AH, KIDS - GIRLS AND GOATS

This week in Dar has been a busy one for well, kids: Two-footed and four-footed.

Nineteen members of our new Smart Girls Club and four adults crammed into a van for an art field trip, with a break in-between art centers for ice cream. Fatuma and I conceived the idea for the club last June to help our older girls stay safe physically and sexually, make smart decisions and explore career opportunities.

The club began in August with Fatuma, school secretary Faridha and teacher Eva as leaders. The girls meet Thursdays in their snappy blue T-shirts with the red HIV ribbon and yellow lettering. They have colorful composition books to write in, thanks to Portland, OR friend Amy Minato's girls' group.

Smart Girls' parents and grandmas report the girls' attitudes, behavior and school grades have improved. And after their first fieldtrip to the nearby Temeke Hospital, some girls are aspiring to become doctors! Our goal is to offer alternatives to becoming teen moms and/or HIV patients.

This week, the girls visited Makutano House of arts and crafts to discover the many types of arts and how it is sold for a profit. We also dropped into the Tinga Tinga Art Co-Op, where the naive, colorful style of the late artis John Tinga is continued by family members and others. The girls each took home a sign with their names lettered on them

If any of you former scout leaders out there have suggestions for this group (so successful the boys are now demaning one!), please pass them on to us!

Saturday found Eric and I rumbling through dusty streets and crowded markets to the goat and cow auction. Here, a distant relative of Fatuma's helped us buy five goats with money earned by 5th graders at Sweden's International School of Goteborg Region. We bought a male and four females, three of whom are already pregnant.

Not surprisingly, my husband and I were the only wazungo (white foreigners) there. And boy did the folks get a kick out of this mzungo trying to tug these critters toward the pickup! These animals come from Singida, a more temperate central Tanzanian region, and must take anitib iotics periodically to prevent them from falling prey to diseases here.

By the time we jolted over miles of dirt paths to find our new shamba (3/4-acre farm), the goats were settling in to their new shelter of wood, wire and tin. They will graze openly with a goatherd watching them, and eventually - once the herd increases - will supply meat for our orphans, hopefully with some left over to sell.

More about the farm later. Below, enjoy photos of both Smart Girls and goats!