via via

Yesterday was my second day helping out at the school. I taught a pretty great
geography lesson to the 2nd graders. First we mapped their desks, then their
classroom, and the the whole school. It was actually really successful and fun too. I have a feeling that it was their first exposure to maps, since the only map in the school is in the teachers office. The school had a big thank you ceremony for Sal and Mark who’s last day was supposed to be today. We unfortunately didn’t get to go to the school today because we took our host family to a killer night club in Arusha and ended up oversleeping and missing our Dalla Dalla. A few nights ago we were talking to Mercy (the oldest daughter in the family) and asking her is she ever goes out dancing in Arusha. To my surprise she had never really been out on the town before, so I invited her out to Via Via (a night club that some of the other volunteers said was pretty sweet). She agreed to come and then invited her younger sister Toumani, Dio, and Sia as well. We were all kind of worried about taking two 13 year olds out to the club, but the family seemed to think it would be alright. Amazingly they all got in with no problem. It turned out to be an unbelievably good time. It was a pretty good mix of locals, tourists, and volunteers. There was a killer African band that played until about ten, and then a DJ played top 40 dance music and whole club danced (If any of my students are reading you would be happy to know they love Little Wayne and Soldja Boy in Tanzania). I got into an argument with some Tanzanian guy who was mad at me for bringing my host family to a club and Mercy got really mad and told him off. I spent most of the night dancing with the family. Every time a guy would try to dance with the girls I would cut him off and tell him that they were my Sistas and they would go away. I was really nervous about locals picking up on them since they had never been out to a club before and might not know how to handle it. When I talked to them this morning they all said that they had a good time. I can’t believe how at home the family makes me feel. Before lunch today me, Dio, and Sia watched some of Hotel Rwanda and it really shook me up. Being in Tanzania and sitting with these wonderful kids so close to where all of that death took place was overwhelming, especially after to the Rwanda war crime trial on Tuesday. I had to leave the room for a little while because I was afraid that I was going to cry. Tonight we are going to take the family out to dinner and help paint a local orphanage tomorrow, so I should have some more stories to post soon.