The people I meet....

Ok...so I want to tell you about the people I meet everyday...so I get to walk everywhere I go...and sometimes it is pretty far...you know to the classes I am teaching...so on monday it was one of those days that I got to walk far....theses are some of the pictures I took on my walk....

This little boy was walking to who knows where...all by himself...and you can see passing him is what is called a Mini-bus....a little van that they use for public transport...and stuff as many people as they can on to it...I hate them....there are usually room for 15 people at most but I have been in one where there where 25 people....it was horrible and I have not ridden in one since then.....

So this guy is trying to fly a kite....made from trash bags, two sticks, and for sting cassette tape...you see alot of these kind of kites...and cars made out of empty drink containers...they can always find something to play with...and are so happy with their toys made out of trash.

So you can see some of the normal houses...these are actually really nice ones...and the house I live in is like a mansion....

So everywhere you go...there are women selling things on the side of the road...it depends what is in season...like here they are selling corn...they are cooking them(kinda grilling them on coals) and sell them for 1pin(1000K=$0.20)....you find them all along the road...about every 1/2 mile or so and they are all selling the same things. This is how these women provide for their families...alot of them are single and have a bunch of kids...as you can see here....

So this woman I meet...she was selling corn too...I stopped and talked to her for a bit...her name is Modesty....Like I said they are all over...they sit in the same place all day, everyday...selling what they have to get a little money...3/4 of all Zambians live on less than $1 (5000K) a day...I tried it for a week...and it was hard...and that was just with my food...not anything else....

Hmmm...ok...so some of these you might know

Ok so everyone is doing this...so I thought I would too...it is all over facebook and peoples blogs so I wanted to join in....25 things you don't know about me....

1. I love, love, love my family. They are my very best friends...I love to sit on April's lap and vent about the day...I love to hear all about the dances I-kiek just came home, talking for hours on my bed with Bee. I love getting hugs from Ry, at the same time trying to keep him from pushing me down the stairs. I love to walk to dogs with Al and my mommy....to sit and watch a good movie or play cards (it gets pretty crazy)with all of them!

2. I love to cook! Everything! That is what I think about before I fall asleep most nights. But most of all I love to have people eat what I cook.

3.I love to Read. When I was little and just learning how to read....Ugh I hated it. It was so hard for me. I would spend hours on one little book. I always joke that I learned how to read in the principles office...like I was bad, but really he was my tutor....I was the only one in the whole school that Mr. Jesse would spend an hour with everyday teaching me how to read.

4.When I am mad I will either take a drive and blast classical music, or go and curl my hair or bake cookies.

5.I am very accident prone....I like to do stupid, crazy things....like dance around the kitchen or climb a tree...and most of the time I end up getting hurt someway...but I usually never remember how I got a bruise or a cut.

6.I love surprises or to get something that is unexpected....or thoughtful

7. I love, love shoes! I have over 67 pairs of shoes...most of them still in the original boxes...stacked in my closet...and yes I wear them all.

8.I love movies....I am a movie girl...but I love movies like All of the Rocky's and Die Hards...Nacho Libre and The Man Who Knew Too Little....

9.I have to bad habit of popping....my toes. I scrunch them and they pop...I usually have to pop them multiple times before I can sleep.

10.Speaking of toes...when I an watching a movie or just putting my feet up I inter-lock my two big toes...left one on top. It is weird I know.

11.I really dislike going swimming. Maybe it is having to wear a swimming suit....but I hate have the feeling of wet clothes on.

12.My biggest fear is stagnate water....oh it is disgusting! So many diseases...hmmm...maybe that has something to do with my hate for swimming...I have never thought of that.

13.I love being the middle child...I am kinda the go between...the one everyone talks too...I love, love, love that!

14.I love to travel, but I hate to fly. I love seeing new places and different people, but I hate to fly...unless I have someone who will take care of everything and someone to sleep on their shoulder.

