Dear Fam,

Another month has gone by and I feel like I'm really beginning to slack with the letter writing. The term started out with things being rather hectic, teaching 30 periods. It's now calmed down a bit, as more teachers have reported and now I'm only teaching 12 periods a week again. As with last term, I was really bummed to only teaching half as much, but I'm looking on the bright side of it; It leaves me more time to get involved with my secondary projects, like at the primary school.

It's a new year so two new groups of kids, and while it takes them a bit to get used to my broken Kiswahili, it's a lot of fun. We did the whole blowing up of condoms bit last week in one of the schools, which is always one of the most enjoyable lessons. They have so many questions, and I'm willing to answer them. There's this culture here that's not at all different from the U.S on the surface - sort of don't ask, don't tell. Actually, it's better in the U.S. because we have sex education/reproductive health starting from the age of nine or so, but some issues, like selling condoms in schools will always be a hot debate. Boys go through initiation rights at a really young age here, and then are told to go "practice" what they've learned, while girls are supposed to stay far away from boys as possible and hold onto their "Virtue". No one wants to talk about sex or the fact that a lot of these kids - boys and girls both - are having it despite what the traditions say. So, to say the least one of the most gratifying things I've done here has been the HIV/AIDS education in the primary schools, even though my main job is supposed to be teaching Mathematics at the Secondary School.

Something else that's gotten me excited about this secondary project in particular, is that there was a P.C. rep from Washington for the health sector in Mtwara when we all went there this weekend. Basically, we had a focus group to talk about what could be done to revamp the Health Program in Tanzania. It was good information sharing and I got lot of ideas. What was even better though was that it really made me feel even better about what I'd been doing here. The volunteer before me did so much that I've kind of felt I couldn't even compare. Talking with the representative and hearing what other volunteers are doing helped boost my confidence a bit.

The other big thing going on, is planning for the girl's empowerment conference, the Peer Leader Group is doing the beginning of April. With just six weeks to go, I'm starting to get worried as to if we'll get all the speakers arranged and money raised in time. I'm sure it will all work out though, especially since it was my counterpart's idea and my Headmistress is being very supportive as well. I'll send pictures and let you know how it turned out in a couple of months.

Until then, take care!

Jessica