First week of July

Mama came over Wednesday afternoon to help me make the peanut sauce she served us and brought baby and her niece. Emily played with the kids while mom and I cooked. Then I got to play with them for a little bit before they left. We got out the bubbles and seasame street books and some paper and colored pencils. It was pretty fun. The food though didn’t turn out so well. I think the peanuts I bought went bad. They smelled kinda funny, but she didn’t seem to mind, so I thought it’d be okay. It wasn’t. It was gross. On Thursday, I helped with VCT (voluntary counseling and testing). I sat and listened while my counterpart talked about how to prevent HIV and the ways HIV is transmitted. I had brought a little booklet with me that is in Kinyarwanda and he used that for teaching. Then he asked me if I had any questions for them. I didn’t know what to say, so I asked, how can you prevent HIV? (which I am sure he already went over) Someone said wear a condom, so then I added wear it correctly and then I asked them if they knew how to correctly use a condom in terrible kinya (mubizi gute gukoresha neza agakingirizo-you know how to use well a condom?), but it got the point across. They said they didn’t know, so we got out the wooden penis and did a demonstration. We also had a female condom and one of the women looked really interested in it and asked how to use it, but my counterpart didn’t want to open it and show her because there were picture instructions on the package. My favorite guy of the day was a 73 year old man who was wearing a Sponge Bob t-shirt. He answered most of the questions and giggled like a girl when we brought out the wooden penis.
Friday, I measured bellies like always and found a mom who had twins in her. She was 36 centimeters and I couldn’t find the head. The nurse tried and couldn’t find it either and then determined that its because this giant belly is because she has twins, so we had to send her to the hospital.
Saturday, I got picked up by some guys who live near Kate. They are building a resort by the forest. We had met them when we were in town a few weeks ago and she had seen them a few times near her work. They came and picked us up and we went to the hot springs. None of us had been there before, so we were just driving along and had to ask a few people along the way if we were going the right way. We finally made it there and it was a beautiful day. It was too hot outside for the springs to feel good, so we all got in for a few moments and then just hung out on the grass drinking and talking. We had a crowd of about 8 people just staring at us and then a giant group of school children came and were just standing around us staring at us for about an hour. It got old really fast and one of the guys decided to chase the kids. He lunged at them and chased them all over the park and then every time he moved after that the kids would jump back thinking he was going to chase them again. One of the guys asked us to teach him something in Kinya that he oculd say to the kids so kate told him to say mfite impiswi (I have diarrhea). They thought that was pretty funny. After about 2 hours of being stared at, a guard type guy came around with a stick and herded the kids away. I was so thankful. I am not that interesting, I have no idea what they could’ve found so entertaining about us just sitting on the grass talking. After the hot springs, we went into town to get some food for a braai (South African bbq). They made steak, chicken and cheese sandwiches and a salad. It was delicious, but I got peer pressured into eating a bite of chicken and now mfite impiswi. We drank drinks and watched music videos and played with their pet pig. We spent the night at their house and then on Sunday morning we all went to the lake. Of course, Sunday it was a bit cooler, so the lake was cold. But it was still really nice. We all swam out to the floating dock and laid in the sun, then hung out on the grass. After the lake, we went to a restaurant that’s on a cliff overlooking the lake and got some food and drinks. Then they drove us home. It was a really nice weekend. Two of the guys are from South Africa and one is from Siberia, so the mix of accents was interesting. They like the way we say bananas, but not how we say tomato. One of them kept making fun of us saying do you want a banana or a banAna. I learned a few words in South African slang, so I’ll totally fit in when I go down there for world cup. Haha.