26 mar 09
song for this post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-tRDOtzkw
Woke up today witha bit of a sore throat. Better than the rest of my team who have had colds, flue, diarrehea and such. I am tired so spent the morning re3sting ("plus or minus 20 mins) for we are giving a life skills class today. We will hold a discussing surrounding HIV/AIDS to the 7,8 and 9th grades. I was so egar to have the open discussion to get to the root fo why 2/10 South Africans are known to be infected with HIV, when condoms are given free by the gov'ment. They are in the clubs, airports, nature reserves and shopping malls. Everywhere!
We put the 35 kids in a circle and besides a few of them they were all glad we were having this dicussion although no one will really willing to chat. The 3 of us jason, amy and I shared our relationship to the disease and how we work with kids/drug users in the states who are infected so they can see that we have some expertise in the subject. We asked them to share some of the myths about the diesase and soem studens told us: 1. If you seep with a virgin or a small child you will be cured of the virus. 2. A healthy diet and vitamins will keep you negative. 3. Love = girls who open their vaginas easily. 4.. No sex = you are stupid and dumb and finally 5. condoms don't feel the same as flesh to flesh.
These answers were hared to hear and made me refute them passionately. We went on to male and female condom demonstrations and talked about ways to make condoms fun and encourage their usage. We also talked about ways to empower yourself to say 'wrap it up' or 'not without a condom' . The students shared thoughts after their teacher left the room and if nothing else I think they learned that the topic of HIV is so important that 3 people from the US flew here to talke to them about it. Hopefully we empowered some of them and hopefully our discussi0n will lead to smart choices.
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