Habari za Leo!
The last few days were spent in Dar doing orientation. The last day or two we had the commissioner of the Tanzanian Aids Coorporation come in and talk to us about the present situation in Tanzania. He is a very well known man here and it was an honour to meet him. He told us that the HIV prevelance rate here has gone down from 7% to 5.7% so that was good news but he also told us that 12% of tanzanians are orphaned children. Later YCI brought in a head mama to talk to us about the current issues that will face us regarding gender. Tanzania has over come many leaps and bounds over the last 15 years but still has much to learn. 10 years ago women were forbade to wear pants, now almost every woman wears jeans. This may seem like not a big deal but it is a huge freedom for women. Although in the city we may not witness many of these problems women face, however, the country side is where women are still very opressed. Rape is still heavily practised among the masai community which is increasing the rate of HIV infection.
So we spent the last night together as the group of 8 before departing our seperate ways in the morning. We said our goodbyes, and off to Morogoro it was for me.