"No thanks, I prefer to get my cancer straight from the sun."

It's been a week since I've updated. A lot has happened. Let's see... on Thursday a bunch of us went to Traveller's Lodge which is a resort by the beach and we had dinner there since some of the group was leaving that weekend. The pasta carbonera there is awesome! Ann is right, that it surprisingly tastes like real carbonera. It was a fun night. Friday was my last day at AMAP. It was the kids' last day because they have 2 weeks off. I don't think they understood that we wouldn't be coming back. But I'm sure their used to having new volunteers all the time. Friday afternoon, Caroline (the volunteer at the Baobab Home), picked me up and we went there to hang out for a bit. The kids are adorable! There's currently 7 of them living there, 3 of which are babies, 2 toddlers, and 2 young kids. Friday night we just hung out with Ann, Max, and Richard who all had to leave on Saturday. I woke up early to see them off. It was sad to see them go. I'll probably see Richard if I go to Chicago anytime soon. And I hope I can go to Australia at some point to visit Ann and Max and travel around.

Saturday Sarah, Jerry, Bridget, Monica and I went to Baga Point. Basically it's just a trailer next to a field that they sell alcohol out of. Sometimes there's live music but there wasn't that night. We hung out with some Tanzanian friends and then got Chips my eye for a late night snack. It's basically just an omelet with french fries in it that we put hot sauce and ketchup on. It sounds pretty gross, and I was pretty sceptical but it ended up being really tasty.

Also the new volunteers arrived on Saturday. 19 of them. I have 3 new roommates in the room that I had to myself for 2 weeks. It's the same story as Morocco, it's hard to get used to new volunteers because you get used to the people that are there and it begins to feel like home. Then one day 3/4 of your friends leave and tons of new people flood "your" home. And you have to get used to not being able to use the bathroom whenever you want. And the internet cafe is always busy now (hence the not updating in a while). And I had to condense my things back to one shelf the the others would have room. I admit that I got spoiled! The new volunteers are all pretty nice though. I don't know them very well but they're friendly. And none of my roommates snore which is fantastic!

What else? I've been working at UCKUN this week. We've been doing some painting to spruce up the front of the building. Also we've done a bunch of home visits. I find it frustrating though because we can't actually do anything for these people that will heal them in any way. I feel like we're just going in and playing doctor. Like yea, I can take your blood pressure and heart rate and ask you if you have pain anywhere but then I can't really prescribe medicine or buy you food or cure you of HIV. No matter how many times I take your blood pressure or look at your rashes or feel sorry that you went blind, you're still going to die from AIDS in a matter of months. I know that's really blunt but it's true. And it's frustrating and sad. UCKUN does some good things though. At the very least we let these people know that they're not alone, that there are people out there that still care about them even if the majority of people in their lives shun them. And at times we do give them food when they have no other way of eating, but we try not to have them rely on us for that. UCKUN is shifting to a more educational focus though. I think that will be beneficial in order to prevent new cases of HIV/AIDS. In one of the resources books there I found some surveys that they had given to teenagers in Bagamoyo about using condoms, if they do, why they don't, etc. There were some crazy answers on there. Some of the people thinks it makes them less of a man if they use a condom, or that condoms spread AIDS. They need to be educated so this value of the society can start to change. If it doesn't then the AIDS epidemic will never lessen.

Sunday I went back to the Baobab Home and we took the kids to the beach, not the babies though, they stayed home. I met Terri's son Justice who is adorable! I love when small kids are bilingual, I think it's so cool. He just doesn't know that the word "she" exists so everything is a he haha. I also went there yesterday to hang for a bit because their volunteer Caroline is leaving today so I wanted to say bye and hang with the kids again. I wish I was here longer because the kids have just warmed up to me! I'm going back to tomorrow to hang out and say bye to them. Then some of the CCS people and I are going out to dinner at Traveller's Lodge again since Doug, John, and I are leaving this weekend.

That's about all that's going on. I'm sure I forgot a ton of things but it's hard to remember everything that happened in a week. This trip went by wayy too fast and I don't think I'm very ready to return to the states yet. But I shall make the best of it.

PS- the title is Monica's response when she was offered a cigarette on Saturday night. It made me laugh for a very long time.