Final Week at Primeros Pasos

My time working at Primeros Pasos has come to end. I can't believe how quickly the 2 months have flown by! It was a great last week, as we were able to go into the schools and teach 6th graders Sex Education and STD prevention. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I, and 2 other Primeros Volunteers, went to three different schools with classes that ranged from 20 to 45. Like in the clinic, the 6th graders were very interested and, for the most part, well behaved. There was the occasional chuckling and giggling. We passed out cards at the beginning so that they could write anonymous questions that would be answered at the end. Many of the questions were "Why?" questions. Such as "Why do boys voices change?" and "Why do girls grow bigger hips?" as well as "Why do people get HIV/AIDS?" Interestingly, even though we explained how HIV/AIDS and STDs are transmitted, there still seemed to be the conception that you could just "get it", from one day to the next. Some of the questions also asked us to reexplain basic concepts that we had just covered. This leads to me to wonder what we take for granted in teaching this information. If they haven't had any education on the human body or how or bodies work, I can imagine that being thrown all sorts of Sexual Education can be overwhelming and difficult to comprehend. I also think this was the first time these students had heard the birds and the bees. While I am excited to move on to my next adventure, I am a little sad to not be able to teach anymore.

Some of you have also asked me what I do for fun during the week or around Xela. So... I generally try to leave Xela every other weekend. When I spent the weekends here, I like to do one of the day hikes right around the city or go to a neighboring town. During the week, I hang out at night with my housemates quite a bit. We cook together one or two times a week, or other Primeros Pasos volunteers will have a dinner at their house. Given the amount of foreigners in Xela, there is always something to do, whether its a movie, a benefit party for one of the NGOs, going to get a drink or listen to music. I also like to just hang out at home during the week and read or watch a movie. I have discovered how wonderful sleep is here, and try to get as much of it as I can!

In other news, Steve is arriving tomorrow and we are headed to Semuc Champey, north of Guatemala City and then the Lake and Antigua. I will be sure to write all about it and post many pictures. I'm then headed to Mexico for some beach, ruins and a Visa run. So, it might be a while but I will blog again soon!