A Day in the Life

02 December 2011. 8:20am. I’m sitting at school in the teachers’ lounge (a hut) during my free hour. School starts at 6:45 with the flag raising and morning announcements.  The first class is 7-8, the second 8-9 and so on… At 9:45 there’s a 15-30 minute break called “recreation” when some women come and sell food (corn, rice, bouillie aka porridge, “spaghetti”, gateaux (cakes), etc.) that I can’t explain the tastes or substance.  Anyway, I’m sitting in the teachers’ lounge trying not to poo my pants. I’ve been sick the Sunday before and I’m hoping it passes. My temperature has been only 97 degrees and I’ve had huge headaches. I continue to come to school because if you know me, I’m not content if I’m not working.

Yesterday was a hectic day but a day I’ll probably always remember as successful. It was World AIDS Day (La Journée Mondiale du SIDA). I had planned an hour of time with the seamstress apprentices but their patrons (bosses) were refusing to let them come to my session (only one hour!) because they said there’s a lot of work for them to get done. So I went to the middle school…

At flag raising, bright and early with the harmattan breeze the principal and I explained World AIDS Day.  There are 34 million people infected with AIDS in the world and 70% (24.5 million) are in Africa. AND In Zimbabwe, girls are 5 times more likely to be infected than boys due to lack of rights, education, etc. So I took 50 students and said “you’re all infected”… 15 are from other countries but 35 are in Africa. Of those 35, 30 were girls. They all made a noise like “Owww” to show their disbelief. Afterwards, I took out my penis-made-of-wood (it looks so real) and they got a laugh out of it. I did a condom demonstration, showing them how to know if it’s expired and how to properly use a condom. Afterwards, I went to each class for their house until my counterpart for the apprentices showed up and said they’re waiting for me. Ha!

So I did my planned “self-confidence” session with the apprentices. I have had this lesson planned with my super-smiley counterpart, Parry, planned since October (We work together in order to improve his knowledge about Peace Corps teaching techniques because he I nominated him as a leader for a fellow PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteer’s) project- Camp Joie/Joy – a camp for children with physical disabilities. He was great but needs improvement. So I’ve been training him while he helps me set up meeting times and translates my French into the 2 popular vernacular African languages my apprentices speak.

The self-confidence sessions went well as an introduction. Girls here are taught that they’re not as capable as boys to accomplish things and are often told they’re stupid … so I was trying to surmount those obstacles. Since they don’t know how to write and are ashamed to speak in public groups, I gave them paper and markers and had them draw pictures to show how they have self-confidence. A lot of them drew pictures of chickens and houses, saying they will build houses one day and raise chickens to be able to feed their family well—they were saying they have confidence that they’ll succeed in their futures.   I also showed them the wooden penis and how to correctly use a condom. My friend, one of their bosses, was also there and said this is the first time she’s ever seen a condom (She’s in her mid-40s, has 4 kids).

Sick or not, questioning if I have a parasite, malaria or just something that will pass, I walked back to school to finish going class to class, giving boys and girls opportunities to explain and show their fellow classmates how to put condoms on my wooden penis. I gave them the basic information of how to get AIDS…

1)      Unprotected sex

2)      Blood

3)      Mother to child

…and stomped rumors that you can get AIDS by eating with someone who is infected. There’s a cute ABCDE thing to explain prevention methods too.

     Abstinence

     Bonne fidélité (being faithful to one partner)

     Condoms

     Dépistage (screening test to know your status)

     Education

They asked super serious questions like “Can I wear 2 condoms for better protection?” to questions like “What’s the average penis size?” and “will an uncircumcised penis rip the condom?” Kids here are doing it young it’s scary… “If my penis isn’t big enough for a condom, what should I do?”

We even explained the female condom (FemiDome in their French).  My official counterpart got one in the capital at a formation he did. He explained how to use it to all the students at the flag raising the following day. I continued going class to class and letting them practice and ask all their intense questions.  I felt accomplished.

PS: Turns out it was a parasite. I’m all better now!