Know
Yesterday I had a short but really great meeting with the headmistress of one of the secondary schools. She really wants me to teach health classes at her school- right now the students have no health classes whatsoever. She wants me to teach them things like how to brush their teeth, because, despite the fact that they are in secondary school (7th-12th grades, in America), no one has ever taught them about things like dental hygiene. We also talked about me teaching reproductive health… WOOOOHOOOOO! This is just what I’ve been wanting to do, I’m so glad someone is going to let me do it! There is an appalling lack of basic reproductive health knowledge among girls here. (Case in point: a few weeks ago I met a secondary school student and we were talking about how to not get pregnant if you can’t use a condom. She was quite surprised to learn that I, as a white woman, knew what menstruation was, and also menstruate. She was probably 16 or 17 years old.)
Anyway, I asked the headmistress if I could teach the girls about AIDS and she told me, “YES! Please teach them how bad it is; they’re not scared of AIDS anymore.” I asked her to explain, so she did. This part I’m paraphrasing: “They grew up in a generation that had AIDS. It’s different now. When HIV first came about in Uganda, when people had it, you could tell. They got sick, their skin looked terrible, and they got really thin. Now, with all of the medicines, you can’t tell anymore. The girls know that they could have HIV and no one would know- you can’t see it anymore, because now it’s possible to have HIV and still be big and healthy. They think it must not be that bad, because you can take medicine and still look and feel mostly normal. They need to know it’s bad. Ever since the medicines have been available, they don’t really know that. They’ve lived with AIDS all around them. Because they’ve grown up that way, they think that they have no control over whether or not they get it. AIDS is like cancer; even though there are things you can do to prevent it, a lot of it is just by chance. Just luck. That’s what they think. They need to know how bad it is.”
Now I just have to wait until February when they get back from holiday!
posted by Jess @ 12:38 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
My kids are on holiday, too. I never knew how much time I spent at the school because now it feels like I have NOTHING to do!
That's really interesting about HIV-AIDS. I never really thought about it that way, but it's such a good point.
AIDS is becoming a big deal here, too and I'm thinking I might do something, but I'm not sure.
And, I'm definitely doing a nutrition course! People have really bad dental hygiene here, too. Lots of little kids already have mouths full of silver. I'm going to focus on nutrition, but the health stuff is a good idea, too.
Wow, Jessica, what an opportunity! To think that that much needed aids medicine might have a negative backlash! Well, take a breath and jump in and do what you can. I am trying hard to get rid of all of my debt because I truly want to be able to go and serve. You have really inspired me young lady! Love you
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