15.I love to perform...wither that is singing in a choir or being in a play...I love the stage lights on me.

16.I tend to learn things the hard way.

17.I have never had a cavity...well I had one in a baby tooth...but in my mouth right now I have never had one...but it has taken a lot to get my fab smile looking good....teeth pulled, spacers, head-gear (oh yes that was fun), braces and still having to wear a retainer every night.

18.I love to laugh and to make other people laugh.

19.I have crushes on people for a very long time...and I usually don't say anything....

20.I am stubborn, proud, selfish and have to have the last word....but I am trying to work on these.

21.My biggest pet peeves is when people suck their snot and when people don't use common sense.

22.I love helping others and making them happy.

23.I say "I know" to things that I shouldn't...ask Ben

23 and a little bit. I have always wanted to be a singer in a Rock Band.

23 1/4. I have a secret crush on the Jonas Brothers :)
(I know...Ike hang your head in shame)

23 and a little more bit. I want a motorcycle!!!!!!!!!

231/2.I love my friends! They are the best!!!

23 3/4.My favorite place to sleep, besides my bed, is on the carpet in the living room...I don't know about now because we got some new stuff, but I loved snuggling into that nasty brown thing that Allen said was red when they moved the piano.

24.I love The Church and love the Lord.

25.All I have ever wanted to be is a Mommy.


So I hope you learned something new about me...I wanted to do some thing different than the normal post....

But here are some updates of what I am doing...I have kinda been sick this week...I think I might have a worm...or something...anyway I have still been teaching. Today I taught a third lesson at one of my schools...that was way fun, because I kinda just talked about Utah, AF, Family and Friends....showed pictures....they loved the pictures of my blonde hair...they couldn't believe it was me...so I let my hair out of the pony and let them see that it is long...then they all wanted to feel it...Ha, ha, ha....so I had about 50 people run their dirty hands through my hair...But then we talked about HIV and Peer pressure...we played a game "Pressure Limbo"....to talk about what peer pressure was and what we can do about it....that was fun. So on Monday I was teaching at another school and my "boss" wanted to come and see....so I was teaching about the Immune System...I made a model of the body and all the parts of the Immune System...it went really well and my "boss" liked it so much that she is having me teach all of the Field Officers (over 100) and other Staff....so I guess it was good :)

2 months...3 weeks to go :)

Oh my goodness what a crazy week! Well let me start out by telling you about Saturday....I got to call my amazing, wonderful family! It was so so so nice I miss them so much! You have no idea...they are my best, best friends....sadly I only got to talk to half of them, because the others are not living at home...But I got to talk to my Mommy, Poppy, I-keik, and Al-bee. But I missed talking to Prilly, Ben, Ry, and Bee....They are truly wonderful and I am so grateful for them! I am so blessed! I have the best family in the world...no contest!

Ok so this week I taught at a bunch of schools...it was so much fun! Monday I taught at a school I taught at last week...so we did a review...there were about 100 kids there...and I lost my voice by the end of the lesson....Tuesday I went to a school for Juvenal Boys...oh my goodness that was super fun! They were so funny and asked really good questions...and because they were older and already sexually active I went into more detail and gave them statics of the AIDS epidemic through the world and especially here in Zambia...did you know that about 1 in 6 people here have HIV? Zambia is one of the countries with the highest percentage of people living with HIV....so when I was teaching this...the room got really quite and you could see the shock on their faces. Wednesday...I had a class in the morning and in the afternoon and the same on Thursday...The students are great...they ask tons of questions as well as the teachers...some of them I don't know the answers to...like how did HIV get to Africa if it was first discovered in the US? Or who discovered it? Where did it come from? And in my last class yesterday one boy asked, "I am Christan and believe in God. If I pray really hard will God take the virus out of my body?"

So with teaching all of these classes...I get a ton of exercise...I walk about 12 mile or more ....in the blazing heat....with my computer strapped on my back...so I calf's are looking pretty nice :) Ha, ha, ha....

