Jina Langu ni Catherine Go to the people; live with them, learn from them, love them, start with what they know build with what they have. But of the best leaders, when the job is done, the task accomplished the people will say: "We have done it ourselves." Lao Tzu

Hope everyone had a great 4^th of July!  It’s been a few weeks since my last post, thanks everyone for your emails!  A quick note, my friend Marisa had to leave early and unexpectedly and flew back to the U.S. last weekend.  She was away in Zanzibar for the weekend and got a call from her brother, her parents were biking and hit by a car, they were in the ICU for 4 days and have had multiple surgeries and should hopefully be okay but they have months of recovery ahead of them so please keep them in your prayers.  I also got hit with a bug for about a week but after mysterious medicine I’ve been well for over 24 hours , hopefully I just didn’t jinx myself!

Well, obviously 4^th of July isn’t celebrated here but since it fell on a Sunday we were able to celebrate with a trip to the pool at the Impala Hotel on the nice side of town.  It was my first trip over the river and I felt like I walked into the Emerald City or something.  Nice hotels, restaurants, yeah!  We walked the whole way there because the weather was so nice and it took about 2 hours inclusive of a 30 minute coffee break at a nice café.  Funny how excellent coffee beans are exported all over the world from Africa but there’s absolutely no where to get a good cup by our house and I’m sure if we were actually able to find a bean grinder and coffee pot it would blow a fuse when we plugged it in.  All we get is instant coffee in the morning and it doesn’t run a close second to Starbucks Via (instant).  Arrived at the pool and for 5,000 tsh (about $3.50 USD) we got a nice lounge chair, fluffy towel and cushion.  Excellent.  Spent the day actually being able to listen to my IPOD in public and reading.  Unfortunately there was no 4^th of July bbq but we had lunch at the hotel, Indian food which was really good but didn’t satisfy the BBQ cravings.  A few of the guys asked if they sold fireworks and we were told there are no shops however the street orphans know how to make them.  That didn’t sound like a very good idea as I didn’t come here to watch someone blow off a finger from a firework made by a 7 year old so the boys took a pass.  Not a bad 4^th of July but missed my family and friends.

School is going well.  The classes are having a performance for their parents on Friday July 30^th.  I’m in charge of teaching the Level 1 and 2’s a song and poem each.  My choices include:  He’s got the whole world in his hands, the itsy bitsy spider (with a second verse about a monkey and a coconut tree which I don’t remember from school…), then poems about busy honey bees and a catapillar.  My mom sent me a super cute poem about a purple zebra and I’m using that for art class next week.  They don’t have crayons or anything so art is interesting.  I’ve been trying to read them short stories and they draw out a scene from the story and label what color everything should be which also ties in a bit of spelling. 

The main donor for my school is Epic Change www.epicchange.org .  I am actually just about to look at the website for the first time after I post this update.  The founders arrived Sunday and are here for two weeks working on projects and visiting.  They are super nice and I’m really excited.  We’re in the process of building a library/ technology center which will hopefully be done in a few weeks.  I can’t wait to start painting, we’re going to get a bunch of different colors of paint and have all the kids put their handprints on the walls.  I’m also working with them to try to start a reading program to work on reading comprehension.  They brought a lot of books every time they’ve come but they are sitting in storage and need a home.  More on this in the coming weeks as things progress.

Answers to a few questions….thanks everyone who has offered to ship me treats but it’s basically impossible as there isn’t a mail system here.  No homes have a street address, actually besides a few main roads in town there are no street names.  Everyone has a P.O. box at the post office in town and things can be shipped there however I’ve heard boxes, letters, etc. will sit there for weeks before they are even sorted.  There is no mailman.  I asked how people pay bills and I guess the electric guy comes every month to take a manual reading, leaves an invoice and the homeowner has to go to the electric company to pay the bill.  Long process. 

Shopping- everyone buys food daily at a local market which consists of people sitting around on the side of the road selling fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, etc.  Meat is bought from random butcher shops on the corners which consist of small tiled rooms, probably the size of a large cubicle in an office, and its just hung from the ceiling in large slabs and the butcher will chop off what you want.  It’s not an attractive sight.  Chickens are alive one day and dead and on the table the next.  Also there is really no garbage system.  Everyone just throws it on the street and burns it every few days.

Guess that’s it for now.  Hopefully everyone is well!  Take care, Cath