Maweni

Maweni is the name of my new village and literally means "place of stones". The population is about 800, compared to 1400 in our last village. We absolutely love it! The community is SO welcoming and supportive! Everyday when we walk through "town", one of the village leaders makes a point to ask us what problems we're facing that they can help us solve - so far, we haven't had any! Maweni has strong community groups - one is a microfinance organization run by the villagers to support small businesses in the community. We went to one of their mtgs and were very impressed by their organization. They put their agenda aside though, to sing a song to welcome us! The other organization was started by a European NGO, and its aim is to help villagers plant banana trees in the most efficient way possible. Maweni is also home to the best chai in all of Africa, we're convinced!

We love teaching primary school - I have the standard 4 class, which is like 4th grade. We have 25 students in standard 4 and 50 students in the combined standard 5 and 6 classroom. These classes are so much smaller than the last village and we have 2 hours a day instead of one, which we love. Learning students' names is suddenly a reasonable goal! The energy of 9 year olds is wonderful, and we love breaking up the lessons with games and songs. One of our songs teaches the kids the fluids and "doors" (entry points to the body) that can transmit HIV - I'm fairly certain we'd be kicked out of any elementary school in the States if we attempted it there) but a lot of what we teach them is more about general life skills and staying healthy, including setting goals, decision making, communication skills, nutrition, etc.

The community is also very interested in our work. One evening we walked toward the soccer field with a ball and within half an hour had a crowd of 80 people - 10% of the village population!! We alternated playing games and teaching, and have been out on the field most evenings since with soccer balls and a frisbee. (thanks again, Brandts!)

We've also been invited for chai at many of the houses in the village - and are convinced that everyone is related! We're so involved in the village life that we were even invited to a wedding party thrown by the bride's family a few days before the wedding. (We were invited to the wedding, but were scheduled to be in Arusha that day). It was a lot of fun and we were thrilled to be included, but the other two American volunteers and I were mortified when the photographer decided we were more interesting than the bride and started taking tons of pictures of us instead, shouting "Europa" into the microphone, believing we were Europeans. As much as I would have loved to be at the wedding, I'm relieved to know that the focus will be on the bride on her day.

We did patient visits in the village this week. We visited a single mom with 3 kids, none of whom know her status. Looking at a picture of her holding her youngest child, who died of AIDS, was heartbreaking. She said that the first time she learned about HIV was when our organization was in her village 3 years ago, which prompted her to get tested. She's now on ARV's and her CD4 cell count has more than doubled, which is great news. She said she's teaching her kids about prevention without disclosing her status.

The community health worker (CHW) in Maweni is an amazing, very hard-working, caring man who has been a huge asset to the village and to the volunteers. He has several patients that he visits several times a week, helping them access whatever services they need. A woman approached him recently saying that she suspected her husband was HIV positive and taking ARV's, but that he was insisting he'd never been tested and was taking medication for something else. She asked us to come over and teach about living and caring and stigma, pretending we were doing house-to-house teaching and had never met her. The CHW set it up, and we were thrilled to do so. He told us he wanted to get tested, but not in public, so we set up a special private testing day at his home for him and his wife. He is positive, and already on ARV's, but said he didn't trust the clinic that had tested him and only now believed it. His wife is negative, and they received counseling about living with HIV and preventing transmission. He also agreed to register as one of our clients, meaning he'll get regular visits from a CHW and travel stipends to doctor's appointments. We may not be changing the national prevalence rate, but we are making a difference in a few communities.

The volunteers in another village were frustrated to learn that one of their schools is closing 2 weeks early due to a teachers' strike, meaning they had to teach the entire curriculum in 2 days and then use the 3rd and final day to offer HIV testing to the students. They did a great job though, and 100 of the 140 students chose to get tested. Sadly, one 15 year old girl was positive, but we're glad that she's now has the knowledge she needs and access to whatever assistance she'll need. And, none of us can blame the teachers for striking - the public school teachers have received only a fraction of their paychecks for the last 6 months for no reason - and we're told this is fairly common. The teachers gave the final exams 2 weeks early and then closed the school for the year (their school system operates from January to November rather than September to May). The private schools, including the one my host brother teaches at, always pay their staff on time and offer higher salaries than public schools.

Small farms are key to village life, and Maweni is no exception. We enjoy getting up early to go to the shamba (farm) of one of the volunteer's host mom. As a single woman, she maintains a 6 acres of land and a small herd of livestock! Her fields border the river, meaning that monkeys often eat her corn plants, so she's set up scarecrows and in the mornings throws rocks at the monkeys!

Some of the volunteers have said that if agriculture was practiced in the U.S. the way it is here, they would never have become vegetarians. It's an interesting topic - there are certainly no growth hormones used here, and antibiotics are rarely used. All chickens are "free-range" (ours think they ought to live in our house since the doors are always open!) and there's certainly no need for a law stating that animals must have room to stand, lie down, and turn around in their pens! For the families in Maweni, farming is done without the use of much modern technology, including plowing fields using steers yoked together pulling a plow rather than tractors. It's difficult work!

Cooking is done in a small building over a wood fire. The room is usually very hot and filled with smoke. I have so much respect for the women here! We attempt to cook, but we're usually not much help.