So here are some of the students...I taught them on Thursday morning....they were really great...it was so funny, there teacher tried to keep them a couple feet away from the table were I was but by the end of the lesson I was surrounded!

These are some of the JV boys...ages 8-18...they acted all tough and hard, but you could see just how scared they were when I was tell them about HIV...they all wanted to be tested.

So this sign is in the open market right across from my house...and I thought it was so funny and I wanted to share it with you! So remember to be responsible and use a toilet :)

Hey by the way happy Valentines Day! I love you all!

Field Work.....

So today...well this week...has been really good...I have started teaching class at schools, my first lesson was last Wednesday...then I taught on Monday and then again today...It has been so much fun!...I put together a power point on the United States...starting with a Map of Zambia and then Africa and then the world and then the America...( they all freaked out when I pulled out my computer)...and I asked then if they could point out where Mazabuka was on the map of Zambia...one girl out of the three classes could...and then I asked them to find Zambia on the Map of Africa...none of them could find it without my help...so after talking a little bit about American and answering any questions they had...I moved on to the next topic which was HIV/AIDS...this they knew much more about...but they also had many misconceptions as well. Like one of the teachers asked if the kids share sweets could they get HIV and if you are sharing a bed with some one could you get it? And they heard that HIV had come from monkeys having sex with women...yeah, I know...anyway...it was really nice to teach...we did an activity to illustrate the difference between HIV and AIDS....where one person has lots of CD-4 cells and one has a few...they both get HIV, but the one with the low immune system gets Opportune Infections, like TB, STDs, Cancer, etc...so they are left with less than 200 CD-4 cells...so then they have AIDS...I then lead that into how HIV is spread...by having them give HIV to other students...and soon instead of just two having it...now 11 or 12 have it...so after we discussed HIV and AIDS. Then the next topic was Nutrition and how to have a strong immune system....Ah! It was so much fun! The first two classes didn't ask too many questions, the first class was really young...but the last class was great! And I will keep going back, so that will be nice...So today after I taught I went out with two of the field officers, Gift and Selina. We went and saw the AIDS Support Group's Garden...they had tons of tomatoes, corn (they call it Maze), and pumpkins, but that was just about it...I gave them some snow pea seeds and they gave me some corn to eat...and after that we went to go test some people for HIV....that was quite the experience! We sat in this shanty house...a mud hut with corrugated metal for a roof, held on by cinder blocks and bike parts, and a sheet for a door...with plastic bags nailed all over it to help keep the rain out....so we sat down there and Gift got out all of the testing material....first he talked with them about HIV, what is it, how do you get it, how you protect yourself...and there were a bunch of misconceptions there too...like it is a germ and you came get it from food, or that bruises can transmit it....but I was there as they tested five people....they tested them together and then gave the results individually...but out of those five people three of them were HIV positive...crazy! One man and two women...I couldn't believe that...but they seemed to accept the results really well. But I had a hard time just sitting there and watching their faces...you could see that they were picturing the rest of their lives...and what being HIV positive would do to that life...the man was the one that was really upset...but he did seem like he wanted to change the way he was living...and I am worried that he will not tell the girls he is having sex with that he is HIV positive...let alone use a condom....It is so hard to know this and know that this careless man will infect more and more people...how is it ever going to get under control if they keep living the lives they do? So I hope I can affect the next generation with what I am teaching....I hope.

This is some of the students...from my first class...the little boy with the paper on him is the one who had the good immune system.

So this the the second school...it is Tropul Private school...we had to have the class outside, because there is not room in the classrooms for all of them and as you can see there is no shade..so that was fun, but they were really good kids...and next week when I go, if they ask a question they get to get their snap (picture) taken with me :)

So this the the AIDS Support Group garden...with some members and the two Field Officers I worked with today...Gift, the skinny guy in the green and Selina, the girl in green....the man in the middle is 51 years old and has been HIV positive for four years.