You've got ducks!

Yes, ducks. My neighbor's duck had about 15 babies, and they were cute and funny baby animals. I'd been telling them for weeks that I was going to buy their ducks, and I finally pulled together the cash this week. I know thay overcharged me at 25,000 shillings for 3 ducks, but part of the deal was for them to continue to take care of the ducks until I get a shelter built, and let's be honest, I'm in no hurry to do that. However, it was almost worth the price to get to see the spectacle of the three older kids tearing around the yard, trying to catch a duckling, while avoidng Mama Duck, who was none too pleased about this operation. (“Anakuwa mkali!”) Once caught, the lucky 3 got a piece of scrap cloth tied around their foot so we would know who was mine and who was theirs. Unfrunately for the kids, the first 2 caught were female, so they got to continue diving into the flock hoping to snag one of the few males, who are only slightly larger than the females. The ducks seem unfazed by their change of ownership.

I just found out that my women's group may have spent 30,000 shillings on completely the wrong thing. I forgot to pass on the advice of my soap contact not to buy the coconut oil yet. They bought it, but my contact informed me that what they want, pure coconut oil, should be black. They probably bought the unpure kind, which explains why it was more expensive than it should have been. I hope we can sell it back somewhere. She also doesn't believe I can make caustic soda/lye with ashes and water. My homework this week is to try it and see who wins.

My environment club got tired of people never showing up to meetings. During their first member-run business meeting (I sat in the back and watched the magic) they decided to take their attendance book aand boot out the no-shows and take new members. They also decided to pay dues to buy some tools for the nursery, to plant the trees that have been in there way too long, and to expand the nursery later this year. Mali Hai oye! I also took a tree count for my volunteer report: 259! I may bump this to 260 on the assumption that we missed at least one. We somehow got a single tamarind tree, despite never having planted tamarind seeds. Thank you, anonymous seed-pooping bird, you have bumped my fruit tree count from 3 to 4!

My life skills teaching has been going...strangely. The kids are totally unresponsive, which is what Tanzanian teachers like, but the interactive format of the life skills curriculum falls flat. I can't tell if it's a language issue, an “I'm boring them” issue, or just what they're used to doing in class. This week's session did get lively when I did the drink mixing game they taught us at PEPFAR. 10 kids, nine with glasses of water (HIV-) one with soda (HIV+) and they each have instructions who they do and do not “mix” with. At the end, the only ones without soda-tainted water are the abstinent one, the monogomous couple, and the one who “clinks but never mixes” (uses a condom). The reason this got so lively was that the one girl with the soda (she's also my neighbor) kept trying to chug her glass of HIV every time my back was turned, keeping the rest of the class in giggle fits. I need to find a way to make HIV less appealing.