A Small Validation for my Work

On Wednesday, I had my third “Pasos Adelante” (or ‘Steps Forward’) class.  Every Wednesday from about 12:50 to 1:30ish, I have twelve students from the 4^th grade in the secondary school (that’s about 10^th grade).  The Pasos Adelante class teaches them sexual education, self esteem, decision-making, etc.  It’s supposed to prepare them to be health promoters in their school and community.  Iraca Grande, my town, doesn’t have a secondary school, so I go to Cabracancha, a neighboring town to work with the kids.  I’ve been lucky to have the support of the Cabracancha health post, and for all three sessions, I have had a nurse intern and the head of the health post to help me teach the class.  It’s been a huge help.  I’m not sure I was really up the appropriate Spanish level to be teaching high school kids, and I’ve been thankful for their Spanish-speaking abilities. It gets a little frustrating sometimes, because the head of the health post is Elly, the lady who literally cannot stop talking and repeats everything she says a billion times.  I have had to cut her off every session when she takes 20 minutes to talk about something that should have taken 5.  I feel terrible interrupting her, but we don't have enough time to talk forever.  I have already had to cut the manual's sessions in half for each week.  She's been a pretty good sport about it though.  

Here are the pictures of my kids.  If you are wondering why no one is smiling...it's because peruvians don't smile for pictures.  They smile before, frown for the picture, and smile after.  I hate that but I don't know how to fix it.  

Greysey - one of my faves

I am not sure she's learning anything

quiet and serious -  but learning 

this kid drives me nuts

Isabel - one of my faves

drives me nuts

Luis - one of my faves

never says anything

sweetie

strangely serious all the time

pretty quiet

quiet but i think is learning

           

The Pasos Adelante manual was developed by Peace Corps, and volunteers all over the country are using it to teach sexual education, which is one of our goals.  The volunteers in my department of Cajamarca are working on putting together a weekend conference.  Each volunteer will bring two of their Pasos Adelante students for the conference.  We thought it would be great for them to realize they are part of a bigger initiative, and fun for them to get to know other kids from their department.  Most of them don’t get out much and the farthest they travel is 20 minutes down the mountain to Chota.  I had a couple kids the other day ask me if they spoke Spanish in Piura, which is a department that shares a border with Cajamarca.  That’s like a kid from Connecticut asking if the kids in Massachusetts speak English. 

            I’ve taught three classes now.  The first was a general introduction to Pasos Adelante, and to me, the weird gringa.  They had plenty of time to whisper about me in front of my face, and as of last class, I think we are starting to build “confianza” or trust because they were infinitely more comfortable than they were originally, though I do sometimes wonder if I’m speaking Martian or Spanish in there with them.  The nurse intern, Ricardo, who’s become a friend, told me that I just speak Spanish a little differently.  In his words, I speak like a city girl and they are country bumpkins so there is a disconnect sometimes.  It’s frustrating to speak another language and still have it feel like another language to the kids I’m working with.  The billions of layers of language and it’s intensely interdependent relationship with culture bothers me sometimes.  It would be far easier if everyone spoke Spanish the same, but any time I need to remind myself that the same is true in English, I end up having a chat with Jennifer, who hails from Oklahoma, and talks different that we “Yankees”, as she likes to call us.  Not to mention America vs. England on the English language front.  I guess I get it…doesn’t mean I like it. 

            I taught the second class on values and where they come from.  The third class, just this past Wednesday, was about self-esteem.  At the beginning of class, I gave them a pre-test from the Pasos Manual to see where they stood in terms of prior knowledge.  It will help me gauge how much they learned.  I just finished grading the tests and I couldn’t help myself.  I have to share the answers I got from my students.  If I wondered if these classes were necessary at all, these Pre-Tests indicated a gigantic YES. 

(The responses I wrote down from them are more or less direct translations)

Question 1: Write two values that are important to you.

Most common answers: Respect, Punctuality, Responsibility, Education…and one student couldn’t think of any.  We did that session last week. 

Question 2: True or False.  The gender of a person is a concept that is learned during life.

(answer, true)   Number of students who chose true: 6 (that’s half my class)

                        Number of students who chose false: 3

                        Number of students who didn’t chose anything: 3

Question 3: Deciding to have sex during adolescence can complicate the life of an adolescent.  Write two possible negative consequences of having sex during adolescence.

Responses:

Not being a virgin at your wedding.

