The Power of Knowledge

sorry I haven't written in awhile. I've been very busy with school and other things. Everyday when I get home from school there's just enough time to take a bucket bath, eat dinner journal and read, before I pass out from exhaustion. if I never gave teachers enough credit before, I will from here on out. its a huge challenge sometimes to get these kids to respond, and the cultural differences are very apparent in their answers, creativity is not a strong point, and they always want to say the "right" answer, meaning what they think we want to hear, which sometimes leads to answers that neither make sense, nor help others to want to respond. ohh well.

today was a little disheartening. one of our "good girls" (shows up everyday, on time and answers lots of questions) showed up with her sweater around her head and face. at first I thought it was just because she was cold, but soon Kim and I noticed she had a black eye. of course we didn't ask her what happened, but the experiences we've all seen with our homestays and fathers in the household, I wouldn't be surprised if she was beaten over the weekend. men, especially most fathers do not perceive women as having ANY importance besides making babies and raising the family. women are a liability in every sense. its like when I flew over Africa, I flew back in time about 200 years ago. its so degrading. but these classes not only teach children about HIV and human health, but about self esteem, self confidence and appropriate relationships, which includes women empowerment in the relationship. we repeat over and over that women have the right to say no, even to their husbands (which always gets shocked looks). these poor girls.

today, as part of the afternoon we had a "person living with HIV" come in to speak to the kids. its like this past week of teaching has gone in one ear and out the other. they wouldn't believe the woman that she had HIV because "she looked too normal" and she "didn't look sick" and she "seemed so happy about her life". we've tried to role play and create games about how you would never know if a person had HIV from the outside, because they don't look different, and the kids all nod their heads like they get it, but then they all stood up and tried to "get her to break" and admit that she was lying and didn't have any disease. hopefully by the end, they realized it wasn't a joke, and this woman really was trying to break down stereotypes that infected people look infected.

some of these kids are really growing on me. they are so studious and most of them really want to learn. well, wouldn't you if the alternative was staying at home helping mom and dad with chores? the kids are on winter holiday from regular school right now, and these classes are completely voluntary. we don't make them come back if they don't want to. I think we are really doing some good work. you can see the kids grow with each lesson. they are so curious that sometimes they don't even ask questions that pertain to anything we teach. we have a question box where they can write any question down, anonymously and we'll answer them. we got a question about why does the moon sometimes appear all white, and sometimes its only a sliver? so we enacted a solar system in the middle of the dirt floor. another question asked us about what cancer was. so I asked the class if they wanted a simple answer or if they wanted the whole story, and all at once they shouted THE WHOLE STORY! so I taught them about DNA and carcinogens, the things you can do to protect yourself, and the things that will occur without your permission. they love it. whenever they're given the option to go out and take a break and play or do question box, they always choose question box.

I saw Haika (the girl that came in with the black eye) write a question out today, and slip it in the box as she left for lunch. I wonder if I'll know when her question comes up.

Our kids graduate on Friday, and they've been preparing art and dramas all week. today I got caught up watching the girls create this masterpiece of a drama in an empty classroom. it was complete with original songs. the leader, stood up and did the scales to find her pitch, then conducted the rest of the kids (even some 14 year old boys) to follow in harmony. I'm so excited to see the final piece.

One last week of this, then I'll move on to training for the hospital part of my work. I hope its as fulfilling as this has been.