Day 9, Friday July 25th-Bryan Watanabe

Today was our last day teaching with team Bulawayo as we finished sessions 5 & 6. It went well as many students said they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior! We also took a lot of pictures with the students from both schools.
Our team had 2 very good debrief sessions as we talked about different ways to possibly make the program better & more personal for the students that will hear the program. Nice time of hearing comments from the new certified presenters about the Smart Choices program. I believe they can spread the word about HIV/aids throughout Bulawayo & give glory to God at the same time.
It was cool to hand out the certificates to the new presenters as Kevin, Rhonda, Curtis, Glynn & I had to pronounce their names. Luckily we didn't butcher the names too badly. :)
It was definitely sad to say goodbye but I'm sure I'll see them again in the future.
Thankfully a lot of them have FB so we can keep in contact with the help of the internet. :)
Had a great last dinner with Jeff & Tammy Scorziell as we also spent extra time talking about life, Smart Choices & church.
Great 1st week of serving on the Beacon of Hope mission team!

Bryan

Day 8, Thur. July 24th-Bryan Watanabe

Another fun day in Bulawayo!
The teaching & cab ride was pretty much just like yesterday, haha.
One of the presenters is so loud & so passionate, it's great to watch.
Today we taught session 3-Living with HIV & session 4-Making Life Choices.
The material is pretty solid & the students seem to be soaking it in. They have good comments & questions so that's a good thing.
When we finished teaching, Kevin & I got to play ultimate frisbee with a few young men from Jeff Scorziell's church and 2 young women that are here on a missions trip from Mississippi. The elevation is much higher here than in Ca but luckily I survived, haha. Had a great time playing for sure! I wore my GoPro, unfortunately the angle was a bit high so the pics weren't that good. The video I took while playing was a bit better. Best news is, my team won both games! :)
When we got home, the rest of our team safely returned from Victoria Falls. It was nice to be back together with Glynn, Mitch, Melissa & Bianca again.
We all had a great steak dinner by the BBQ master, Jeff & a tasty dessert by Jeff's wife, Tammy! :)
It was nice to have everyone back as we spent a lot of time talking about each other's experience this week.
Looking forward to teaching our final 2 sessions tomorrow & having a team debrief. I'll miss this Bulawayo team for sure!

Day 7, Wed. July 23rd-Bryan Watanabe

Today was the best experience I've had doing the Smart Choices program in the last 2 years by far! The entire day was awesome!
Working with the team from Bulawayo is great. They're so energetic, engaging, fun, interactive, friendly & the list can go on.
We taught session 1-Identifying Dreams & session 2-HIV transmission today at 2 different schools in Bulawayo. The 1st school had around 70 students in our class and their age range was around 13-17yrs.
The 2nd school would be considered a Jr. College. That class was around 25-30 and their age range was 18-20yrs.
Classes went great, had good interaction with the students, the games/illustrations went well & everyone had a good time.
Listening to the students sing at both schools were amazing. Even though they're singing in Ndebele and I have no idea what their saying, it's still amazing! The Jr. College students singing was so powerful and full of passion!
The cab van ride was pretty crazy too. :)
The van has a full speaker system with some bass, haha. He played worship music in Ndebele & our team members were singing and clapping so loud. Some of them were literally dancing in their seats, it was hilarious. I got a great video clip of it with my GoPro & a couple people passed it around the van while recording. :)
Had a great conversation with one of our male team members as he talked about his life growing up in Bulawayo, his love for Bulawayo & about growing up with parents from 2 separate tribes. He also shared some history about the country too. Blessed to have had that opportunity to speak with him.
After we finished teaching, we went home, relaxed, ate dinner & went to bed. The next couple days will hopefully be more of the same fun and great times teaching the Smart Choices program.

Sizinda Smart Choices Graduating class

Farai and Nyasha

Jesus Film in Sizinda Classroom

Farai