bang! bang! bang!

No, I did not get shot, nor see fireworks.

I'm just a bit surprised at myself, because this is my third post in a week!! I had some errands to do in Mwanza and so decided to make a day of it. And since I was supposed to pick up a parcel at 2pm, and when I showed up they said 'whoops it's late come back at 5,' I figured what the hell, lets go for a triple play this week.

I'm not too proud of that baseball metaphor, especially since I don't like baseball and Tanzanians have no clue what it is.

So for the past week, a mobile VCT [voluntary counseling and testing] unit was in Misungwi to test people for HIV. There were about 200 people who got tested, which is fantastic. On average at the ANGAZA centers [means 'light' or 'illumination' in Swahili], around a quarter of the people who come to get tested are HIV+. So i'm hoping that however many were tested here, they have gotten some counseling and should be aware of the group for people living with HIV/AIDS. Which just recently divided itself into 2 separate groups, as membership had risen to over 40 people. I briefly debated whether or not this is a good or bad thing - but almost instantly decided it was nothing but good. Yes, it means there are more people with HIV, but those people were there already, and now they will be getting services and support that they need.

I had just come from visiting the tents they had set up to do the testing, having spoken briefly with the coordinator, and was feeling very positive about the incredibly difficult work that they do. So I went to search for yogurt [chunky milk], and found that they had run out at my two favorite spots. I went to a new 'kibanda' [wood shack] that was set up recently, and drank some there. Not very smooth, but still tasty. As I'm sitting there, enjoying my beverage and raving about the protein and calcium that I was getting [people all around me were drinking CocaCola], a young man on a bicycle pulled up and began speaking with the woman working at the milkstand. Now, this woman is already married, but has no children. I learned this because she is new to the area, and I hadn't been there for 1 minute before someone else had asked her this question. Well, she was asked again [by another person] after bike-boy had arrived. I call him bike-boy because when i say young man, I really mean boy - maybe 17 or 18 years old, an age at which men here still look fairly young.

I continued to sip my chunkymilk, my carpenter friend arrived and bought me a cake, and all the while we traded greetings and news briefs we observed the milkgirl and bikeboy chatting. It seemed bikeboy wanted milk, but milkgirl didn't believe [nor did I] that he had any money with which to pay. So she shyly, awkwardly, still an outsider, tried to express this to him, while he tried to reassure her that there was no problem, he had money, he would give it to her later.

I left with my carpenter friend, and immediately asked him
'so, what did you think of that bike boy?'
My friend said 'um, I don't really know him. But he seemed ok, for a youth.'
'Oh, yeah, so do you think he really wanted milk?'
'Maybe, yeah.'
'Oh. And anything else?'
'Yeah. He was [kutongoza] the milkgirl'

I can't think of a good English equivalent for that word. It's not flirting. Even 'hitting on' doesn't fit. Maybe 'tapping that' or some other crude slang. So yeah, it's as I had thought and seen. A young man, probably just recently finished primary school, blatantly hitting on and trying to bed a newly married woman. Well that's nice!

Of course, it's much better than what I saw about half an hour later. There is a spot on the main road called 'The Traffic Mango Tree', where lots of people sell roasted corn, porridge, peanuts, cassava, etc. So a young woman wanted to buy an ear of roasted corn. And the young man selling it said 'ok, lets go over there [pointing to an unfinished building nearby] and i'll sell you some corn,' with a really nasty dirty grin.

On a more positive note, electricity recently came to Misungwi Secondary School. So to celebrate, I decided to invite all the seniors to watch a short video on Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Talk about a party!! These students rarely get anything other than lecture in class, so they were thrilled to be able to watch a video. Of course, the lovely electric company decided to cut power about 2 minutes into the film, but the students [and teachers!] were so excited that they went and sought out a generator from the house of the teacher who lent the TV and VCR, and so the show went ahead as planned.

The video is graphic. It shows babies with gonorrhea infection in the eyes. It shows genitalia, male and female, in various stages of infections with blisters, puss, open sores, cuts. I mean, nausea-inducing. A classroom that I never expected would be able to be quite were absolutely silent for a good 10 minutes. Not even the expected snickering or murmuring. I of course gave them questions to answer after the video, which they have not yet answered [figures]. But I am betting the video not only bought me cred as a teacher, but also gave them something interesting to do on an otherwise humdrum afternoon, and hopefully scared them off of sex for at least a few days.

I had a hard time explaining to the wife of a fellow teacher, whom I visited for dinner that night, why I wasn't eating much that day. Without, that is, going into too much detail. They have the cutest kid, who really likes me, and likes to mimic everything I do. So at one point when I got down on the ground and covered my head ala tornado drill simulation [no clue how we got onto that topic], as soon as I had sat down again this little 2 year old boy stood up, went over to where I had demonstrated this task, and proceeded to crouch and cover like a PRO. It was hilarious.