2 Week Check In

Hi Pals,

I have been at RVCV for just over 2 weeks now so I wanted to share what I have been up to! My schedule has been mostly figured out and I am getting into a groove.

I spend my mornings in the preschool class teaching activities in English. I am so incredibly grateful for my sister and partner who are both elementary school teachers as all of my ideas have come from them! A few things we have done are: shape monsters, alphabet bingo, nature walks, patterned bracelets. The schooling system here is interesting because in primary they are taught in Swahili and in secondary they are taught in English. So at the village they encourage learning English so that the children can succeed when they move on to secondary school.

In the afternoons I have been working on planning different activities for the youth. I planned two International Day of the Girl Child events, one for primary and one for secondary. Both went really well. The secondary's came up with a future they would like to see and it was an awesome discussion. I am now planning for next week where I will do some prep work with the youth going into secondary school. There are topics that they cover such as coping with emotions, dealing with peer pressure, and setting goals, so I will be planning two sessions for them.

Juggling the 10 hours (or more) days, six days a week, with my other school work and practicum obligations has been a challenge. I am constantly feeling behind on my school work but luckily the volunteer coordinator is super supportive of giving me time to do my work. With the long days I am also trying to prioritize my rest and boundaries. I love spending time with the children but sometimes I have to choose to go spend time alone so I can recoup and reset. For those who know me well know I am not great at saying no... the girls in my house have already figured that out. Some of the older girls and I are watching a show together and one said "You would never say no to us... and if you did you wouldn't just say no you would say 'my computer is dead' or something like that". So they have figured out I can not say no, but they are pretty good at respecting when I need space, and I am working on the boundary setting. 

On Wednesday we went to FAME which is the medical centre in town. It was incredible to see and they are doing such amazing work there. While the husband and wife who started it are not Tanzanian, they worked closely with the community and 99% of the staff are Tanzanian. They have done amazing work in cutting down fatalities during childbirth and educating the communities around them. You can check out their work here https://fameafrica.org/. 

On Sunday Susan and I are going to a lodge for our day off and I am incredibly excited to relax and swim in the pool. I was supposed to go last Sunday too but I got a bad stomach bug and spent the day in bed. To get out of the village we have to take what they affectionately call "the African Massage Road". It is about 30 minutes down the bumpiest road I have ever been on.

This afternoon I am meeting with a director who oversees the social workers so I am hoping to get to do more social work and get an idea of what I can work on. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you are all doing great!

-H

Secondary students ideas for "Our Equal Future" for International Day of the Girl Child

FAME

FAME

African Massage Road


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