Outreach and Church

So each week we do an Outreach project aside from our regular camp, and these are aimed at adults. This Saturday we left bright and early at 7am to return to a community World Camp had visited in the beginning of the summer. It is a little less than two hours away from our house, and they rarely get visitors. We were coming back to do a workshop on HIV/AIDS transmission, prevention, and care for the elders of their community as well as about twenty chiefs. It was quite a bumpy and dust-filled ride out there, but the kids that met us off the bus were quite cute. We had to wait a bit to get started for more adults to show up, so we sang songs with the rugrats and they even formed their own little circle and did some dances. Adorable.

The actually workshop went well. There were four groups that just rotated around to different sessions. Daniel, Dom, and I were in charge of the transmission session. So pretty much we just went over the three ways of transmitting HIV, the four bodily fluids that carry HIV, and then went over a game that we use with the kids to demonstrate how quickly HIV can spread in a community when people are having unprotected sex. The purpose of the workshop was kind of to show them how we teach this information, so that they can then go and teach it to other community members. But we found that a lot of them weren’t confident in the material/information themselves and they had some questions, too. So it was half teaching the information and half just demonstrating how to teach it. Overall I think that it went really well, and the chief seemed very appreciative of our willingness to drive so far out to them. They definitely seem to be a community that is committed to stopping the spread of HIV through education, which is really encouraging.

Everyone was pretty tired when we got back, but eight of us went to eat at an Italian restaurant called Mamma Mias. It was actually really nice to eat at a table and talk over our food (typical dinners at the house are sitting around on couches). Jaren was the coordinator that went with us, and he told us a bit about the different areas World Camp is looking into, which was really interesting. First, World Camp is already kind of partnered with Madonna’s organization for Malawi, which is pretty cool. That is how World Camp acquires quite a few of its volunteers is through her documentary. Also, there are various other NGOs that World Camp has been meeting with to possibly set up some more partnerships and such. Exciting stuff! Afterwards we got ice cream, and went back to the house. From there we went to Diplomats to celebrate Brittanny’s birthday (another volunteer). Pretty good evening. And oh yeah, it was mom’s birthday so happy birthday mom!

This morning some of us got up early to go with Chikabachi (field staff) to his church. He was dressed up so nice in a black suit and tie! When we got to church, Chikabachi had his Sunday School kids all line up and had them sing for us. One of the kids even conducted the rest of the group! He was so cute, especially since he was wearing a bow-tie. They’re little voices were just so sweet. I have a video that I’m sure will make it on here at some point. The translated the service into English for us, which was nice because they did it especially because we were there. The sermon was about staying alive in our faith by spending and giving of our time, and by realizing that we might not always understand why we must go through tough things but that God has a reason and can use us and our situations. He also talked about spiritual nutrition and weighing out our earthly goods versus spiritual goods. After the service they made us stand up front and Chikabachi introduced each of us. I felt like he was a mother hen and we were his little chicks. Chikabachi is such a sweet and awesome guy.

So that is what the weekend has held for me. Today I actually rained a bit, which is strange for the dry season. And it is chilly and gloomy, so I am going to take a nap. Nothing to particularly exciting about this post, but I’m sure I’ll have more excitement later in the week. Dom and I will be teaching partners. He and I also had cook group tonight, and I was literally in the kitchen from 3 until 8 without leaving. We made fried rice with carrots, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, eggs, and garlic with chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Turned out being a huge success and was surprisingly fun to cook. So now I’m stuffed.

It is crazy to think that two weeks from today I will be headed home. I have a feeling these last fourteen days are going to fly by. :(