I'm sorry it has been over 2 months since my last blog post! My laptop charger broke and my wonderful fiance (Ah! Don't worry, we'll get to that!) sent me a new one, but it took me awhile to figure out that it was my charger that was the problem. Now the problem is that so much has happened since then I've been procrastinating on writing it in one cohesive blog post!
I'll begin with what I'e been doing in my village since September. The first 3 months at site are supposed to focus on your Community Needs Assessment (CNA) for Peace Corps; a 5-10 pg report on your observations related to the potential needs of your village. In mid-October I had a visit from PC to check-in and see how everything was going. Despite feeling like I hadn't accomplished much in my first 2 months my Public Health supervisor assured me that I was on track and well integrated. I hadn't heard much from my organization until my meeting, and even after the PC meeting the trend continued so I started filling in my own schedule.
I began teaching weekly lessons at a Secondary School in my village, the first set being on HIV. We split up the grades (they go Form 1, 2, 3, 4, which is equivalent to Freshman, Soph, Junior, Senior) with Form 1 and 2 girls only first, then Form 3 and 4 girls, then the boys split by age as well. I wanted to do them in smaller groups because I know that they typically have a lot of questions, and keeping students with their agemates might make them more comfortable to ask questions they would otherwise be too embarrassed to ask. So the first one went well but I wasn't sure if the students really learned that much- they were really smart and seemed to know the basics already. However, when I arrived at the school the next day to teach another lesson, the principal informed me that the girls I just taught had been discussing my lesson and what all they learned with their male classmates and he (the principal) had received several requests from Form 1 and 2 boys to be taught before the Form 3 and 4 girls. I was pretty excited! I liked teaching the girls, but I've noticed that girls around that age here get really weird and embarrassed around me and it's hard for me to not get a little self-conscious when they laugh continuously at me throughout the lesson... Plus I have a few male cousins in the US and they are at the high school age and I just love them, they're not embarrassed around me and they're mostly past that really immature phase so they are fun to interact with.
Ha. ha. ha.
Yeah, let's go talk to my pubescent (sorry, no offense guys) male cousins about why having a small penis would not reduce your chances of spreading HIV... (that was a legitimate question they asked me). Or what the benefits of having sex are besides having children... So I didn't really think that part through, so I did blush pretty hard when trying to answer those kind of questions to 14-17 yr. old boys, but it was probably the most fulfilling thing I've done here so far. The fact that they were comfortable enough with me to ask those questions is super cool. We did almost an hour of questions and I feel like I really left a positive impression on them. The only thing I regret is writing down my real phone number when they asked for my contact information.
I have a bit more to go buuuuuut I tend to ramble so I'm gonna end this here so as to keep your attention ;)
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