Adult Classes

Now it is Monday and I am headed to the Masai for an Adult Education class on HIV and AIDS. This should be interesting. I am wondering who will show up. Mwololo is stopping at the store to find flipchart paper and markers and a loaf of bread for me. He’ll stop by to pick me up. I tried the Masai milk again. It is difficult to digest but tastes good with the oatmeal! I read some and cleaned really well today. I woke up with something going on with my big toe and bottom of my foot. There are about 50 bumps. I am guessing it is mosquitoes that snuck in last night and feasted on my toes while I slept. It is not painful but I can feel it when I walk. It looks nasty, similar to what I had on my shoulder last trip when my arm must have gotten outside the net at George’s place. So anyway, I moved everything from under the bed, scrubbed the tile floor well and flipped my foam rubber mattress!
Returned from the Masai Adult Education class. The adult classes are held in the preschool. The fire was still hot in the cook shed, telling me that there was porridge cooked for the children today. There were six adults in attendance at the class. We had Fred (a young Masai we have hopes for as a community organizer) lead the sessions. We discussed HIV/AIDS and came up with phrases related to HIV. The phrases will be made into signs when I get into NRB tomorrow. I’ll print them from the Internet café and we will post them so that all who enter the classrooms will see them, even the churchgoers, since church is in the classroom too. The phrases were translated from English to Kimaasai. Some examples:

 AIDS IS KILLING US. KEEISHO BITTIA
 AIDS IS FATAL. EITORROMO BIITIA
 AIDS HAS NO CURE. MEETA BITTIA OLCHANI
 AIDS & DEATH ARE BROTHERS. ILALASHARA BIITIA OKEEYA
 KEEP OFF AIDS & IT WILL KEEP OFF YOU. TANYA BIITIA NEKIANY SII NINYE.
 DON’T TOUCH HUMAN BLOOD. MIMBUNG OSARGE LENKAE KERAI.
 YES TO PIERCING, NO TO SHARING THORNS. ENTUUD ENKLYIA, KAKE MENGARE ELKIKU.
 SHARING? ONE RAZOR, ONE HEAD. TABARNIE EYEMPE NABO ELUNKUNYA NABO.
 AIDS IS DEATH. KEEYA BIITIA
 NO TO AIDS, YES TO LIFE. MAYIOI BIITIA, KAYIU BIOTIISHO.

Interesting the words they use to describe AIDS. I like the “No sharing thorns.” Piercing is big among the Masai, especially the older ones. They use a thorn to pierce and often a knife to enlarge the piercing.
At the same time we were having our little AIDS class, another Adult Education class was going on, teaching English. We hired a retired teacher to come in and do the class. MWEP pays for the teacher and her transport. I am proud of what we have done. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless. Tomorrow it is back to NROB. I have to print the “posters” and an agreement that I typed for on of the students.

My “landlady” sent a want ad to my friend Benson, the ex seminarian. The job is with The World Council of Churches and the United Nations Refugee Office documenting Somali refugees in Northern Kenya. He is excited about the possibility of the work and can certainly handle the task. He has done that type of work before. I hope he gets it. Then I can visit the north!