The second dala dala took us down the worst dirt road I’ve ever seen. In no place was the ground even and there were potholes the size of small craters every few feet. The majority of the children who live in Unga Limited are not able to afford even the uniforms to attend the free government schools, so sit on the side of the roads and watch cars pass all day. All of the houses in the community are made from logs, and the ones belonging to a family with a little bit of money are made with logs and mud in-between the logs. Some are simply made from cardboard, which gets destroyed in the frequent rain, or tin siding. When it rains the road completely inaccessible, as the puddles of water and ankle deep mud won’t let any person or vehicle pass through. At the end of the road was Camp Joshua.
The plot of land the school sits on is very big. It already has 7 classrooms and a kitchen, as well as a dormitory for the children that sleep there. The cows even have a little hut for when it rains. There are cement outlines of the extra classrooms that will be built at the end of the summer already set, and the kids have a good size playing field in the middle of everything. This description may make the place seem suitable, even adequate for their learning. Now go back through and subtract any type of electricity, plumbing, or finished walls you may have added. It is dirty. Despite this, the kids are gorgeous and happy and optimistic. They know how fortunate they are to be receiving a good education and food throughout the day. Some even get the added bonus of a safe and warm place to sleep at night. Unga Limited and Camp Joshua are tough places to be and leave a person mentally, physically and emotionally drained.
After a few hours in U.L., Juliet and I headed back to Moshono, the area of Arusha that Camp Moses is in. On the way, we stopped off at Mama Wambura’s house to look at her pigs. They were massive and smelt really bad. The woman needs the pigs gone asap.
We arrived at Camp Moses just in time for some ugali and spinach. I’m actually starting to (almost) enjoy ugali, which I never thought would happen. Teacher Juliet and I made a plan of attack for figuring out the tangled mess of the sponsorship program and then headed home.
Friday morning we at the white house, awoke to our first Tanzanian rain day. When after two hours the rain had not stopped, we all agreed there was really no point in going anywhere. It was a much-needed lounge and catch up day! We finished the night of watching Super Troopers and eating stove popped popcorn. Lots of the group of nine that were presenting left today. The house has gone from 23 or so to 7! It is strangely quiet. New volunteers come next week
Today, Saturday, was project day. Cassie and the rest of the crew left here went to her orphanage to prepare the ground for a vegetable garden, and I went to my orphanage for the big HIV/AIDS test. The children are supposed to be tested every three months, but had not been tested for two years.
When I arrived shortly after nine, I was greeted by all of the children who board at Camp Joshua as well as my Camp Moses babies. In total, there were 83 children and 8 mama’s plus myself and Teacher Juliet, and some of the other teachers. It was a very busy place. The testers had said they would be at the camp by 10, so this meant we had a few hours before they actually showed up. TIA. The children were treated t
o some Saturday morning cartoons, and all sat on the floor sipping their porridge. When 11 o clock came and there were still no testers, we brought out the books and had story time for a while. Finally two men showed up with all the gear to test our children.
One by one the kids were called in, held by a teacher, and given a small prick on their finger. The little ones cried a bit, and the big kids (some we were told were as old as 14 or 15) still needed a hand to hold and flinched a bit when they were pricked. A small drop of blood was placed onto the test and mixed with the reacting fluid, called Bio something. Then I watched as the result showed, waiting to see a single stripe under the C for Control. If an additional stripe were to show over the HIV 1 or HIV 2 spot, then we knew the child was HIV positive. One by one I wrote all of their information in the record book. The information we wrote was their age, sex, whether or not they had been tested before, whether the Bio fluid reacted, and the final result. As the numbers went from 1-84, (one of the teachers got tested) each one had a Negative in the last column. After every result showed we all heaved a sigh of relief. All of our children were free of the HIV virus.
At the end of the day, I flipped through the records book. Each time a group of people (usually 80 or so to around 300) gets tested, their results are recorded in the same way that I had recorded results today. On every page, I immediately scanned thelast column, keeping my eye out for the letter ‘p’ for positive among the overwhelming amount of ‘n’s. My heart dropped every time I saw one. The one that hurt most wasAge -15, Sex – F, N (for new, instead of the RT for return tester), and then a P in the last column for positive. For every group that was tested there was never more than 1 or 2 positive, and most testing’s didn’t even have one.
Having now had my first exposure to HIV in Africa. I feel optimistic. Moses, our in country guide/coordinator/amazing person, has told us that since mzungu’s have been raising so much awareness about HIV/AIDS, the numbers of people infected has decreased a fair amount. I still have more to reflect on today, but I was so impressed with the men doing the testing, and how much I actually got to help with and do today! Best day in Tanzania so far!
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