Great weekend in Morogoro

So I searched yesterday for a USB cord for my camera but apparently they aren't sold in Morogoro and I'll have to wait until I get home to put up pictures.

On Friday I woke up and had a good feeling about the day. That was topped off by a surprise phone call from the bf back home so I was already in a good mood and the weekend just kept getting better.

We went to the Faraja office to meet with Godfrey and had to wait about an hour (we do lots of waiting here, times aren't as strict as they are back home and no one worries too much if they're late so it's been something to get used to). Then we had our weekly meeting at Ricky's (which meant ice cream for lunch!).

Later that day we had our first Ushujaa (HIV outreach talent show) in the Mazimbu area of Morogoro with the theme being Prevention. Makho, the Morogoro program director for YCI, is a really good rapper so him and Habibu from the drama club did a little rap at the beginning. We also got to hear a song that Makho has made about HIV, promoting getting tested. There were so many little kids who just loved to hang out with us. They also had a dance competition for the kids which was really neat. One guy did a Michael Jackson dance to Smooth Criminal which was great! The whole time Makho and Godfrey are being the MCs and talking to the audience about HIV prevention including the ABC's of HIV prevention (abstinence, being faithful and condom use). Meanwhile we went around handing out condoms to the teens and adults and did some condom demonstrations. We had over 200 male and female condoms and we ran out and had to tell people that we didn't have anymore. Nicole also participated in one of the drama clubs skits on condoms and I presented facts about HIV in Canada which Godfrey translated (apparently it's really interesting for people to learn that there isn't just HIV in Africa). The day was so much fun and it really felt like we were getting involved.

Yesterday we went souvenir shopping. Paul showed Nicole and I some of the good shops and helped us make sure we didn't get too ripped off by paying the "mzungu price". Then we shopped for supplies for that night. We had decided to make a Canadian dinner for our homestay family and the YCI staff. We had limited access to the same ingredients we have at home so we decided to make pancakes with maple syrup (Godfrey had been given some by a friend which he donated), nutella, jam and a bunch of fruit. Nicole also had maple syrup candies that she passed out for dessert. The dinner actually turned out quite well although it took us a while to make enough for everyone. They all seemed to enjoy it though and it was a nice change for us. (Eating ugali or rice for every meal gets old pretty quickly especially since ugali has zero flavour despite looking like mashed potatoes....it's a very deceptive dish that Nicole and I hope to eat as little as possible).

Today is more of a work day. I'm at the YCI office right now in Faraja starting to work on planning the next couple of weeks and then I plan on splurging and buying a latte from Rickys and enjoying my book. (I'm reading like crazy here, I've already finished East of Eden-Steinbeck and Life Before Man-Atwood so I'm lucky there's a stack of books at the YCI office).

Love from Moro!
Melissa