10:30pm     I now share my hut with a bat; I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it.  It’s pouring rain, thundering and tons of lightening.  While we were driving we saw huge bolts break across the entire sky, like an upside down tree; just spectacular.  I’ve just watched a skiing video on an IPod.  Trying to explain skiing here is quite difficult, they’ve never seen snow so we explain it at your feet on long 2x4’s going down a hill of powder (I would like to see what they picture in their heads). 

I said my goodbyes at the school today, very sad.  They were so grateful for helping them and giving them many school supplies.  It warms my heart when the children run up to me yelling “my teacher” instead of “muzungu!”  Mrs. George said she’ll be very sad without me and that she wants to come with me; she’ll leave her kids with her husband.  She is a truly wonderful woman. 

I sat with a man from the community at Mama Maria Clinic today.  He helped me work on the brochure about HIV/AIDS.  I mentioned condom use as a method of prevention and he gave me a confused look.  “Why do people (men) of the community say that the stuff inside the condom (the lubrication) carries the HIV virus?” he asked me.  My hands went directly over my open mouth and I was speechless.  He continued on to tell me that this is a very common belief that you will get HIV from using a condom and also that the government puts holes in the condoms on purpose.  Shocked, I convinced him otherwise and ended up with a section in my brochure on condom myths and facts.