Hey guys!

Hope you are all doing well! The most previous blog post I wrote a few weeks ago, but this one I am writing today! Things are going well here! I have started teaching at my Secondary School and my Primary School. The name of my class is "Life Skills" and I hope that it ends up being more of a discussion class than a lecture, but that is not the style in TZ. The class is going to be focused on behavior change, HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, basic nutrition, hygiene skills, and then we are going to be taking about the importance of finishing school, how to keep a budget, and tons of other stuff! I am so excited about it! I am teaching every grade in the Secondary School. I will see each grade once a month and teach each class for an hour and a half. Then at the Primary School I will be teaching the equivalent of 7th and 8th graders. I will see them once every week. So it should be great! I was really nervous on the first day but now that I have taught a few classes I am feeling more confident. Also, when I describe my work as a Health Educator I actually feel okay about saying it because I actually am starting to teach. Also, I have set up a system for teaching on every baby day in my village and in a village nearby. So each month I will prepare a health lesson for Mamas and their babies and then teach it twice before we start actually weighing the babies. Then I will also be going to the health center and teaching lessons to HIV/AIDS patients who come once a week to pick up their ARVs.

So I think so far so good! Also, when I teach I feel like I am really improving my Swahili, especially when it comes to health vocab. Bonus! Anyway, so I spent a solid 3 weeks in Ilembo, which was great. The first week was a little bit of a hard transition, but the 2nd and 3rd weeks were really good! I did have a few embarrassing incidents to report. One was just a serious fall on a slippery hill with one of my friends, but the worst part was my fall made one of my friends fall too! So that was a bummer, luckily we just ended up with a bruise and some dirty clothes. But I felt pretty bad. Another incident was receiving a "Hodi" from one of my friends, Sageni, but I was not really interested in answering it. I was sitting indian style in my shorts and eating a bowl of cabbage, which is kind of an awkward thing to be eating without something else in TZ. So I chose to ignore it and just tried to be really quiet. A few minutes later Sageni is still hodi-ing and just ends up opening the door, which I thought was locked. So then it was really weird because I was sitting in front of the door within perfect earshot and he walked in because there was nothing else for him to do and after we made eye contact I could not really correct it. It turns out he was just stopping by to bring me eggs but it just ended up being really weird because: a. I was wearing shorts and knee visibility is not acceptable here; b. it is not okay to ignore a hodi here, if you are home you must answer the door; c. the fact that I just pretended not to be home and then he was not stopping by to ask me for something, a favor or help, he was bringing me eggs! A sometimes rare and expensive item in these parts! Anyway, we got over it and a few days later we were back to normal. This may not sound too embarrassing, but when it comes to TZ culture it is not really okay. I just get SO many hodi-ers I can't always answer!

So one of my really good friends came to my village last week, which was great to have another guest in Ilembo! Then the next day we went to our other friend's village down the mountain from me and we helped to teach an HIV/AIDS lesson to some Mamas, which was really fun! We also enjoyed my friend's cooking, which was amazing--burritos, lattes, curry, etc. It was a real treat! The next day we headed in to town on Saturday night maren, my friend with whom I stay with in town, invited an Israeli couple to stay for the night. They ended up cooking a delicious Israeli food, which was really fun and it was great to talk to them and hear their perspective on Africa because they had done a fair amount of travelling so far. Then this morning I ran in to an American couple from Colorado and we ended up getting breakfast together and talking about Tanzania and their travels through Africa. They had just been to Malawi and were really impressed with Tanzania and were just excited about how friendly all the people are here, which of course I was happy to hear! And then tonight we had a French guy over for dinner who also just had happened to have been passing through! It was really fun because he has done a ton of travelling through Africa and was floating through by himself, for the most part just hitching rides where he can and crashing with whomever invites him. So it was definitely an interesting weekend of meeting new people and hearing new perspectives.

Anyway, so work is going well. And I feel like finally I am actually doing things that are sustainable--I am a firm believer that this is the most sustainable activity I can do here. In other news, I finally purchased a kerosene stove which has extremely sped up my cooking, I cannot believe I have only been using charcoal this whole time!

Also, big news my parents have bought their plane tickets for May 1-21st! It is only going to be the best Holland family adventure ever! We plan to hit up Ruaha Park to see some animals! Spend some time in Ilembo! And make an appearance on Zanazibar! It's going to be great and we are going to have a fantastic African adventure! I really cannot wait.

So I have a few meetings tomorrow and then headed back to Ilembo! I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the Super Bowl! Go Steelers, I guess!

Cheers!