How we help people to stay sober
by John B
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is active in Arusha and Monduli districts, meeting
seventeen times a week in various places in the region. We gather together to
encourage one another in the battle against alcohol. At AA people aren't helped
to sober up all we do is help people who earnestly desire to be sober to stay
sober.
If we knew how to make people with to be sober we would help, but there is no
way of that happening until the person with alcohol addiction problems is ready
and willing to leave alcohol behind, then we can assist.
Not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic and not everyone who is a drunkard
requires our assistance. There is no clear definition on what an ‘alcoholic' is
as some are addicted to alcohol on their first drink, as I was. Others, drink on
and off for years until they became alcoholic, as is most often the case.
One thing is clear, one becomes an alcoholic when one can no longer control his
drinking. One can sober up for two or three days to ‘prove' that they aren't
alcoholic and then go back to drinking to celebrate. In times of crisis, such
individuals go sober up for four or five months before hitting the bottom again.
It is recorded that one man went without drinking for thirty years, but when he
had his first drink, he could not stop again; in fact, death took him before he
could find the road to sobriety again.
We of AA realize that our greatest enemy is our first drink, because for us
there is no limits. For us to drink our first drink is like stepping out of an
aeroplane and finding there's no way back without a brutal landing. That's why
we gather many times a week in various places and discuss the problems of
remaining sober in a world full of alcohol. It is not easy to stop drinking, and
we may stay alcoholic forever but we know that each day we are sober, no matter
how terrible a day it might be, is better than any day we ever spent
intoxicated.
The key to our personal success and the nature of Alcoholics Anonymous is
honesty. Alcohol made us liars, first to ourselves, then to others around us.
We gained recovery (we aren't recovered, and we are now able to say "no" to
alcohol) which began with a desire to quit with the knowledge we could not do it
alone, and with the sure knowledge that we needed God's help.
We adhere to twelve steps daily. Some of those steps are painful to some and
easy for others. But these steps are necessary if we are ever to recover.
We're Alcoholics Anonymous, we're AA. Your are welcome to join us in our weekly
meetings held at:
* The Arusha Community Church:
- AA Swahili meetings on Mondays and Saturdays at 5:00pm and 10:00am
consecutively.
- AA English meetings on Tuesdays at 1:00pm and 5:00pm, and Thursdays at 1:00pm.
- NA Swahili meetings on Mondays and Thursdays at 5:00pm.
* The Monduli Roman Catholic Church:
- AA Swahili meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3:30pm and on Saturdays at
10:00am.
* The Christ Church Cathedral (Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro):
- AA Swahili meetings on Fridays at 11:00am
- AA English meetings on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:00am and 6:30pm
consecutively.
* The Edmund Rice Secondary School, Sinon:
- AA Swahili meetings on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2:00pm.
* Sanawari - near Osaka Bar:
- AA Swahili meetings on Wednesdays at 4:00pm, Fridays at 3:30pm, Sundays at
5:00pm and Mondays at 10:00am.
If you have any questions about your addiction, visit one of our meetings or
call: John (AA) 0744 - 428677 and Frank (NA) 0744 - 428490.
Email: olwasi@yahoo.com
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