Today went so well!! We left the hotel at 7:15 hopped on the metrobus, which took us to the bus station to grab a bus to Milagro. We arrived around 9:30 and met Hannah, one of the volunteers at the Red Cross. We then took the Red Cross bus to the school. I honestly don’t know how we made it because the van turned off like 4 times.
As we approached the school Hannah told us how the boys had never received Cuanto Sabes. Then she reminded us that these were coastal adolescent boys with raging hormones-they would be rowdy but love us..great…we got to the school and found out that the classroom sizes were of about 40-50 students! It just kept getting better and better…NOT
The first charla went so well. The boys were very receptive and respectful. The actively participated and some had quite a bit of knowledge about HIV/Aids. It was so hot tho! At the end they didn’t want us to go and begged us for our Facebook information, lol From there we went straight to another classroom to give the charla to more students. The teacher stayed in the classroom and that may be why they were a little more timid. It was still fun and the boys were super well behaved.
Afterwards we did some interviews with the students. It turns out there are some girls at the school. We talked to one of them who was very interested in us and asked all sorts of questions. Her name was Andrea, she is 17 and has a 4 month old baby! There is no sex education at the school and all the students agree that teen pregnancy along with STI’s & HIV/Aids is a problem on the coast.
We left the school to go get food and see the park. Milagro is pretty big and known for its Pineapples. After lunch Hannah talked ot us about Sex workers. Her and another volunteer have started a sort of women’s empowerment goup, all of the members are sex workers. We got on the bus and were back at the hotel in Guayaquil by 4:30-5ish. I think everyone was really impressed by how the presentations went. Maybe because we went in with such low expectations it could only get better from what we were thinking.
I def feel a lot more confident in my knowledge on HIV/Aids. I probably know more in Spanish and could explain it better in Spanish than in English! We went to watch the Spain vs. Ecuador game. Ecuador lost…
We went to the Malicon, which is like the area by the river with restaurants and parks. Tomorrow is human reproductive system in Colimes. Should be a little bit easier and I think we’re pretty well prepared. We have to get up a little bit early and I’m exhausted from today!
Peace
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