3 schools, 1 week

So it’s been another day since I’ve written. I hope I don’t make it a habit of skipping days like this, but this week was a bit busier than usual, with me teaching at three schools in addition to going to classes.

Yesterday I had my African Popular Music class, where we learned how to play the televi. I knew the basic, basic way to play (which our teacher taught), but learned a few more elaborate ways of playing it. I am by NO means even proficient at playing the televi, but will have fun teaching Sarah when I get back to the states.

Me and Gillian playing our televi. We matched that day and absolutely didn't plan it. Guess that's what roomies do!

I also taught at my second school, King’s Palace. It was their first day of workshops, and so Leigh and I covered the basic facts about HIV / AIDS and STDs / STIs. The kids at King’s were SO responsive, and knew a lot already. They asked tons of great questions, and were polite and kind to each other when one would ask a potentially embarrassing question. We teach them the ABCD modes of prevention. A is for abstinence, B is for be faithful, C is for condom use, and D is for don’t share sharp objects. They really seem to understand these. Sometimes talking about sex or condom use can be a little awkward with 5th and 6th graders, but these kids didn’t laugh or giggle or anything. I think sex education is SO important in middle schools, and certainly don’t think it’s taught enough in the states. Especially looking at examples of my own education, I was never taught sex education by my schools. I don’t think ignoring the issue changes anything. Even in the Christian community and in church youth group, ignoring talking about proper safe sex practices does not change the fact that most kids will probably have sex. Just because certain groups of people can’t face the reality of what youth in America (and around the world) do doesn’t mean ignoring it will make it go away. Talking about condom use certainly doesn’t “encourage sex” as some adults may argue, but rather teaches kids to be responsible in doing something they’re likely to do anyway. All that being said, we teach the kids here about abstinence, and how it is the only way to 100% prevent yourself from getting HIV. We also promote condom use and being faithful with only one partner if you do choose to have sex. They understand this, and I think they’re well educated and equipped at this point to make their own life choices and are well aware of the potential repercussions of those actions.

Anyway, today I didn’t have any class, so I got to sleep in a little bit. Gillian and I went to Melting Moments for our weekly Mac-N-Cheese, and it was delicious! Afterwards, I went to teach at King’s again, for their second day of workshops. Today we talked about stigma and discrimination, and tried to educate them on types of discrimination against infected people, and why discriminating against someone with HIV / AIDS is wrong. We told them its their job to educate their friends and family who may be ignorant to how it is spread or who may have attitudes of disgust or hate towards people who have the disease. We did some role-playing games of examples of discrimination, and the students knew what to say and how to stop it.

I am very encouraged by the program, and, as I’ve said many times before, think WAAF is doing the country and all of West Africa a great, invaluable service. I would love to start something like this back in the states, but know it’d be a lot harder to just go into a school and teach about HIV for 2 hours. Maybe one day the West will be a little more open minded.
After work we just kind of lounged around, which we do a lot of, and went to dinner. Gillian and I watched a really dumb movie, but it was funny. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but here they sell bootleg DVDs that have like 18 movies on one DVD. One DVD costs about 2 bucks. So I have almost 100 movies now, and it cost me no more than 10 dollars. Pretty great. Watching movies is a pastime here, as the TV in the living room is almost ALWAYS playing a movie with a few people watching. When there’s nothing to do (which is a lot of the time), movie watching is a great option.

I need to wrap this up because tomorrow we’re LEAVING at 5:20 to go to Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. It’s an NYU-sponsored trip, so we’ll spend the night and come back Sunday. Apparently Kumasi is like the fabric capital of Ghana, so I suspect I’ll come back with tons of cloth! STILL WAITING ON THOSE MEASUREMENTS PEOPLE! If you don’t send me what you want, it’s not getting made. Plain and simple. I know, said so lovingly, right? I just don’t want to wait til the last week and have to ask Marjorie to make 10 dresses. So help a sister out.

Time for bed! Hope all is well at home. Miss you so much! I’ll write about my weekend when I get back on Sunday. In the meantime, everyone enjoy themselves this weekend and enjoy precious time with family and friends.

love love love