Sex Ed & HIV/AIDS Workshop: Me, Christina, Macario, & Arnulfo with ENRO students
The last few weeks I have been extremely busy planning and facilitating talleres (workshops) in addition to daily work in the institutos. Last Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8 AM – 12 PM, Christina and I co-facilitated, along with the support of some wonderful counterparts from the Ministerio of Ed, a sexual education workshop, followed by an HIV/AIDS workshop, at ENRO (Escuela Normal), which is a large, public institution in Toto for diversificado (high school) students. It was such a welcome change to work with high schoolers. Ninety-two sexto magisterio students – students ranging in age from 17 to early 20’s and in their last year studying to be primaria (elementary) school teachers – attended. They were so much more mature, genuinely interested, and participatory than the Basico students I normally work with. The sex ed workshop started with a dinámica in which people shared how much (or how little) sex ed they received in their home, followed by a vocabulary activity and a myth and fact activity. We presented charlas (talks) on “Puberty and Adolescence” and “Human Reproduction.” Then we had a more interactive charla on maternity and paternity, during which the attendees in small groups had to weigh the positive and negative effects of having a child now vs. in 5 years, and what effect it would have on different aspects of their life (finances, career, social life, education, etc.).
The next day, we presented the Peace Corps HIV/AIDS workshop, which is a wonderful, interactive, informative, and even fun 3-hour activity. We all received cool t-shirts, courtesy of the Ministerio of Education.
Today the Toto dream team presented the first teacher workshop of the year: Peace Corps & Participatory Education. I gave a brief history of Peace Corps Guatemala, described the Youth Development project, and explained our relationship with the Ministry of Education. Macario was a great co-facilitator, as usual, clarifying our role and hitting home a few things that some teachers and directors don’t get – that we are not supposed to replace a teacher in each school, but work with the teachers, that we are not English teachers, etc. Our new official counterpart on the other hand has been driving me crazy on a couple things – sending out the invite for this workshop this past Friday, in spite of knowing about it for over a month, as well as saying it began at 1 PM, when it really began at 2. Now this was interesting – many arrived much earlier than 2 PM and were very frustrated that we did not start until 2 (as Christina and I had planned). I wanted to say – THIS IS WHAT I PUT UP WITH EVERY DAY!!!! I am just about always the first teacher to arrive at my schools every single day. It’s even worse for special activities – they say 2:30 (I arrive by 2:30) and we begin at 4 (or 5). In spite of the time mistake, teachers (mostly mine) were still trickling in at 2:30 PM. We did, however, end by 5, as indicated in the invite, instead of carrying on in true Guatemalan fashion until the sun went down. There were a few technical difficulties in the beginning, but all went well in the end. Our final activity was for the teachers to develop a class using participatory education – we assigned them in groups to come up with an interactive way to teach about Semana Santa to a group of North Americans. It was great – using random items they found in the auditorium, they constructed crosses out of broom handles and metal poles, carried ladders and marimbas, to reenact some of the things we should expect to see during Semana Santa – people going door to door looking for Jesus (when they find the actor who is playing Jesus, they take him into the street and beat him and then he carries his cross to his crucifixion). There are huge processions every week. Some groups narrated and acted out Carnival (Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday) and eating and partying, followed by receiving their cenizas (ashes) for Ash Wednesday. Between Christina and my seven schools, we had 59 teachers in attendance, an impressive turnout I thought for such short notice, but I guess short notice is just how things are done here.
Scheduled for next week is a sexual education taller for mothers and how to talk about the subject with their kids, for which we have been working closely with the girls from Population Council. Christina and I informed David, as he is our boss/new counterpart, about all the activities planned for this month. Well, he went ahead and mailed out an invite to all our schools stating that next week’s workshop is mandatory for all the teachers and parents. Our intent is that this workshop is specifically for the girls groups and their mothers in specific communities where we are working apart from our schools. So we shall cross that bridge when we come to it, although I will need to place several calls this week and hope my teachers took something away from that active listening communication activity we did today.
