Yesterday was pretty awesome. Play day happens once a month and as i think i mentioned in my last blog, it is for children who are living with HIV and AIDS to come together and just have a nice day planned for themselves in a stigma free environment. They range in age from new born to about 15, mostly between the ages of 5 and 12 i would say though. We had tons of activities and games planned for the day, but not too much of it actually ended up happening.. the kids just wanted to be around us. we were there from 9am to 1pm and ate lunch with them at noon. the morning was spent just sitting and colouring with the kids, playing with a soccer ball outside, throwing the frisbee, reading, or just having the kids hang off of you!!

After we got settled in, we brought in the bag of donations that i brought.. about half of them (i had a whole hockey bag full). The kids LOVED all of the stuff, they swarmed the bag!! Thank you to anyone who helped me fill that bag!! I would have loved to get pictures, but you would not believe how hard that is with 100 kids who have maybe never seen a camera before alllll want to touch/ take/play with it. I have learned that I need to be very aware of who is around me when i take out my camera haha. Speaking about pictures, i hope to have some on the site by the end of this week!!! it is quite tough to upload them, especially since most of the computers at the internet cafes have viruses.

after the bag was torn through, we tried to show them pin the tail on the donkey.. i dont think that lasted long, the kids dont do well taking turns.. We also planned a short session for some of the older kids to teach them a couple life skills. Things like communication, stress management, etc. We were lucky enough to get the drama club to come and do a couple skits for the group. They were awesome with the kids, and they made them laugh! After lunch, most of the kids were ready to head home. Although many of them appear healthy, they still get exhausted quickly. We helped clean up, and then we headed home ourselves. We did plan a date where each of us will be able to do home based care. Where we go to the houses that they live at and just hang out with them in their home, and get them to tell us about them. We are to bring  a bar of soap, a toy, some fruit, or something like that because most families are not financially well off.

The thing that caught me the most off guard is that two of the children who were there, are also in my Health and Life Skills class that is taught at the Faraja Shule in town twice a week. If it were not for seeing them there, i would have had no idea that they have HIV. They are the happiest kids, very bright, and two of my favourites in the class. It really put things in perspective for me.

Anyways, the rest of the day was just spent playing cards.. we were all pretty tired. We had the opportunity to go to the Vijana Social Hall again for a concert type thing with some really big names in Tanzania/ Africa playing, and decided last minute not to go. We would have been out really late, and we just wanted to have a relaxing evening.

Today I have done nothing.. except for shower.. i guess that is actually quite a big deal. the last time that i did was saturday of last weekend 🙂 gross eh?! I dont know if i mentioned last time, but the “shower head” is working so it makes it 100 times easier to shower. Then we all headed into town and i dropped some more material off at a fundi to get a skirt made.. so i cant wait to get that! thats all i got for now.