Hey, I know it's been a while... I have picked up a cold over the past few days, and I haven't been feeling very good.

June 22
Today has been an extremely productive day. The meetings at the foundation got canceled once again without our notification. Everyone is in a scramble to get ready for this Winner's Society election, but it allowed us to conduct some interviews. I interviewed my first HIV positive person, who actually told me that they were HIV positive. It was a great interview and very informative. I also got to talk casually to some of the mentors. They really like talking to us. Everyone is so eager to give their opinion.

We have been preparing for our meeting with people in the Ministry of Health, and I took the time to ask them what are the biggest problems. It was really cool when a lot of their ideas matched mine. They're big one is poverty and so is mine.

We also went to have coffee with one of our friends, Willy. His father was in town visiting from Rwanda. We talked with him briefly. I enjoy meeting people's families and watching our friends interact with their families. It always gives you a new perspective.

The last thing we did today is meet with another young man who has become our friend. We feel bad for him because he has lost his parents and he has no way to pay for his school fees. Often times he doesn't have a place to sleep or anything to eat. We usually give him something to eat. He never asks for anything. I suppose that's why we help him. Usually people assume that because we have money and they don't, we should be helping them. Dustin and I have been trying to think of ways that we can give him a little work, so that he can make a little money, but we're having a hard time coming up with things. We don't want to just give him money, but we don't want him to drop out of school either. Because he can't afford to go to school right now he sends in his assignments to be graded with his friends. I don't think I had that sort of dedication.

June 21

Today we went to a school to observe. My cold is still bothering me so I've loaded up on cold medicine so that I can push through. I just don't have time to be sick right now. I feel like I do toward the end of the semester. I start getting sick and tired. But the observation was so much fun! We were supposed to have gone to this school two weeks ago, and we were told that it was very disappointing to the children when we didn't show up. So we had to make sure that we went before we left. The smallest children were so happy to see us. They laughed at my accent when I talked. I was able to ask them a few questions, and they were very knowledgeable. Some times they gave answers that were much more sophisticated than I thought.

The mentor was very good while he was teaching. It is fun to watch people speaking in public here. They are very charismatic. I feel like it helps my own public speaking to watch and then imitate.

June 20

Luckily we have stayed at home all day because this cold is really bothering me. My nose is like a faucet. We are trying desperately to get the proposal finished so that we can be done with it.

June 19

We had a great day with Joan. Today is the day that we went with her to see her children in the village. They live on a farm with their grandparents and go to school out there. The first thing we did was visit the school where they go. They had some boarding children there, and we caused a great commotion when we arrived. Some of the littlest children got scared from all the excitement and started crying. I felt like the big stuffed mascot at a sports even that is trying to hug the kid and they start crying.

From there we went to the grandparents farm. It was really fun. They had everything they needed right there. Both of the children were fairly good at English, especially the older one Louis, who is only six. It was a surprise to the children that we were coming, and I'm not sure they knew what to think at first. They were a little overwhelmed. Once they loosened up a bit they wanted to show us around. Louis led me around by the hand every where. They took us to see their cow. They each had their own pig. They took us through the banana garden and picked guavas for us.

We had lunch with the family. They were very kind to us. We had the typical traditional meal. Stewed hen, rice, potatoes, matoke (green bananas) pineapple, avocados, and peas. It was all very good. The pineapple especially was the best. I think it was the best I've ever had in my life. I'm ruined from now on on pineapple. We had brought a cake for dessert. It was actually really good, although it didn't look that good at first. It was like a spiced cake with rasins.

I was very sad actually to leave. It was so nice to get out of the city for a while. Plus it made me realize that there is so much more to learn. People live so differently outside the city. They are almost entirely self sufficient. The land is so fruitful where we were. It's a shame to know that in other parts of the country people go hungry. They have so much food sometimes, they often throw it away, or feed their pigs with it.