6/7
Today we rode the bus by ourselves for the first time. We tried using our fake wedding rings to ward off unwanted attention and proposals and it seemed effective! Someone asked me how much it would cost to marry me and I said I wasn’t available and showed him my ring and he left without saying anything else. Looks like we’ve found our strategy for returning home without a Zambian fiancé.
We walked around our placement site today with our site coordinator, Sammy. He showed us the different schools we’re going to be working at. There’s a middle school, primary school, girls’ high school, nursery school, school for special needs students, and a community school for orphaned and vulnerable children that is run by a nun. The schools are technically all different, but they’re in the same small area.
We’re going to be working with peer leaders (young adults in Zambia who went through school and are now working with Sport In Action). Today we were with Aron, William, Newton, Akende, and more. We’ll be helping them with P.E. classes, which exist for all grades and incorporate both sports and life skills. The theory behind Sport In Action’s program is that talking at children and warning them of the dangers of HIV, STI’s, drugs/alcohol, etc. won’t be effective in building strong character so that they’ll make the right decision when the time comes. The program uses sport as a tool for developing character, confidence, and leadership in youth. So, everyday we’ll be meeting with different age groups and help implement a warm up, group activity, and discussion. The different life skills topics might be anything from communication or leadership to peer pressure or HIV awareness.
For example, today we helped the peer leaders run a P.E. class focused on overcoming peer pressure to use drugs. The class was split into four teams. The peer leaders would pass a kickball to each team in turn (symbolizing an older, cooler peer pushing drugs). The teams had to work together and pay attention so that if the ball came their way, they could volley it back to the peer leaders before it touched the ground. The game ended when one of the teams had left the ball fall a certain number of times. The discussion at the end compared the game to real life. By saying no to drugs (or preventing the ball from touching the ground), the student has protected not only themselves from the risks of drug use, but also their friends, family, and community (their team). We think the method is innovative and effective. This is especially true when compared to typical American health classes, which usually involve lectures, movies, and really cliché skits that don’t engage students very well.
We ran out of water early, so we went to a store on the school grounds and brought a drink native to Zambia. It was called “Yess” and I can really only describe it as being fruity milk. It sounds awful but it was actually pretty good.
Tuesday’s are exciting because all the volunteers go out to pizza together since there’s a special buy one get one free deal. A group of 7 of us (make note that we were all girls) got 6 large pizzas and finished every single one. Boom. Afterwards, Sarah and I got to take our second shower of the trip! Now that we know we’re allowed to heat our water on the stove beforehand, it was a much better experience. It’s a good thing too, or we wouldn’t be showering very much here. Womp.
No comments:
Post a Comment