Life as I know it.

Things have been rolling along here.

Last week I went to various schools and met some children that the Chosen Children are supporting. For those of you that don't know The Chosen Children is a program that is working to support orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. The kids were quite shy around me, and I can only imagine that it would be slightly intimidating to have a strange white person coming to your school to meet you. It also wasn't explained to the children why I was there - so that didn't help either. By the second day I took it upon myself to tell them who I was and why I was there. I'm not sure they understood me, but at least I tried.

On Saturday we had a workshop with the kids, which was a lot of fun. I did a short drama with them, a song, and taught them a trick to do their 9 times tables. (Which I thought was funny but I had showed my collegues earlier and they were all amazed by it.) Despite warnings that they would be loud and rambuncious they were quit shy. I think its because they are not in their territory, and they are not yet comfortable with me. Give it time.

I have been feeling a little bit bored and frustrated with the lack of things to do. They want me to write songs for the kids, which is fine but I wish I had known before hand because it is very short notice for me to do so and I'm not sure I can. Instead I have been writing drama's.

Yesterday was a very buggy day. My host opened up a bag of cat food, and we found it crawling with little beetles and larva. Much of the food had been turned to dust as the bugs fed on it. Ew. Then I saw something that looked like an earth worm - and then there was a cockroach in my bedroom. Yick. We also have a mouse. Oh well.

Today I went to the office and was able to do some work by typing up stories about the people in the HIV support group. It is practically unheard of here for people to have a support group of any kind, and I am very pleased to be working with a group that recognizes the importance of such things. It's not good for people to deal with their problems on their own, and here that is the way of life.

One of the groups biggest struggles seems to be financial, so I am thinking up some ideas that may be used to help them - but I will not share until I know for sure that I want to do them.

That's all for now, I am heading to the market - if it doesn't storm before I get there.