The last week of school was incredibly busy. After our career guest speakers last week, we taught a course on how to write ‘CVs’ for job and college applications. All of our students were extremely excited to write their CVs, and we spent a majority of our afternoons this past week helping them type them up. On Thursday, we went into Maseru to print them out and presented them to the students on the last day of school. The looks on their faces beamed with accomplishment and pride.
In addition, after our unfortunate experience with the Red Cross Clinic last Monday, we took 31 of our Form D and Form E students to get HIV tested at Baylor Clinic. Although Susan had called ahead of time, the staff was still pretty surprised to see how many students there were. However, they approached us with respect and flexibility, ensuring us with a positive attitude that all of these students could, and should, be tested. The way the staff at Baylor Clinic handled the situation was in stark contrast to that of the previous clinic, and showed us the great disparity between government and foreign-run, private institutions here. Nearly 1/3 of our students had never been tested before, mostly the boys. To say the least, they were scared- sweating profusely, pacing up and down, making sure their friends were getting tested as well. One of our boys was so scared to get tested that he walked out of the testing room as soon as he got inside. He told us that if he was HIV+, he would end his life. Susan, Brittany, and I gently consoled and encouraged him and told him that being HIV+ was not a death sentence. We told him the benefits of knowing one’s status as well as the dangers of not knowing. Finally, he asked me and Susan to go to the testing room with him, and in the most anxious, heart pounding 10-minute wait of my life, he found out his status. It was an emotional day for all- some thrilled, some despondent. Nevertheless, we were all so proud of our students and their courage to take the first step in this battle.
The last application we taught was on Drugs and Alcohol. The majority of our students drink alcohol, some smoke cigarettes, and a few of the boys smoke dagga (marijuana). We first taught a general lesson on the harmful effects of these drugs (e.g. what’s inside of a cigarette), and this ‘scare tactic’ seemed to be both eye-opening and effective. We also used the PSM to relate it more personally to their lives, and we discussed how to deal with peer pressures. Finally, we got the Youth Coordinator from the Blue Cross Rehabilitation Center to speak to the class about prevention. Overall, I felt that it was a very comprehensive and informative lesson that encouraged the students not to ruin their potentially bright future on meaningless things.
Finally, I also taught a lesson on reproduction this week in preparation of Nurse Rebecca’s puberty talk on Wednesday afternoon. Through visual posters, the students were able to learn about the male and female reproductive organs, menstruation, and pregnancy. Due to the nature of the relationship between us/Nurse Rebecca and the students, they (mainly the girls) were more open to ask questions that they would never bring up to their regular teachers. In this way, Nurse Rebecca was able to dispel a lot of myths and speak frankly about the normal, hormonal changes in the human body.
-Beverly