Mambo!!!! POA!!!!
This is a greeting in Tanzania – it means “how are things” and poa means “cool!”. It’s common everywhere so I like to use it. Things in Bagamoyo are wonderful and intense, overwhelming and humbling at the same time. I feel fortunate to have this experience and the opportunity to share it with those of you who are reading.
Today I taught colors at my school. The kids had a harder time grasping them because they already know them in Swahili! I’m trying to get them to associate the new words (blue) with Swahili equivalents (buluu). I have good news, for those of you who have emailed me asking to send school supplies you can – directly to the church actually – and the address is below:
Bagamoyo Anglican Church
c/o Julius Simeo
P.O. BOX 148
Bagamoyo, Tanzania
Our cultural activities this afternoon were great! I learned how to do wood carving, bead making, and drumming! I was best at wood carving actually – I’m going to finish the piece I started tomorrow with the teacher! The teachers came from a little art school on our road – it is a small building but them make beautiful jewelry and play amazing traditional Swahili music. The teachers find orphans off the street and teach them these trades so that they have a craft and do not resort to other means on the streets. They don’t charge either, it’s free, and they buy the equipment and materials with the sales of the jewelry. Amazing cause and the guys are totally awesome.
I found out my school goes on summer vacation for about 4 weeks so I am going to go work with a women’s empowerment NGO during those weeks in the mornings. I can run my own project ideas and help out the organization. That starts June 12th and I will spend 4 weeks with this organization. In 3 weeks our cultural activities wrap up and we can add an additional placement. I’m going to be placed with UKUN, which is an HIV/AIDS organization that does home visits and research on AIDS in the area. It’ll be really challenging, sad at times, but important to the overall experience. I’ll spend 9 weeks with this organization.
Also, Nick, another volunteer and I are going to be presenting a discussion on HIV/AIDS in terms of the cultural and social attitudes and how to address them to the secondary students at the school we visited yesterday. The kids are really eager for us to come they have so many questions – everyone knows HIV/AIDS is bad but it’s taboo to talk about it, sex, protection, all these things. We’re going to the school in a few weeks and we will have a discussion with them about how to maybe affect change from the inside out, empower these students with knowledge about the disease, facts they can work with, and a discussion of the social attitudes we’ve seen ourselves. It should be really exciting.
More soon… I am having an incredible time here. Ninikosa familia na rafiki yandu (I miss my family and friends).
This is a greeting in Tanzania – it means “how are things” and poa means “cool!”. It’s common everywhere so I like to use it. Things in Bagamoyo are wonderful and intense, overwhelming and humbling at the same time. I feel fortunate to have this experience and the opportunity to share it with those of you who are reading.
Today I taught colors at my school. The kids had a harder time grasping them because they already know them in Swahili! I’m trying to get them to associate the new words (blue) with Swahili equivalents (buluu). I have good news, for those of you who have emailed me asking to send school supplies you can – directly to the church actually – and the address is below:
Bagamoyo Anglican Church
c/o Julius Simeo
P.O. BOX 148
Bagamoyo, Tanzania
Our cultural activities this afternoon were great! I learned how to do wood carving, bead making, and drumming! I was best at wood carving actually – I’m going to finish the piece I started tomorrow with the teacher! The teachers came from a little art school on our road – it is a small building but them make beautiful jewelry and play amazing traditional Swahili music. The teachers find orphans off the street and teach them these trades so that they have a craft and do not resort to other means on the streets. They don’t charge either, it’s free, and they buy the equipment and materials with the sales of the jewelry. Amazing cause and the guys are totally awesome.
I found out my school goes on summer vacation for about 4 weeks so I am going to go work with a women’s empowerment NGO during those weeks in the mornings. I can run my own project ideas and help out the organization. That starts June 12th and I will spend 4 weeks with this organization. In 3 weeks our cultural activities wrap up and we can add an additional placement. I’m going to be placed with UKUN, which is an HIV/AIDS organization that does home visits and research on AIDS in the area. It’ll be really challenging, sad at times, but important to the overall experience. I’ll spend 9 weeks with this organization.
Also, Nick, another volunteer and I are going to be presenting a discussion on HIV/AIDS in terms of the cultural and social attitudes and how to address them to the secondary students at the school we visited yesterday. The kids are really eager for us to come they have so many questions – everyone knows HIV/AIDS is bad but it’s taboo to talk about it, sex, protection, all these things. We’re going to the school in a few weeks and we will have a discussion with them about how to maybe affect change from the inside out, empower these students with knowledge about the disease, facts they can work with, and a discussion of the social attitudes we’ve seen ourselves. It should be really exciting.
More soon… I am having an incredible time here. Ninikosa familia na rafiki yandu (I miss my family and friends).
I can't wait to see the wood work that you have made! You can make everyone something for Christmas now! :) I'm glad that things are going well. We are praying hard for you. I love you lots and miss you more!
ReplyDeleteIt is so much fun living vicariously!
ReplyDeleteOf course, the musical stuff intrigues me most. I can't wait for you to teach the songs to me!