we spent the last week conducting our trainings- i wound up doing a bit of a cooking class- sauteeing broccoli, oregano, dill, thyme, etc- because they had all these things to sell and don't really know how to eat them- i'd never cooked it that way but i have to say- broccoli sauteed with chives, garlic and dill- i've never tasted it so good! the cooking was the most enjoyable part of training for me. this was a group of farmers, mostly women- our organization has already sent volunteers to train them on these topics so most was review- except the cooking - we had further challenges when discussing aids because the group had a mix of ages, and male and female together- the set up therefore was perhaps not ideal- but the idea to throw us out to teach while a little painful was a good one, as you get a sense of what you know enough to teach and what you don't, and what works and what doesn't. the agriculture they have taken on with great enthusiasm- they have beautiful organic beds of a variety of vegetables and herbs- the group's leader has a business supplying safari companies with brocolli and all those italian spices, but they have plenty left over to eat, and i am confident that now they will eat them (they haven't been). after i sauteed/steemed some up the second morning before nutrition class, they cooked it themselves that night for dinner. we arrived the next day ready for a full day of aids training, but they immediately set up the propane stove and my frying pan, brought me all sorts of produce, and we had another cooking session. they were impressed with my style of taking handfuls of things and slicing it straight into the frying pan, forgoing the cutting board- i've always been proud of that technique and was glad at last to get some recognition. then the aids training. on nutrition day i also made a huge salad from their lettuce, broccoli, arugula, basil, thyme, oregano, dill, fennel, and some tomatoes we'd brought. there's not a tradition of salad here. i added olive oil we'd brought, salt and lemon from their trees. we just missed avocado season sadly. the salad was also a hit except some didn't like the basil, and some didn't dare eat uncooked oil- they usually use animal fat, so that may have required more of an explanation. after all that broccoli and salad, i didn't mind the peanut butter sandwiches and soda- for people getting very little sugar products the few sodas they drink a year maybe are just providing a bit of carbohydrates, so i'm not so sure they're even bad- though i was outraged when i first heard that was our plan. these guys are all so healthy and robust looking i feel a bit funny lecturing them on health- but aids is of course a sneaky killer, and for people with aids nutrition and hygeine become essential, and food security/economic stability- so the classes do all make sense. on the way to our aids classes (we all got dropped off in different villages)- the women of my group all got on the case of our two men, because we were supposed to do condom demonstrations. our two men, one from tanzania and one from ethiopia were saying it wasn't appropriate for them to do the demonstration, that the women should do it. (the demo consist of unrolling a condom onto a dildo) we got very outraged that two men who were supposed to be leaders in this field were setting an example that they wanted nothing to do with condoms, and told them they should in that case stay home rather then set the project back- my partner, the tanzanian came through and i have to say it was a rough task to talk about condoms with the group. they all hated the idea of condoms. the women we trained wanted nothing to do with them and would barely touch the ones we handed out. the young men we trained though, seemed very interested, which is good. the women were older, and surely married, so to them what's the use after all, i guess. our feedback to our director was to seperate the groups by sex and age, and also that we need somehow to target men more. it feels so hopeless talking to married women about aids here. what are they going to do? i think one thing useful we do is just facilitating conversation, because no one really talks about sex here. also dispelling myths about condoms and aids, and myths about how you can catch it (ie. it's ok to eat together with someone who has aids) friday marked the end of our training. this morning the others from my group dispersed. two went off to mozambique, two to lesotho, one to dar es salam, and one more returning tomorrow to ethiopia- so i'm without all my buddies all of the sudden- but it 's a relief too as the training has been very busy.