Happy and Lightness

This weekend I stayed around Moshi town. On Saturday and Sunday, I went into town a couple times, mostly to get coffee and fabric. I am beginning to know my way around town and yesterday was the first day I really felt comfortable with the orientation of it all. On Monday I went back to Jipe Moyo for my second day there. We taught english for the first hour, focusing on how to make words plural. The kids are great, they all want to be there and they adore us. They are really shy though and don't like to be looked at square in the eyes. At the end of the teaching session, one girl was dared by the others to ask me a question. She came up to sheepishly, and wanted to know if I could dance like Shakira. They all laughed and laughed as I attempted to do so, right there in the blazing sun in the middle of the yard. I need to add that to my list of firsts. They know all the words (well, they think they do) to the hit Shakira song, My Hips Don't Lie and they really got a kick out of me dancing. After teaching, Amani took us and one of the mamas, Mama Olivia, to a man named Jamani's house. He is in the late stages of AIDS and has been bedridden for almost a year. We visited his home and asked him and his mother about themselves. It was really depressing and eye opening. He is only 27 years old but looks 60. His most prized posession is the radio Amani donated to him, which he listens to constantly. He had a son which he had never met and lived with his mother and sister and her family. When asked if he was afraid, he said he was not and he laughed at our attempts at jokes.

Today we did a wordsearch with the class and I was introduced to Tuesdays, which are safari days. We are going to take a safari, or field trip, every Tuesday. Today the students took us to where they went to Primary school and where they would go to Secondary school if they were to take the test again and pass. The kids are just amazing, although they make fun of us all the time. They laugh among themselves and you catch bits and pieces to indicate that they are talking about us and then they laugh and giggle some more. They like me a lot and I think that again, it is because of my name. Even when introduced to Mamas, the pronounciation of my name is aided by adding that it is a football team. When we were walking, the girls fought hard to be the ones to hold my hands. It is so fitting that the girls who ended up at my sides are named Happy and Lightness. What a privilege it is to be in these girls lives, even if for only 5 weeks.