Written Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Good morning!

Its an overcast and slightly chilly morning here in Moz, so this blog is being written from inside my house over a cup of hot instant coffee (yuck). The coffee sucks, but it does in a pinch I suppose.

The week has started off really nicely – spent time in the hospital Monday, working on organizing the paperwork of those who have abandoned their antiretroviral treatments for HIV. I am putting them in chronological order, from oldest to newest. The grand idea is that once this is all organized, I can create lists of Abandono’s (people who have abandoned treatment) organized by neighborhood/surrounding areas, and give those lists to the Peer Educators. The Peer Educators are supposed to spend one day in the hospital, and one day in the field looking for those who have abandoned treatment, and getting them to come back. Hopefully this list, and system of organization will help streamline that process/get it started, because word on the street is that the Peer Educators have yet to do these “buscas” (searches).  So stay tuned to see how that goes. Hopefully I’ll have the paperwork done by this week, and the lists by next week. I’d love to get this process started before the holiday season is upon us.

Tuesday morning was the same thing, hospital from about 7am until noon. . . I came back to my house and did a big clean – washed dishes, swept my yard, swept the house etc. We had our final REDES meeting for the year at my house, so the plan was to have a small party to celebrate. I made banana pancakes for the occasion. The girls LOVED them, and wanted to learn how to make them. I think that’s going to be incorporated into our future plans. During our little get-together we talked about what we wanted to do in the future. We have some girls heading off to a new grade level in Jan/Feb, so our thoughts were – start a new REDES group. Have one that meets in the afternoon one day out of the week with the younger girls (ages 12-14ish) and one that meets in the morning another day with the older girls (15-18ish). Older kids have classes in the afternoon, and vice versa, younger kids in the morning. So the general game plan is to create two REDES groups, and have different projects going on, getting more girls involved – to then have one general meeting with everyone once a month on a Saturday or something. I have high hopes for these plans. The girls seem really involved/invested, and hopefully we can get more on board and involved.

So the little meeting was great, we had some food – banana pancakes, some fruit, veggies and juice. It was an odd combo of food haha but it was good. It was “girl time” Moz style. We talked about boys, clothes, I showed them pictures from my life in the states, they even braided my hair haha yep –I have cornrows. Not the best look for me, but I indulged them. They aren’t super tight, so I can take them out later today, but it was a cool experience, and the girls got a kick out of it. Like I said, “girl time” Moz style. Music, chatting, and doing hair. Some things stay the same, no matter where you are in the world. It was a really cool bonding experience, and I’m happy that I have this REDES group to work with. I’m excited about our future.

Today I am off to ACOMUZA. . .hopefully to start the SWOT analysis of our ongoing projects. I will let you all know how that goes. I’m foreseeing a very long meeting – they usually run until 11ish or so, but with this project, in addition to everything we usually cover on a weekly basis… let’s just say I’m bringing a snack with me haha.

Tomorrow is my water talk with Despertai – I have some good material organized, ways to purify water, places to collect water from, and how to make homemade oral rehydration salts. We are also going to touch upon our future projects, and give a little attention to our garden.

Friday I’m back at the hospital to finish up the organization process. . .and then BAM! Another week in Moz over. Madness.

Hope all is well at home –

Smoochies- t