Activities for the month of May at Aang Serian Community School have been running very smoothly. In the beginning of May, the school staff was able to give Mark a proper farewell with dinner in Arusha and a night on the town. Saif also officially finished his time at Aang Serian in Mid-May. Since, we've acquired a new volunteer named Pete Louis from Fresno, California. After teaching beginning English for a year in Brazil and El Salvador, he's come to Aang Serian to teach for six months until December, the end of this school year. With a great "hands on" and activity focused approach, he brings a lot to the students every day, with a great sense of energy. One of the greatest events to happen to the school, and to Haley's coursework, was the obtaining of a complete Chemistry Set from donations in London!! (We get very excited over the little things out in the bush!) She says it can be quite difficult explaining certain chemical reactions and changes of states without the students being able to watch the actual reaction. First, the class had to review "Safety in the Laboratory." Unfortunately, we have not yet constructed a school science lab, we hope the Tanzania government will understand our lack of investment in such a project thus far!
Now, if you were to take the medical histories of both Ashley and Haley, who would you think has already contracted Malaria?? If you guessed Ashley, you would be correct. And it only took 4 months! After a wonderful sleepless night of GI issues (use your imagination) and tapika (throwing up) the blood test at the local Marie Stopes Clinic revealed a 2 parasite per 100 blood cell count in her blood. As if the "African Initiation" of the M-bug wasn't enough, Ashley's body also decided to develop a kidney infection, just for an added touch. Somehow, we were not convinced that the back and chest pain she developed was caused by pneumonia, as the "doctor" in Monduli suggested (as it gets really, really cold in the village), so Ashley boarded a bus to Dar to see some other doctors and have friend Penny take care of her. After 2 weeks of extra anti-malaria prophylactic, pain pills, anti-nausea meds and cypro, she was back to normal. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers for a quick recovery!!
On May 3rd, the boy's football (soccer to you Americans!) team played against a rivaling team from nearby Monduli juu. It was the social event of the term! All the students attended and cheered madly and rushed the field when student Paulo scored a goal in the first 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the other team scored in the second half, and sent a miraculous header into the upper-v in the last 3 minutes of the game, to end with a loss of 2-1. The students enjoyed the game, however, and we plan to have more games in the future to settle the score.
Aang Serian was lucky to employ the help of Megan Kennedy as well. On a Watson year, she has landed in Arusha and taught classes in Geography and Art in Saif's absence. All teacher's are preparing for preparing for terminal examinations the third week in June, so reviews in class have begun.