, but the best one are really short and sweet - they
are so yummy!) tomatos, onions and sugar cane. She already has a
sewing machine, so when she finished the sewing class she will be
already to start selling clothes from her shop as well!

She showed me how she has been keeping track of her sales and money
and we talked about the best way to set up a new ledger book. Next
week I am giving each girl her own ledger book and so it will be a
good chance for Miriam to start fresh.

About that time word got around the village that there was a mzungu
around so a pack of kids started peaking in the shop. I decided to
treat the kids and give Miriam some business and bought them all
lollipops. Then we went ouside and I tried some sugar cane straight
from the cane - very sweet and tough/stringy. Then I took some
pictures of Miriam and her shop at which point the kids went nuts.
They love to pose for pictures and then see themselves on the screen.
They think it's so funny to see themselves! A novelty in this tiny
village.

At that point it was time to go, so Mama Fortunata and I headed back
to the highway. To get to Kiameweze and then back to Moshi we had to
take the dala dala. I think i've described these before, but this was
the first time I actually rode in one. A dala dala is sort of the
local public transportation. They are sort of like minivans with four
rows of seats. The rule is four to a row and everyone else stands. So
you are just wedged in like sardines. There were 25 people on the ride
out and at least 30 on the ride in. For this pleasure you pay about
200 shillings which is about 14 cents. It's sort of a zoo and really
crazy, but very efficient and surprisingly civilized.

So while I was having an awesome day out and about two of my best
friends at CCS were dealing with major sickness! Megan, who is now my
roommate has been diagnosed with Malaria. She's been exhausted for a
couple weeks now and in the last few days has started vomiting. She
finally got the diagnosis yesterday and is now on the meds for it and
is alreay feeling better, but it's nuts that she got it since she's
barely been bitten and never missed a malaria pill!

My other friend Vicky, has had an outrageous cough for weeks now and
the antibiotic that the first doc gave her was doing nothing. Last
night she was coughing so hard that she started vomiting and couldn't
stop. Then she started losing consciousness! We called Mama Grace and
they took her to the hospital where they've been giving her drugs
through an IV all night. Hopefully she will be feeling better soon.

I know that all sounds scary, but don't worry about me! I feel great
and I'm headed to Zanzibar for the weekend! It should be amazing and
I'll tell you all about it!