summer in december

so summer is in full effect in paraguay. today its not too hot but other days have been 110 degree temps with about 150 percent humidity! it gets unbearably hot here! its so hot that you can´t really do anything during the day but hang out and drink terere, read a book or take loooooong naps.

its nice because it is now summer break in paraguay. school´s out. the last workshop i did at the highschool was the very last day of classes i did it on hiv aids. it was soooo much fun! i had a blast doing it! i would say it was the first of its kind in my school. i wouldn´t say the students haven´t talked about sex before in the class room, outside the classroom its dominates alot of the convos, not any different than american youth. but i digress, the week before the hiv aids workshop i was watching the seniors give their final presentations on a multitude of topics ranging from youth participation in politics to teen parenting. one of the soldier students gave his presentation on STIs (sexually transmitted infections, for those of you who don´t know!). he talked about hiv aids as one of those STIs one could get. but it was such basic information, he didn´t talk about contraceptives or other ways you can pass hiv to another person besides sexually. so after his presentation the other teachers in the room starting making their comments saying that you can get hiv from bed sheets at the local motel or sharing razors. now one, no one should share razors but it is hiiiiiiiighly unlikely to spread hiv this way. and i know that the local motel is full of essence of auquaboogie but that does not mean that you can hiv from the bed sheets! i had to knock some heads. it was quite apparent that myths about this particular STI are still running amock! i put myself to work afterwards and prepared my workshop on hiv aids to coincide with World Aids Day (dec 1st).

It all went super well. the kids were a bit terrified or uncomfortable when i did the condom demonstration using my host cousin´s fingers, but hey, it had to be done. i wanted to be prepared. i did lose a lot of my girl students which was unfortunate, but i think it would have helped to have a paraguayan female counterpart to assist me, but ya live and ya learn. i would love to continue to do sex ed workshops in the school but i really need a community contact to help me out. it has been extremely difficult getting the teachers to work with me on projects. so this summer i am working on putting together a plan on getting the teachers to work with me better. i have some ideas from my old job, companion care, back in the states. i plan on working on professional and personal goals in the job place. i would also like the teachers to come up with a mission statement and classroom rules and regulations to post up in every classroom in the school so that the kids and teachers know what is expected of them.

but this summer has been pretty slow. i have been travelling a lot the past 3 weeks but now i would like to spend more time in site and figure out what i can do with the kids in my barrio. i was hoping that the community sports center would be finished by now but there is some issue with money. so hopefully once that is finished i can start a basketball team and we can go around kicking butt!

that´s the plan...
Stephen