This marked the last week of Camp Challenge and also the craziest week we have had so far! Each day we worked up until the late afternoon running errands or helping our students, and every night I felt extremely exhausted from the day’s work.
On Monday, Beverly taught a lesson about velocity vs. time graphs which the students picked up pretty quickly because they were introduced to distance vs. time graphs the previous Friday. I was so proud of them for retaining the information they learned, and I felt a sense of satisfaction knowing that we were helping them understand physics, which many say is their hardest subject to comprehend. Then Beverly gave a talk about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. In the past, I had casually spoke to some of our students about the influence of drugs in their life, and several of them did not find them to be dangerous, especially “dagga” which is what they call marijuana. In the lesson, Beverly used the scare tactic to hopefully drive them away from using drugs. She talked about the horrible ingredients in a cigarette and the health consequences of using dagga, alcohol, heroin, and smoking. We then asked them to journal about peer pressures they have faced in life, and many of them talked about the struggle they have to avoid alcohol, smoking, and even crime. It was a revealing subject for many, and I’m encouraged to see that the students were so open about their problems and eager to seek help.
The next day I taught about moments and force which seemed like a newer topic to them because several struggled with how to use the formula. We also went through the problem-solving model to address the issue of drug and alcohol abuse in Basotho youth today. The students seemed to understand the cause and effect of drug abuse. We also acted out scenarios of peer pressure that hopefully gave an idea of how to say “no” the next time they are approached by a friend using drugs.
After class that day, we took all of our students and Form E students to get HIV tested. We found out that many of the students had been tested before in their life but wanted to check again. The ones who had never been tested before were by the far the most scared because they were worried about what kind of effect being HIV+ would have on their life. One student, after he went into the testing room, quickly came out only to tell us that he did not get tested because he was so frightened. Beverly, Brittany, and I brought him aside to talk and explained to him the benefits of getting testing and knowing your status. As he was listening, he still did not feel convinced and was extremely stressed about the situation. After consoling him, he mustered up the courage to go back into that room, this time accompanied by Beverly and me. I was so proud of him for making the right decision and going through with the testing. He came out feeling relieved to know his status.
On Wednesday and Thursday we invited guest speakers to come and talk about serious issues among youth. Rebecca spoke about puberty for girls and boys on Wednesday afternoon, and the youth prevention specialist, Majesto, from Blue Cross Rehabilitation Center came on Thursday to talk about the challenges of drugs and alcohol that face youth today. Both speakers were phenomenal and kept the students intrigued by the topic. For puberty, both genders had many good questions about the effects of puberty on the body and the physical changes that occur. It was great to see that they cared so much about this topic because Basotho youth are typically not taught about the biological reasons behind puberty. During the drug and alcohol talk, the speaker addressed the dangers and complications of using dagga, beer, and cigarettes. Although he spoke only in Sesotho, I could tell by our students’ body language that they were learning a lot from the talk. It seems drugs are a bigger problem in Thaba Bosiu as compared to Maseru because the students here have very little to do outside of school, so they end up resorting to using drugs and alcohol in their free time. I hope many of them take the advice of the speaker and find good hobbies such as playing sports or reading.
We also helped our students create CVs for when they start to apply to college and other tertiary schools. Some had many activities to list, but in general many of them have not done much outside of school, which could be due to the lack of opportunities in Thaba Bosiu. So, we had to be very creative in helping them describe different activities they have participated in. We encouraged them to include everything from a random side job they had one winter to youth group activities in their church. In the end, each student was able to have a thorough CV that they will hopefully keep and use in the future.