N-A-S-T-Y drink

I had to take my first dose of Dukorol this morning to make sure my stomache is coated before I start drinking the water in Africa... The instructions say "mix powder in 150 ml of water, shake vial with vaccine well, add vial to powder, stir well, drink" . This sounds easy.... it's a LIE!!

I took the little bag of powder out and poured it in and it looked like a science experiment... It fizzes and bubbles and it looks disgusting. I poured the vial in and as i sturred it fizzed even more.

Took a big gulp = the worst taste you can ever imagine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And next week I have to take another dose

I just made this post to complain... Of all the medicines I've ever had to take, I now much prefer the needle format.

Online Meet-and-Greet

We had our online meet and greet thing with YCI last night and everyone got to introduce themselves, chat a bit and talk about our hopes and fears for the project. It made me feel a little bit better knowing everyone else is just as worried about all the same things. The language barrier is going to be pretty intimidating, but as long as we try our best the locals will try too. Everyone also seemed to agree that we're all worried about making a difference while we're there. It's hard to know if the youth will understand our teaching concepts and really gain anything from the activities we'll do with them but we got a good reminder that we're only there for a short time so we may not see our influence but it's definitly there.
Ben did our country introduction presenation and he was reeeally helpful and gave us some tips and ideas I never would have thought of. He talked about how the culture itself is really laid back and being on time for anything is not nearly as huge as it is in our culture. He used a duvet cover as a sleeping bag instead of sheets since it's so hot there at night (never got below 18 at night for them) and he gave us some good workshop advice. While one person ran the workshop the others would take notes on attendence, quotes, what worked and what didn't, etc.
We also learned that our internet stick that we'll get on arrival to share works in our homestay so we can blog from anywhere. Once I get my new battery for my netbook I'll have 9 hours of power too in case of power outages. Ben's group had a 48 hour blackout at one point.
One other thing I didn't think of is that there's a lot of red dust and sand so if we bring cotton clothing and that gets in it Ben says it stains really badly. I'm going to have to re-think some of my wardrobe now!
I'm going over to America Land today with my friend Kevin, so I'll be getting my mosquito nets, bug spray, and any other useful things I can find. :) I guess I'll update again closer to my going away party.

MOROGORO!!! Livin' in the Mountains!!

So I found out officially that I'm staying in Morogoro! :) It looks beauuuutiful!!! I'm right at the base of the Uluguru Mountains and the City itself has a ton of different tribes and cultures mixed in. I'm going to be living with another girl named Linda and there's a 3rd girl meeting us there names Jelena. Our Homestay family lives about a 30 minute walk from work, which is great because I need to stop being chubby!!!! :) The other 3 are going up to Arusha but apparently it's really east for us to meet up on the weekends in Zanzibar or in Dar es Salaam, or go on a safari for the weekend (which is happening as soon as I can make it a reality!!!). We'll have a few different projects to focus on while we're there and get to move around a little as well. 

We're going to be developing lesson plans on Malaria and Tuberculosis in Bamba (rural area outside Morogoro) as well as hygiene and sanitation. We're also going to work with the Environmental Club in the Chamwino Secondary School to raise awareness on environmental issues and health for the community overall. The students there have shown a lot of interest in the broader issues so it should lead to some really cool discussions. The Chamwino community also has a Girls group that we're going to work with on women's rights seminars, leadership and career skills, and environmental issues. Finally we'll be conducting training on life skills, peer education, and HIV/AIDS in the Faraja Trust Centre which should be really cool and good for developing my counselling skills. Overall I'm really excited... It sounds like exactly what I want. :)

We're doing an on line session to meet everyone going to Tanzania next week and we each have to present a mini-seminar just to get helpful feedback from each other and practise our presentation skills. The way I see it, if I can't present something to people who can understand me I shouldn't be trying to teach anything to people who speak a different language!!

Sooo much to process and so much to be learning about now and only 24 days until I leave....
THANK GOD exams are finished. I think my brain would melt.

I Hate Shots

No... not the alcoholic beverage type of shot.. The stick 3 needles in my arm and pump it full of vaccines so it's sore as BLEEP and only getting worse kind. I got Yellow Fever, Polio and Typhoid vaccines and my left arm is a giant ball of sore. I planned it out strategically since I have an  exam tomorrow and need my right arm, but still.... not impressed. I also got my Netbook from an old friend I worked with and got it basically set up. I'm starting to figure out Skype and practised a little more Swahili, but I still have a ton to learn... it sticks with me for a few hours then I forget it all again. I should find out officially what city I'll be in this week so that will be my next post.
I'm going to go to pretend to study some more while I play on the internet :)

33 days to go..

So I made some progress on my To Do list and got my phone service taken care of for the months I'll be gone, my travel insurance is paid for, and my car situation will be taken care of hopefully tomorrow. I can't wait for exams to be over with so I can actually focus. We should be finding out officially what city we'll be working out of within a few days (at least I hope so... I want to register with DFAT and the consolate in Dar es Salaam as soon as possible)... I'm trying to find time to teach myself more Swahili too but the time required for such activity is non existant at this point. I'm writing this little entry in between studying and pretending to study while I waste time on the internet.
I'll hopefully have a few more things checked off my list on the next post... the count down is definitly making it "real" now.... I'm going to Africa.

39 days and counting...

39 days left until we start our 3 day leg to get to Tanzania then stay for 8 weeks. I decided I'd make a to-do list so I don't forget anything and within a few minutes the list was 20 points deep.... I didn't realize there was still so much I had to get done and now I'm in a panic. I already put my 2 weeks in at my retail job, and I finish my government job at the end of the month and then I'm on my own. The whole not having a job when I get home thing should probably worry me more, but as of now it's not that big of a priority.

Well... this is my first post so hopefully I can figure out how to put pictures and all the other junk I'm going to have to do when I get to Africa. I'll put up my skype information too once I figure out how to use that :)