Shikamoo!

My favorite program is working with the youth at Mahonda. Mahonda is about 30 minutes north of Stonetown and lies out in the countryside where it's green, lush, and quiet (for once!). The ages of the youth range from 14-24. The always greet myself and Catherine when we arrive with "Shikamoo!", which is usually how you would greet your elders.

There seems to be a strong sense of community among the group and they are very curious, especially Carlos (He is the guy with the red pants in the photo). He always has a question and wonders about the most random things, like mean population data and how to use Microsoft Word with just a keyboard and no mouse. Many of them are HIV/AIDS peer educators already and others are hoping to becoming peer educators in the future. The seem to have pretty extensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS and STI's. The only thing that they lack information about are the use of contraceptives. Promoting the use of contraceptives in Zanzibar is still quite taboo. There's a lot of stigma and myths associated with the use of contraceptives. Being that over 90% of the population in Zanzibar is Muslim poses a big challenge to increasing awareness of contraceptives because of their beliefs regarding sex. For example, I read in an online article that some Muslim scholars believe that advocating the use of condoms will promote illegal sex.

We work at Mahonda on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday is usually designated as our English session and Thursday is usually computer theory. It's a bit frustrating trying to start our classes on time with this group. We are supposed to start at 4pm, but we can never start till 4:30 because people are at prayer, or they just come as they please. As opposed to how things are done in Canada, there's a very fluid sense of time here and no one is really in any rush to be on time or to do anything in a hurry!