You can get STIs (5)

You can be infected with HIV (2)

The woman can get pregnant (3)

He/she shouldn’t have sex with his/her partner

They have to be careful

Each person has done something bad

They can’t live a normal life

Lack of money

Lack of information and the raising of a kid

People will talk

They won’t love you

Losing dignity or virginity

And two kids didn’t write anything

Question 4: True or False: Pregnancy happens when the sperm of a man unites with the egg of a woman. (Sorry, translation is a little awkward)

Responses:  Everyone got it right except for one kid, who didn’t answer.

Question 5: Write one advantage of practicing abstinence.

Responses:

Three kids wrote nothing

Being responsible

Prevent unwanted pregnancy

You’re not going to contract illnesses/sicknesses

Abstaining from not having sex

Living a happy life without complications

Prevent HIV

Prevent STI (2)

The woman won’t get pregnant (2)

Question 6: There are a lot of adolescent pregnancies.  Write one reason (social, cultural or personal) for why there are so many pregnancies.

Responses:

Adolescent’s lack of knowledge/they aren’t well informed (5)

There are some women who get pregnant and then have an abortion

Unwanted pregnancy (2)

They don’t protect themselves when they have sex

They don’t have adequate protection

Because parents don’t control their kids

The economy

Question 7: True or False.  It is possible to have an STI without having symptoms.

Responses: 11 got it right (true), but 1 didn’t write anything.

Question 8: Write two things a person should do if they think they have an STI.

Responses:

Go to the health post (6)

Get a test done (3)

Get taught by another person

Because sex many times

Look for medicine so that it doesn’t get worse

It’s that there are people who have sex and don’t wash themselves correctly

Talk with their partner

Talk with a doctor (4)

One kid wrote nothing

Question 9: Chose THREE ways to prevent HIV

a. Practice abstinence (12 kids, all of them, marked A)

b. Put on a shirt with a large spot so that the mosquitoes don’t bite you. (none of them chose B, thank god)

c. Use a condom every time you have sex. (12, all of them, marked C)

d. Use new razors, not used ones (9 marked D)

e. Don’t shake hands with people who have the flu. (3 marked E…)

Answer: A, C, D

(Ok, so this question kind of sucks…I know that the questions seem to focus on abstinence a lot but we’re in a super catholic country and teaching sex education at all is risky.  We teach about other methods of prevention, so it’s not abstinence only education.  One volunteer mentioned abortion once in her town and they pretty much drove her out.  She had to switch sites and move somewhere else in the country.  You’ve got to be careful…also the razor thing is sort of stupid…)

Question 10: True or False.  The three ways of transmission of HIV are through blood, vertical transmission (from mom to child), and sexually.

Responses:  11 were right, 1 was wrong

Question 11: Write two places where you can go to find family planning in your community.

Responses: Most said the health post, the school, or their homes, the health promoters…and one kid wrote nothing.

Question 12: Choose THREE contraceptive methods

a. Pills (9 marked A)

b. Bathe well after having sex (3 marked B)

c. Removing the penis from the vagina before the man ejaculates (Pull out method)  (5 marked C…out of 12…that’s almost half..)

d. Using condoms correctly (12 marked D)

e. The shot (6 marked E)

f. Having sex during a woman’s period (no one marked F)

Almost half my kids think you can pull out and the girl won’t get pregnant…and at least 3 people think all you need to do is bathe well afterwards…and only one of those 8 kids overlap…which means that 7 kids, at least, are seriously going to benefit from this class.  It was kind of scary to find out how much I have to teach them and how badly they need this education.  Sort of makes me think I'll teach Pasos Adelante the entire time I'm in Peru because they aren't really receiving this education elsewhere.  It does give me a bit of encouragement though that the work I'm doing is important and necessary.  I'm a little worried about some of the kids who are not learning as we go along, but maybe we can do some extra review sessions at some point to catch them back up.  I don't get why they couldn't think of any values when we had spent and hour on that the week before doing dynamic activities and stuff.  I'll learn as I move forward, I guess.  

Some more pictures of my class when we worked on Values.  In these photos they were split into three groups and given a stack of 10 values.  They had to, as a group, organize them into most important to least important to show them how each person has their own prioritized values and to figure out what was important to them. 

Luis, the kid on the far left, is the kid I call on every time I ask a question and there is silence.  I just wait a minute and then call out, "LUIS!" with a big smile.  He's a good sport. 

These are two super smiley people...but they never smile in pictures so they both look like axe murderers.  Elly on the left, Ricardo on the right.