Zanzibar day 1- 5/24

I met up with Jessica and our driver, mr. Mohammed. We hopped in a huge van and Jessica told me I wasn't te last one to arrive and we would need to wait 4 hours for Yao to arrive from china, as she got stuck there with a passport issue. By now it's a thousand humid degrees and my stupid ass wore a shirt and jeans. I waited for Jessica to run some errands and continues to sweat bullets in the car and mr. Mohammed tried to teach me Swahili. Once Jessica got back from her secon hour long errand ( remember how I said that everything took longer everywhere else?) we went through stonetown to get some food. Stonetown isn't what I expected it to be. I imagined a little town like Alvera street in LA where people sold a bunch of arts and crafts. Instead it was a bunch of unmarked roads where everyone wasselling things out of little buildings all overthe roads. There werepeople everywhere and I realized quickly that it was only 12 pm and coming from a place where most work 9-5 and the streets are cleared, these people worked all over. Suddenly the thing I had been praying for happened: hot. Rain! It's my favorite kind of weather; the hot tropical rain and I was giddy as we drove through to get food.

We stopped at a small restaurant and Jessica and mr. Mohammed helped me order food. We had a HUGE plate of rice and I ordered some meat that was very good. They cooked it in some curry sauce and with rice it was a huge meal. I forced myself to eat it all, because the "there are children in africa who could be eating that" mantra seemed all too familiar as people wandere the streets without shoes on and ifelt immensely sick afterward. We headed to the bathroom with a real toilet and running water and we found Yao and headed tithe hotel finally.

Now I didn't really know we were staying at a hotel, but was pleasantly surprised that they had running water toilets and showers; all things I was prepared not to have. So we drove about an hour west and headed to the hotel called the Kichanga in something I could only describe as the rainforest. People had huts right on the side of a busy road and were sitting and sleeping in them. The dedregation of the town was so much more than I anticipated in the inlet areas. So much of the inner village area is filled with tiny bushes where people sleep and little huts where they raise their children. It showed me show completely out of touch with the world they were, so it was no wonder they were so uneducated about HIV and AIDS. I am trying to find a way to do a mass public outreach or figure out some way to et to the masses.

As we arrived closer to the hotel we had to go on a huge gravely dirt road for probably 3 miles. I prayed I would e able to see or smell the beach from where I was. Surprisingly the hotel rested on a ledge directly in front of the clearest beach I had ever seen. It looks straight out of a travel magazine or screen saver. We stood in the "lobby" which is an outside community gathering area, and I surveyed the scene. The whole lobby roof was a straw and wood roof. They had large wicker lights hanging from electrical wires all over in a mixed up order, and a bar in the corner made of cement and the ends of multipliers glass beer bottles. There's a lounge type area where they have the comfiest couches ever.

We wandered down a little path with 2 hotel hosts carrying our bags and passed a bunch of little bungalows with straw roofs and wooden windows. The last one down the windy road ended up being mine, the one I share with Jessica and our program leader, Lily. When the door opened I saw a large bed with a canopy that looked like a princess bed and a small bed to the front left of the room that would eventually be mine. It had a net over it as well of course and there was also a bathroom a shower and a little closet.

Not too bad considering I thought I was going to be living in a hut somewhere!

Out on the front patio was a chair and a swinging hammock that would be perfect at night if it weren't for the effing mosquitos. When I arrived I introduced myself to the people in the bungalow next to us who turned out to be Selena and Mary. Then I headed down to the middle group of bungalows to meet everyone else and begin the practice teachings of the materials. We were training to become part of the teaching crew that would go into the community and to schools to teach the material. I was a little bummed out to find out that the orphanage was in Arusha and we wouldn't be going there for a couple weeks, but I soon learned that there were so many children wandering the streets that I would meet, that it all evened out. As long as I was going to teach someone how to protect themselves from HIV And aids then I was happy to be here.

We got assigned to groups to teach lessons and had a Swahili partner to help with translation. My first group was aliviana, steven, kristie and our Swahili partner, Tabit. I knee Aliviana from school, but didn't know anyone else. We planned our lesson, all the while dealing with an immense language barrier between us and Tabit. He is directly from a village instead of Stonetown, where most people speak a little English so he is very slow at grasping what we say. We thought our first presentation would bomb because he could hardly talk to us about what he does and where he lives, let alone the intricate details of HIV and AIDS, but they had to leave and we had our first meal at the Kichanga hotel. I had been wondering what I would be eating and wa pleased to see rice and some kind of tiny little fishes. I'm not sure what they were but it looked a little like anchovy and tasted pretty good. Super salty and delicious.

The only issue here with the food, besides the repetitiveness is the lack of fruits and vegetables. It consists of mostly rice and usually one tiny chunk of meat or fish.

I was excited to head to bed after nearly 20 hours of no sleep so I climed into bed and tucked myself into my malaria net and passed out.