muda unakimbia

time has been a flying, so in order to show instead of talk so much about what's been happening in the village, karibuni hizi:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=445221177310859973/l=262911424/g=13602658/cobrandOid=1000001/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

the last few months have consisted of:
*interviewing orphans in both my village and makambako along with their caretakers, *hanging with my favorite dada lillian (beverly-see picture in album) who is forced to walk/jog 1 hour+ every day to/from school and dreams to be a radio announcer *coordinating with my mama's group to help them reach their goal of buying their own corn-grinding machine (which would grind the ubiquitous ugali flour eaten 3 times/day in average family) with profits to feed back into their SACA lending group and partially to benefit orphans in the village (to buy a select number school sweaters/uniform)
*making my first journey to neighboring mbeya where coffee is a plenty (clearly seen in picture with my friend chris on a coffee farm)
*visiting my friend megan in nearby, but drastically different madibira
*encouraging the form 1 and 2 girls of manga to stick with their studies especially during the latest exam period
*patiently progressing with the hostel construction there at the secondary school. patience patience-the moral of the story of living and surviving here. thank you to all the generous donors and supporters of this project at home. as you can see in the pictures above, we are not too far from a finished product. as they say in swahili, pole pole ndiyo mwendo, haba na haba hujaza kibaba, roma hakujengwa siku moja and bandu bandu inaisha gogo - all proverbs to express the sage saying, "slowly but surely." indeed.


*a documentary called "born into brothels" inspired me to give the orphans i'm interviewing their own disposable cameras (many thanks to my dad for mailing them!). the goal is for their 27 pictures to capture everyday life-at home, school, on the streets, and in the community. once developed, each child will receive a copy for their own memories (most kids here don't own pictures of themselves, their families, but are desired greatly, as you can imagine). the best pictures will also be integrated into my thesis presentation.

*counting down to may 6-10th, our close of service (COS) conference under mt. meru, near arusha. crazy. as i said, how time has flown...it's time to say goodbye:(, at least to our fellow pcv's, most of whom are returning to the US this may, june or july. where did these 2 years go?

peace,
tait