Slide Show and 7 months

11/2

   I wrote before about how the JSS PACT students had started to work on skits for a slide show I've been helping them make. Today I went to their meeting and was expecting that they would need to practice more since it had been a week since we met. When I got to the school today a bunch of the PACT students met me at the library right away to tell me that they were ready to act out their skits and be filmed today for the slide show because they had been practicing together all week. They even had costumes and props prepared.  The two skits that they acted out were about teen pregnancy and MCP (Multiple Concurrent Relations). They did such a great job and clearly had worked very hard to prepare for this. I left feeling very impressed and proud of them. I've been working to put the rest of the slide show together so that I can bring it to the school head and guidance counselor for approval before the PACT students show it to the rest of the school. The original plan was to show it next Tuesday during an assembly and follow it with a discussion about the issues the PACT students present in the film so I'm hoping that can still happen. I also need to meet with the school head or guidance counselor to ask about using the library because some of the students were worried today because they heard that there were "issues" with them using the library, and I have no idea what that is all about. I'm hoping that they can continue to meet there and that if not they are given another location to meet because the school has limited meeting spots for students.

   On a side note, myself and the rest of Bots10 have now been in country for 7 months and at our sites for 5 months! Some days I think 19 more months sounds like forever, and other days I feel like 19 months is going to fly by. Although I don't  really feel integrated yet, I do feel like I am fitting in more than I did a couple of months ago. Yesterday was a great day, and I felt like people in my village cared for me and respected me. Today was a rough one because I got the "dumela babys" many times and asked for things for what seemed like all day today. Even my young next door neighbor asked me for money! today, and he normally does not! It is discouraging when those things happen. I still feel like I'm figuring some things out, but I guess that is normal. Overall, I'm glad that I am here.