Field Work.....

So today...well this week...has been really good...I have started teaching class at schools, my first lesson was last Wednesday...then I taught on Monday and then again today...It has been so much fun!...I put together a power point on the United States...starting with a Map of Zambia and then Africa and then the world and then the America...( they all freaked out when I pulled out my computer)...and I asked then if they could point out where Mazabuka was on the map of Zambia...one girl out of the three classes could...and then I asked them to find Zambia on the Map of Africa...none of them could find it without my help...so after talking a little bit about American and answering any questions they had...I moved on to the next topic which was HIV/AIDS...this they knew much more about...but they also had many misconceptions as well. Like one of the teachers asked if the kids share sweets could they get HIV and if you are sharing a bed with some one could you get it? And they heard that HIV had come from monkeys having sex with women...yeah, I know...anyway...it was really nice to teach...we did an activity to illustrate the difference between HIV and AIDS....where one person has lots of CD-4 cells and one has a few...they both get HIV, but the one with the low immune system gets Opportune Infections, like TB, STDs, Cancer, etc...so they are left with less than 200 CD-4 cells...so then they have AIDS...I then lead that into how HIV is spread...by having them give HIV to other students...and soon instead of just two having it...now 11 or 12 have it...so after we discussed HIV and AIDS. Then the next topic was Nutrition and how to have a strong immune system....Ah! It was so much fun! The first two classes didn't ask too many questions, the first class was really young...but the last class was great! And I will keep going back, so that will be nice...So today after I taught I went out with two of the field officers, Gift and Selina. We went and saw the AIDS Support Group's Garden...they had tons of tomatoes, corn (they call it Maze), and pumpkins, but that was just about it...I gave them some snow pea seeds and they gave me some corn to eat...and after that we went to go test some people for HIV....that was quite the experience! We sat in this shanty house...a mud hut with corrugated metal for a roof, held on by cinder blocks and bike parts, and a sheet for a door...with plastic bags nailed all over it to help keep the rain out....so we sat down there and Gift got out all of the testing material....first he talked with them about HIV, what is it, how do you get it, how you protect yourself...and there were a bunch of misconceptions there too...like it is a germ and you came get it from food, or that bruises can transmit it....but I was there as they tested five people....they tested them together and then gave the results individually...but out of those five people three of them were HIV positive...crazy! One man and two women...I couldn't believe that...but they seemed to accept the results really well. But I had a hard time just sitting there and watching their faces...you could see that they were picturing the rest of their lives...and what being HIV positive would do to that life...the man was the one that was really upset...but he did seem like he wanted to change the way he was living...and I am worried that he will not tell the girls he is having sex with that he is HIV positive...let alone use a condom....It is so hard to know this and know that this careless man will infect more and more people...how is it ever going to get under control if they keep living the lives they do? So I hope I can affect the next generation with what I am teaching....I hope.

This is some of the students...from my first class...the little boy with the paper on him is the one who had the good immune system.

So this the the second school...it is Tropul Private school...we had to have the class outside, because there is not room in the classrooms for all of them and as you can see there is no shade..so that was fun, but they were really good kids...and next week when I go, if they ask a question they get to get their snap (picture) taken with me :)

So this the the AIDS Support Group garden...with some members and the two Field Officers I worked with today...Gift, the skinny guy in the green and Selina, the girl in green....the man in the middle is 51 years old and has been HIV positive for four years.