Last Day in Mbulu

My last day in Mbulu has been a productive one. The morning started out wiht a trip to the town's stadium where the girls do their speed workouts. After, Zach and I walked into town to use the internet, but a town-wide blackout led us instead to the office of Martha Massowe, the director of a local women's empowerment group funded by the Lutheran Church. Although our discussion was brief, she has agreed to invite the girls to her seminars and workshops related to women's health, gender based violence, and poverty eradication. The single biggest barrier that these girls face are unwanted pregnancies, and the controversial issue of birth control in a fundamentalist religious community make tackling the problem slightly more challenging than simply educating them on their choices and giving them access to contraceptives. Despite the group's affiliation with the church, Mrs. Massowe is a self-proclaimed feminist and woman's rights advocate, and I hope she can become a positive role model and mentor for the girls while empowering them about issues that intimately affect them.

After lunch with a few of Zach's friends, we caught a ride back home just in time to meet with Mrs. Ayo, the wife of Mr. Ayo, headmaster of Chief Sarwatt Secondary School. There are a few key things that I want these girls to have, most importantly is the ability to speak English. As such, one of my objectives during the three days that I have spent here was to identify qualified English teachers who can teach the girls conversational English over the course of the next year. And Mrs. Ayo is just the person I'd been looking for. Having been a teacher for the past 19 years and a mother of 2 herself, she exudes a fun-loving, enthusiastic personality that the girls latched onto immediately. I'm not sure where I'm going to come up with the 50,000 shillings ($40 USD) she's charging per month, but English is something that these girls cannot afford to not know. We've agreed to start the 2 hour sessions twice a week in November, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the money will be there. Somehow I'll find the money. In addition to an English tutor, Zach has helped me identify a full-time massage therapist (crucial for the development and recovering of stressed muscles) and a woman who will cook 2 meals a day for the camp. Right now, the girls do all of the shopping, cooking, and dishes, consuming the majority of their free time. For a mere $25 per month, the girls will instead be able to focus on learning English and with equal importance, be able to enjoy the luxury of free time. Time to do those things that all teenagers love--to listen to music, to gossip with friends, and to sleep. I am so looking forward to sinking my teeth into this project once I get home and to create something great with these girls and something great for their country.