my frist HIV-AIDS charla....VIH SIDA

Wow- sometimes life hits you right in the face….and this seems to happen much more often when you’re in the Peace Corps.

You really begin to know your limits and by that I mean you begin to realize you have no limits and it’s an amazing and terrifying experience.

No matter what country I’m living in I always roll out bed…I shower… I eat…I do what I’m supposed to do that day. No matter the circumstances sometimes just getting out of bed and having breakfast no matter what time it is, no matter what food you eat, no matter how freezing cold the shower is I am still doing the things I did everyday in the states. …..Its weird how far away from everything normal you are but you still have a routine.

Well today I had a moment where it was like someone pressed mute on the video of my life and I was able to simply observe. I was giving a charla in Spanish about HIV AIDS (VIH/SIDA) and I was being understood in this other language and I knew what I was saying! I had no idea this is what Id be doing in the peace corps. I really didn’t know what I was signing up for and now I’m standing in another country…striving and growing~ Its amazing.

There were about 70 kids, their teachers, and about 7 health promoters. We went to their school in a town close to ours and we gave them a charla about HIV AIDS. We had the gender and development group from peace corps (which I am going to join) train us how to give this charla….they showed us games to do etc….and then I found myself doing these games with the little kids! It was sooooo scary!!!! And sooo much fun! I had them get in a half circle and then I had 8 volunteers. One was a kid who signified a healthy human body and then three kids held hands around him and they wore signs that said globules blancos (white blood cells) and then we had three kids wearing signs that said “diarrhea” “parasito” y “gripe (common cold)” try to enter the body but the globules blancos fought them off….The kids acted this all out and had a ton of fun! But then this guy decided to have unprotected sex with a woman who had HIV…..then all the diseases were able to enter and the white blood cells died and then the kid wearing the human body sign had to wear a sign that said SIDA….It doesn’t sound that good written out but it was super fun and it’s an easy interactive way to really show what happens…We had a lot of other activities as well and the whole thing lasted a little longer than 2 hours! But all 4 of us shared the charla so it was less stressful.

Then we talked about blood to blood, mother to child, and unprotected sex and everything you could think of! We even talked about sex that includes, anal, oral and vaginal. These kids were about 13-16 and Believe me I never got the education they all got today in the states! We even demonstrated how to put a condom on a broom stick! Haha

And then it was time from question and answer…..and man did they have questions!!! Very very intelligent questions too. For a very conservative culture they really are un-conservative if that makes sense. To put it better, They are a very realistic culture. Anyway this one kid asked where they can buy safe condoms that wont break etc…and then a health promoter (older woman) got up and said they don’t need to be having sex….they shouldn’t be asking questions like that etc….and as we were all looking at one another to decide what we should say to her….another Guatemalan boy raised his hand and was like we are good kids and we simply want to be safe and have answers….It was amazing~ AMAZING….

Also, the best part was the one little girl who was wearing indigenous clothing (the others wore school uniforms.,.) she asked us what medicine is in birth control and we kind of half assed the answer because none of us are doctors….and I felt bad and like maybe she was scared to use birth control because she had heard bad things about it or something…so after the charla I walked up to her and her friends and I said “I want to clarify that birth control is not bad for you and It has chemicals that are already in your body they are simply in strong doses…” and then the girl and her 2 little friends leaned into me and said “Once a woman loses her virginity will everyone be able to tell?” I had them repeat the questions about three times to make sure I was hearing right before I said no very strongly….haha…I was like “no no no….no one will know unless you tell them.”
It broke my heart seriously to know that these girls were getting this information from their mothers in order to scare them into not having sex…..and then when they do decide to have sex they wont have any clue what a condom is or how to wear one etc….Its a very odd world here.

My friend Emily also talked to the three little girls later and they asked her the same question…They also asked is there’s a test to tell if someone is a virgin…and if a woman bleeds a lot. Young people are very smart and they are getting messages about sex from many different angles and Im glad we could clear up a few things for them because if a young girl began asking those questions to someone else she would be told it was inappropriate and she would never get the right answer and then she would go out and have sex anyways!

It was simply an amazing experience and I felt like maybe today I actually made a difference.
IM RIGHT WHERE I NEED TO BE.