Village visit

All is well here in Arusha! I am enjoying everything so much: doing lots of organizational work for the Suzuki program with Liza (it feels wonderful to be my our own bosses for now), absorbing as much Swahili as I can, and keeping basic goals of personal health and sanity (use a mosquito net, apply bug spray after dark, stay hydrated, eat, get some quiet alone time). I have been incredibly fortunate to receive a truly amazing introduction to my new home in the first two days.

Today, Liza, David Sengenge (my fellow teacher, of guitar), Erica (my new housemate) and I visited a beautiful village in the Bangata district, just outside of Arusha. We were there to watch a choir rehearsal run by a few American women who are volunteering for Erica's organization, called Support for International Change, which sets up volunteers who want to work in AIDS/HIV-related projects here in the Arusha region. Erica is one of the higher-ups on the small staff, and I'm already learning so much from her about running an organization, speaking Swahili, being brave, and driving an ungodly huge 4x4 truck. (She and Liza have lots in common.) Erica wanted to hook the American volunteers up with Liza, David and me, because we're music teachers. We watched, made some suggestions, and Liza got started connecting them with local resources. The children have unbelievable ears! They are so accustomed to singing, clapping, and dancing in church and community. They can sing parts in thirds easily and heartily, without the shyness we all remember from middle school chorus.

The village was unbelievably gorgeous. It was lush, green, and QUIET compared with the relatively urban hustle and bustle of Arusha proper. The road up to the village was incredibly rough, and is apparently only passable in ONE kind of truck. (Erica's organization owns several; without these, their rural outreach work would not be possible.) Because these people are more removed, white people (wazungu) are pretty unusual. Enormous crowds of schoolchildren developed around the truck whenever we needed to stop.

Because many people don't really understand how cameras work, why you'd take their picture, and where the picture's going, locals don't like having their picture taken. In order to respect this, I kept my camera out of sight until we began to walk back down the road, and captured some nice images without annoying anyone. When the internet's better, I'll post them. =) Love and miss my friends and family.