This is what I do.....

It's hard to believe another month has passed already. As you already know, my AT workshop is coming up in a couple weeks. I'm really excited and have been busy preparing. Just this past week we built a stove, that works with methylated spirits, to demonstrate at the workshop. I learned a lot about AT during the Choma workshop, but I still have a lot to learn about the actual building of things. So I have to admit, I think I was helped more during this experience than I was actually helping. I learned a lot and am pretty proud of what we accomplished. During the workshop I am in charge of the logistics, money, and teaching in the classroom. I'll also be doing a few of the demonstrations. Britain is in charge of a lot of the hands on building aspects. So, I also finished the grant (on-line) version and turned it into Dorothy. The program was actually really hard to work and it took a long time to do the grant, even though I had all of the information from the grant that I already turned in. I e-mailed Dorothy with my problems, so she is aware. Then I wrote letters for the counterparts and made reservations for them as well.   Logistically speaking, I feel pretty prepared so far (I hope!!).

In the village things have been pretty quiet. I have been working with my G.L.O.W. Club. One of our first activities is to do a fund raiser. We are going to make those chitenge floor mats and sell them. Then the girls will have money for notebooks or other things they want for the club. We thought about making fritters, but the profit margin is very small. With this I will also be teaching about budgeting. The club is still new, but the girls are very excited. We have only had a few meetings so far, but its nice to see them coming out of their shells and taking charge of THEIR club. My counterpart and I get along very well and are both committed to this club.

I did two health talks at Chitwe Basic School. One was on malaria. We played a tag game to demonstrate how malaria is spread. It was a hit. The second one was on the importance of hydration. We talked about how water affects the body and we made an ORS. They are about 5K from the RHC. So they can start hydrating right away when they are sick. Especially since a 5k walk is sure to dehydrate them even more. I really like working with this school. The students always ask questions and are very involved. I heard from the teacher that on days that I come the attendance is always the highest of the week. I only did one health talk at Misengo Basic School this month. I showed them how to make chlorine. After this I had a few kids come to my house to try to make it on their own.

I did a cooking demonstration for a few individuals (3) who had access to milk and we able to make cheese. We talked about the nutritional benefits of milk and cheese, a balanced diet, and childhood nutrition.

I am still doing my tutoring sessions at my house. I realized that I am not a very good English teacher, but am a great math teacher. A small child, who comes to my house all the time, has learned how to count and is learning to count by twos now. He is at my house a lot. He would be there 24/7 if I let him. So we have lots of time to practice. And we count literally everything that can be counted. He is also learning his ABCs. He knows up to "I".