Orientation

Greetings from Arusha! Our orientation site is 20km out of town, so being in the "big city" for a few hours is a treat! We've got a great group and everything is going very well so far. I'm rather eager to move to the villages and get started with our work (which will happen on Monday) but the orientation has been very helpful. We've covered in depth the many issues affecting the AIDS epidemic including poverty, gender inequalities, education, stigma, alcohol/drugs, access to health care, nutrition, rituals, cultural beliefs, religion. government policies, road quality, and urbanization to name a few. One of the orientation leaders had the opportunity to go to the recent global AIDS conference in Mexico City (what an experience!) so we were thrilled to hear what she had to share.
We've also met with SIC's community health workers, who provide education, facilitate counseling and testing, and provide care to HIV+ individuals. We also met with the counselors and heard about the challenges they face.
The villages we will serve have a mixed population of Meru and Masai people, each of which has a different languages and cultural beliefs. There are 120 languages (not dialects, but different languages) in TZ! Thankfully, Swahili is common throughout. The Swahili lessons have been going well but I still am not at the level I would like to be. I'm sure the homestay (starting Monday) will speed things up considerably.
Being here means being immersed in many traditions - the Jewish New Year and end of Ramadan are days previously unnoticed in my world -now they are cause for celebration.
We're already making plans for our long weekends. We have 3 and I think the first two will be spent on safari and then a trip to Zanzibar, an island of the coast of TZ. The last long weekend includes World AIDS Day so while we technically have it off, I can't imagine not participating in the events our staff will be doing that weekend.
I/we have been shaken to the core twice now w/ very difficult questions about our motives and potential for effectiveness (details when i return if anyone interested) both from orientation leaders and from Tanzanians. Very hard. But, we emerged with a clearer sense of purpose and I'm confident that this is where I'm supposed to be at this time. Still. it was all the more motivation to be as effective, sensitive, relevant as possible and make sure that what we start is sustainable.
It will be 2 weeks before I can write again. Wish I could tell you so much more.
Best wishes to you all!
Nat