World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is December 1st every year and Peace Corps offers grants for volunteers to have events, this year my sitemate (close peace corps person) Tim and I both wrote grants for 500,000tsh (max that you can get) and decided to have a joint event for the whole Ward. Since our community is a farming one we decided to have the party on a Sunday (the 4th) when no one goes to the farm. We put together a great team and got to planning. We decided to have a few main events, which included free HIV testing, a baba cookoff (with women judges) and soccer games. By having free testing by an outside source more people would be willing to test, a baba cookoff was to show that men can cook too and to have a gender equality portion to the event and the soccer games was to guarantee that they young people came out. We also put together secondary school students who would do a few HIV raps and a play about the effects of HIV on the community.
On the day of the event we had to finish building the covered stage area and get all of the supplies to the appointed places, which was harder than you would think. We had testing in the clinic, cooking in the primary school, the stage at the fields and we had to get the supplies from Tim’s house (which was down the hill). We had music blaring, condom demos, HIV videos and testing all day while the men were cooking. We had fun games which included a contest to see how fast you could go with a spoon in your mouth with an egg on it (super funny), we also had men running round with tied kangas on to see how far they could go without them falling. We had many speeches, singing groups, drummers, theatre, free HIV pamphlets, magazines and an awesome Q&A session. The people involved were super thrilled and eager to answer and get involved which was great. To round off the day we had 2 soccer games going with all of the teams from the ward, followed by a championship game. Of course my village won!!!!! We then had everyone meet back up at the stage to announce all of the winners for the day (cooks, soccer games and how many people that tested). The head food tester (all were women) gave a great speech on how her husband helps her at home and had a lot of jokes about how some of the cooks put too little or too much salt. All in all it was just a GREAT experience where a lot of information was given and questions/myths were addressed. 94 people tested that day, 7 positive (they were referred to the CTC clinic in Milo). The district nurses worked the whole time they were there and didn’t even have time to eat because the line was so long at all times. I am super happy with the turn out and all of the work was super worth it!!!!
TANZANIA BILA YA UKIMWI INAWEZAKANA!!!! (Tanzania without HIV it is possible)

Random convos and food stories

Scene: My counterpart Tekra just realized that my friend Tala, who came to visit, was leaving the next morning.
Tekra: OH NO I didn’t bring her a gift!
Me: Its fine she is American she doesn’t need a gift, she would be mad if you gave her a chicken
Tekra: Why!
Me: Because it will poop and pee all over on the bus
Tekra: I will put it in a bag
Me: She still won’t want it
Tekra: What if I cook it first
Me: Well, if you cook it and put it in a hot pot then maybe she will want it

Scene: In the CTC clinic with the workers (convo was in English well, special English)
Workers: We are testing so many people today
Me: Good, its good to know your status
Worker: Do you need to test
Me: If you want me to I will, but I know my status is negative
Worker: You use a condom? You haven’t had naked sexual with anyone?
Me: Naked sexual? No, I haven’t been having any naked sexual

Random food stories: I went with some friends to go get rice and beans for dinner when we were in Iringa but we realized that I needed to meet someone back at the hotel in 10minutes so I told them to just bring me back food. Well, when they came back they had rice and beans in a plastic bag haha. This is totally normal here, you eat with your hands so it is no biggie to just put your food in a plastic bag or newspaper. Erin was here visiting from Germany in June and when we were on the bus, a lady came on to sell fried chicken out of a bucket, I thought “wow I want some” and apparently Erin thought it was the weirdest thing ever ha. If food isn’t sold hot in a plasic bag or wrapped in newspaper how can you trust that it was just cooked?? Think about it
On the bus to somewhere far you are stuck in a small place for a LONG time and so you get hungry, but have no fear!!! Buses stop to get more and more people along the way, but what is awesome is that you can buy food out of the widow! The food is generic; roasted corn, juice, hard boiled eggs, chips, peanuts, cookies, (in Iringa) yogurt, fruit (depends on the season), red bulls and even sometimes you can get French fries. The bus to Dar stops once for 15 minutes at a rest stop and you can get the above mentioned but also meat, French fries with egg, samosas, a full buffet (rice, uglai, meat, veggies, potatoes). The thing with all of this food is that if it is tainted with anything, you still have another 4-5 hours left on the bus so you better not get diarrhea!!
The other day I saw kids outside throwing rocks at the ground and trying to catch things and I asked them what they were doing and they replied that they were catching grasshoppers. They had different techniques that included rocks, sticks, and bottles. It was super funny to watch but after a while I wondered what they were going to do with the catch. Turns out they stick them on a bike spoke and shish-kabob them on the fire! I thought that this was super cool and asked for some when they were done and let me tell you, it was tasty!!! I told my mother this story the other day and she was horrified and I just laughed because I didn’t, for one minute, think that it was gross.