We had a week full of ups and downs, to say the least. Poor Kody has been sick all week, I was sick before and must have passed it along to him. He ended up getting a cough so I made him go to the doctor after the 5th day thinking it would help but it just made things worse. Really, I feel terrible about it. He had a horrible reaction to the antibiotics, muscle aches, cold sweats, and barf everywhere. On top of the reaction, the whole ordeal cost about 700 pesos. The doctor was very nice and only charged us half because we told him about the project we are working on, but the antibiotics were really expensive. Anyway, he stopped taking the medicine and has returned from the dead.
We worked in the private middle school this week, there is a big contrast between the private and public school. There were 8-12 kids per class instead of 30-40 and the classrooms were much more conducive to learning and teaching as well. We had a little bit more flexibility with time and only had 3 groups instead of 5. I think the highlight of the week was when we were doing the condom activity with the oldest group and one kid whipped a giant carrot out of his pocket that he had brought to school with him to use instead of the carrots we were going to hand out to them, he was even nice enough to let us use it for the initial condom demo.
This is picture of Kody giving a demonstration of how female condom works. It is really interesting to see how the teenage girls and boys react to seeing a guy explain how to use a female condom. In the past I have usually done this part of the class but we decided to switch it up this week and I think it was a really positive experience for the students. Also, it probably helps that all the little girls have huge crushes on him and pay more attention to him anyway.
We were supposed to work with 4th and 5th graders as well but even though the school was in complete support of the program, there were parents who were not comfortable with their children learning the material and so we were unable to finish working with them. The teachers and director of the school all feel that it is very important for the students to finish the program and going to talk more with the parents and hopefully we will be able to come back. Unfortunately, in many places in the world not just Mexico, there is a belief that children are to young to learn about sexuality and their bodies and then when they are entering adolescence or adulthood it is time to cram all that information into their brain. Sexuality is not something a person can learn or began to understand through one hour of sex ed class, it is something that a person has to build on their entire life through age appropriate education and information. The more a person understands about their body and how it works, the more respect they will have for it.
We got a new meeting space at the Cruz Roja (Red Cross), however, no kids showed up to our after school meetings. At first we thought there was some drama going on, but as it turns out our meetings just conflict with dance practice for Carnival festivities. We are going to work with the kids to see if we can figure out a different time for the meetings until after Carnival and hopefully things will pick up again after February 13th or so. We have also been working with Anna to work out a long term plan for the group and what the different options are.Also, Thanks to Daniel and Manuel, some very generous humans who are also teachers at the private middle school, we had a place to stay this week. Thanks Guys!! We have had a great time with you! And Rubi, thank you for being so excited to see us everyday when we get home from school.
-Lena
2/1/2010
Today was a school holiday, so we didn't have any classes to teach and spent the late morning and early afternoon in the office getting ready for the rest of the week.
It has been raining the past couple of days but after we left the office it cleared up for a little bit and so we walked down to the beach.
This week we are staying in a part of Isla known as La Gloria. Just down the road from us is a new community called La Guadalupana. Right now La Guadalupana is a squatter community. In Mexico there is a law that if you live on government land for a certain number of years, meaning you spend every night there for X amount of time, you gain ownership of the land. As of now, this community is not recognized as a colonia and there is no running water (and maybe no electricity).The people on the island seem to have mixed feelings about this community. Some could care less, while others would rather it not exist, which is why it has also been called La Invasión. While working in La Secundaria we saw an incident where some kids were making fun of one of the students because they lived in La Guadalupana.
While walking along the beach we came across some interesting creatures in some tide pools. We encountered snails, sea urchins, hermit crabs, and something neither of us had ever seen before. We still aren't sure what they are, perhaps some type of echinoderm. They were all different colors, their bodies are extremely rigid, and they crawl along the rocks. Of course I tried to flip one over, but no dice, these creatures aren't going anywhere they don't want to unless you have a jackhammer on hand. We couldn't find any information about them, so if anyone knows what they are, let us know.
-Kody
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