Today was so much fun with kids and going into town!
It was raining a little bit this morning so there were some students missing and it took other students longer to get to school. I taught them more English today and went through the sounds that the letters make again. Initially they didn't really participate, but once I got a few letters into the alphabet they all started making the sounds with me and saying the new words. On certain letters they get really loud because they are amused by the sound, it's really cute. Words that they had a hard time saying, like tortoise, I had them sound out with me a few times and then say I slow and fast. The teacher will still probably pronounce all of these words wrong to the kids though, so they won't actually learn much from me going over them a few times, but it's worth a shot.
After we finished with English we took them outside to play! We went through several songs, Tooty Ta, the hokey pokey, and happy and you know it. They really like the tooty ta song and dance though so we did that one 3 or 4 times. One of the ladies from CCS came by while we were playing outside to check on how we were doing in our placement. When the van pulled up the teacher got a little upset because she thought they were coming to pick us up, it was 10:30 so it would have been way too early. Sarah did the tooty ta dance with us and the kids again before she left, they really loved it! Then we played for a little while longer. Some of the kids wanted to play tag, so Em and I did that while the other kids played on the slide or swings. They all have soo much energy...I can't keep up with them! A few minutes after we went back inside the van came to get us.
After lunch we had another guest speaker, this one was on female genetal mutilation. We were given the option to not have this talk, but all of us wanted to hear about it and know what they are doing to prevent it. We learned that 15% of the Tanzanian population is affected by this, mostly the Maasai tribe still practices this type of "tradition." There are four types of FGM, they showed us a model of the different types and explained what health problems can be associated with each type. The government has made it illegal for people to practice FGM, so if this group catches people doing it they can take legal action. They take in girls who runaway from home before and after this happens to them. One thing we learned that was really disturbing to all of us was that the man decides when his daughter needs to have this done, but the woman actually does it to her. When they are taken to court the woman is the only one who is charged because she is the one who actually did it.
To try to completely eradicate this practice the grcup NAFGM was formed. This group goes it the various Maasai villages and talks to them about why they shouldn't do this to their girls. If they are able to convince them then they take their tools, which are very crude, rusty knives. They also help set up small businesses in the villages to keep them busy so that they won't have time to mutilate their girls. These small business also help them to have more money because they can sell the necklaces and bracelets that they make to the people who visit their village.
After the guest speaker we had a town trip and dinner out. When we went into town Emily and I walked around and shopped a little before meeting everyone at the coffee lounge. While we were walking around there were a lot of people that would follow us and try to get us to buy stuff from them, but we just ignored them or told them we weren't interested and walked away. This isn't anything new, but the other girls had experienced this last week and were really upset by it. We bought a few things, but not much because we still have plenty if time here and tomorrow we are going on a day trip to a place where we can get souvenirs as well.
Dinner was at a traditional African restaurant, complete with African dancing. The food was really good, but it wasn't anything really different from what Andrew cooks for us at the home base. The dancing was incredible! Those girls really knew how to move their hips! All of us were really amazed by the dancing! At one point they brought out a huge snake and started dancing with, more than half of he girls were afraid of it. After we ate they made all of dance with them, which was hilarious! We had so much fun though and everyone got a chance to embarrass themselves! The whole experience was amazing!
Today was really exhausting, but so much fun!
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