Sex Ed on the Banana Farm

For the past few months I've had one activity that has really excited me and I've enjoyed. I was asked by the principal of a very small school to come teach sex ed to his older students. I really wasn't sure what I was getting into since I had never heard of the place and its a Catholic school so was uncertain what I would be allowed to discuss. The first time I went I planned a lesson on sex and gender most of which comes from some Peace Corps curriculum and I had used in Burkina. I wanted the students to get to know me first before we got into the fun stuff and also to have a chance to really discuss with the principal and teacher what they wanted me to cover. They basically gave me freedom to cover anything that I thought was important and the only limit was to not give condom demonstrations. This was 5th and 6th grade though so I completely understand that.

This small school has about 100 kids in eight grades though most of the classes are combined so 5th and 6th grade which I was working with had about 13 students. The school is located in the middle of a very large banana farm. Most of the families that live here are migrant workers that come from other parts of Central America so English is a second language for the students. There is no transportation unless they walk from the farm out to the highway so most people are pretty isolated. The kids and teachers were so appreciative of me coming out to their school which makes it much more enjoyable for me. Getting to the school is a challenge but definitely worth it when I feel appreciated. Every time I went to the school I caught a teachers bus at 6 am in Dangriga which takes teachers to several different schools south of here. I'd ride the bus for about an hour and then get off at a junction. In the meantime I'd meet up with a teacher from the school and we'd wait on the side of the road here for about forty-five minutes. Eventually the mechanic from the farm would come get us with the pick-up truck and everyone would pile in with several people jumping in the back. It was about a 20 minute ride to the school. I usually started teaching around 9 am but it felt like I'd been working for hours by that point!

I developed six different lessons for the students that I felt covered the most important information for students. Like I said, the first was on sex and gender and we discussed the difference between our biological sex (male or female) and our gender based on society (masculine or feminine). We also talked about gender roles and how society tells us to behave. They said that only women are supposed to cook but they realized that men could cook. Same goes for driving and many other roles that in the US we think our gender neutral but not the case here. The other topics I covered were: puberty, insemination and pregnancy, reproductive anatomy, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs

For the first session they decided to have me work with grades 3-6 since there were some older kids in the lower grades. This meant I was working with students that ranged in age from 8-15. I found this very challenging since their understanding is so different and I wasn't comfortable about teaching some of the other topics to kids so young. From then on, we agreed to just pull the older kids from the lower grades so I only worked with students ranging from age 12-15. Most of the information was completely new to the students and I know they struggled to understand my English and what I was saying. I was very surprised how much they had learned by the end though.

Peace Corps Belize has been working on an initiative to train teachers in how to use the sex ed curriculum written by the Ministry of Health. I am helping with this project and will have more updates later. I realize that my teaching these classes is not sustainable, one of Peace Corps' main objectives. I did share my lesson plans with the teacher and principal though and discussed ways to teach these topics. I hope in the future they will feel more comfortable teaching it.

Even though I know this wasn't a sustainable project, I enjoyed it very much and sometimes I think its important to have an activity that just feels worthwhile and makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something even if its just with those individual students. I loved having the opportunity to get out in a village and work hands-on with youth since I miss doing that in Burkina!