Last year, HEART held a "Life Skills" Training Seminar for the teachers at a primary school in Nyakach. This year I joined HEART as they returned not only to see that what the teachers learned had passed on to the students, but to host a Kids Fun Day for the kids and open up an office for the Nyakach Kids for School Programme.
At about 10:45am, we met with the teachers of the 12 schools that were present to discuss the purpose, which was HIV/AIDS prevention, and the schedule for the day. We also made it clear that throughout the day, there would be HCT (HIV Counseling and Testing), and we encouraged the teachers to lead by example. In the words of Isaac, HEART project manager, we "cannot go far without [them]."
With it being my first trip upcountry, I had a lot of fun playing "journalist," writing everything down and taking photos upon photos. My notebook is full of names, dates, times.
By 11:30am, introductions of each school, teacher, HCT Counselor, and HEART team member began, and by noon, the "entertainment" began. The kids from each school came together and performed poems, songs, and/or dance with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. Some were in English, others Swahili, and some even in Luo, the mother tongue of Nyakach. I had so much fun as the kids pulled me and some of the other team members up to dance along to the beat of the drum with their school. All of the Kenyans laughed as they watched us dance along. I think they might have been pleasantly surprised that God has gifted even the Wazungu with some dance moves...
At 1pm, we got some games going for the kids, which they loved. This included a sac race and a dressing race. Some of the HEART team including myself, Kyndal, and Isaac got in on a sac race. Kyndal and I schemed before hand (like our usual, trouble-making selves) and decided that while Kyndal ran and stole Isaac's sac, I would get ahead and win the race. We watched our plan unfold beautifully and shared lots of laughs with Isaac and the kids watching.
By 2:10pm, we got all of the kids settled and ready for classes. Again, we separated them into youth girls, youth boys, kids, and adults/guardians. There were actually a significant amount of guardians that were present that day, which was great because it allowed us to encourage more people to go in for testing.
I worked with the youth girls, and I'll be honest, with this being my first time (remember this was my first trip upcountry), I was a little nervous. We faced many challenges. First, we had a classroom set up with desks in a circle to encourage more of a group discussion, but as soon as the girls started pushing and shoving their way in, we quickly learned that a classroom just wasn't going to cut it. (There were even girls crammed outside, attempting to peek in through the windows!) So, we moved outside. But as we began our teaching and asking the girls questions, instead of enthusiasm, we faced a hundred blank stares. In addition, the teacher that was there to help us translate wasn't doing much of anything. She even had a hard time understanding the message we were attempting to convey. We tried to get the girls to participate by offering candy to anyone who answered or asked a question, but we still faced hesitation. As we tried to get the girls to talk about what might tempt them to have sex, we expected to here the desires for love, value, beauty. Although we did, we were also faced with the problem of men offering girls the exchange of money that the girls need for school for sex. It was heartbreaking.
After much difficultly, we managed to teach the girls that HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, and STDs could keep them from accomplishing, let alone pursuing, their goals. The only way they could 100% avoid this risk is abstinence. We encouraged the girls that they can control their desires and that sex is worth the wait. We even focused on beauty and had all of the girls say together, "I am beautiful." Throughout the lesson, there were giggles and shy faces, but I can only hope the message reached some girls. This was definitely a learning experience for me, but little did I know, it would only get better (at Old Donyo Nyokie) as I learned what did and did not work when it came to teaching girls.
Ultimately, I thank God that it was challenging for me with the culture and language barriers because I learned so much. Though I was discouraged, I quickly learned to never give up hope and to take things one step at a time.
And in the end, one girl asked some truly hard-hitting questions: What if you are HIV positive and pregnant and your new boyfriend is HIV negative...do you tell him? What if he rejects you?
I do not know if this was completely hypothetical or not, but we simply encouraged her to tell him her status. It is essential for everyone to know their status. And we went from their to encourage the girls to get tested. We also encouraged the young girl to seek God and seek a community/friends that would support her if he did reject her. And we reminded her that if he rejected her, he is not worth having around anyway.
But it was hard. Could you imagine?
After the lesson, we had all of the girls line up, so we could document their names, birth dates, ages, and schools, rewarding each with a candy. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids, singing, dancing, and just having a good time. At one point, some of the kids put a hot pink, hair-like skirt on my waist and taught me some dance moves. It was a lot of fun as the kids crowded around and watched me attempt their dance moves.
At the end of the day, each kid got a goody bag and a bar of soap. After a final gathering and prayer, we sent the kids off as it was getting late, and they needed to walk home. (Kids typically do not get out of school until 5pm here.)
It was an exhausting first day, but I was encouraged that 160 people were tested and Tammy, HEART's director of children's ministry, said that the children's teaching was an extreme success.
