Beginnings of Endings

Entry via Letter

Today I finished writing my last annual exam which will be taken by my form 1 and 3 students in 1 week, after my form 2 students finish their annual national exams. These exams bring our first semester together to a close and send all of the students off on holiday to villages near and fair. It wasn’t until today, as students and I gossiped around the water pump-trying to help my “dumber by the day” cat our of a Koroshot tree while at the same time teaching me to balance a full bucket of water on my head – that I realized I would be truly bored over the next month without them.. Don’t get me wrong, my peer educators are all still coming to learn and prepare in December as we have progressed from learning about AIDs/HIV to STIs to learning to use condoms – of which several of my students felt necessary to imitate all aspects of what a model penis’s capable of before safely disposing of their condoms. Today’s session was most sucessful as each student had a dozen questions over the use of a condom and the specifics on where they could find them in the community. I can start to see the animated difference in some of them as they become excited at the prospect of teaching others, and increased confidence in my girls as we talk about subjects that are culturally taboo. I’m hoping to be able to teach them more, including a possible field trip to Newala to see where blood tests for AIDs are done in the hospital. Mungu Akipenda we will find the time and have the ability to continue making these sessions meaningful.