Wiki Kumi na Moja

Week 11- wow, for the slow pace in Tanzania, time just flies! Tara and I were talking over dinner last night, mystified by the fact that she has already been in Tanzania for three weeks, and I am nearing three months.

I realize just how precious each moment of my time is here as I see off friends who are flying home to their own countries, receive emails from past interns wishing they were in Tanzania, and open emails from future interns who are counting down the days until their arrival.
After returning from the vacation we took last week, Tara and I were busy picking up where we had left off the week before. We traveled to NIMR to empty our email inbox and talk with those who are in charge of probiotics at the lab. I spent the rest of the week with the Yogurt Mama's going over English lessons and discussing health and safety issues in the kitchen in hopes of reinforcing the importance of food safety practices that are suitable for a clinical based project.

The city basically shut down for the Easter holiday long weekend and the Muslim holiday that took place on Thursday. The Yogurt Mama's invited me to go to church with them in Mabatini on Sunday. I arrived at 8am and stayed for the first service with four of the Mama's. As we were leaving around 10:30am, Eva, the 14 year old daughter of one of the Yogurt Mama's grabbed my hand and took me around the building to proudly introduce me to her older brother. He was Jesus in a skit performed by the high school students depicting the Last Supper through to the resurrection of Jesus. Afterwards, Eva brought me back to church where the community members were signing songs and dancing and I ended up staying for a second service. I arrived home around 2pm, after hearing the names "Mungu" and "Yesu" (God and Jesus) more then I had in the past five years! I am floored by the faith of the people that I have met during my time here, by far the most dedicated religious follower I have ever encountered.

Tara and I were invited to the home of Ruge, a Kivulini employee, for Easter Lunch. We were given a tour of his home on Bugando hill and were introduced to his forty chickens. They shared a delicious meal... of chicken... with us and welcomed us with such warm hospitality.

I planned on taking full advantage of the city closure by catching up on data input for my research studies. Unfortunately, we had two and a half days with no electricity, which made it impossible to work on my computer. Ruben was away for the weekend, so Tara and I spent some time on the weekend writing greeting cards home by candlelight.

We were able to get our power back yesterday, so we spent the day putting together tasks for this week and continuing the task of data entry. Mid afternoon I received a text message from our yoga teacher delivering the news that she had malaria, and asked me to take over the class. I was so excited to be given the opportunity to teach! I led my first official class on the beach, facing a group of students rather than having my normal view out onto the Lake. It was very invigorating and I am looking forward to taking classes to become a certified instructor when I return to Canada.

Now, as I write, I look forward to a hard week of work! Until next week, Namaste.