Oral Sex (August 19th, 2014)

This week in my Pasos Adelante classes we started talking about STIs.  You all remember that, right?  There you are, a mere seventh-grader and suddenly the health class room is flooded with horror-inducing photos of warts and fluids and you’re trying desperately hard not to make eye contact with anyone BECAUSE OH MY GOD PEOPLE KEEP SAYING PENIS. 

Yeah, that’s what my week has been.

One of my favorite moments of every class has been explaining what oral sex is.  Part of explaining STIs is explaining how they are transmitted—the most prominent way, of course, being through sexual intercourse, and yes my little Peruvians teens, there is more than one kind.  Even if I had brought my camera I couldn’t have taken photos of their reactions when I explained what oral sex is, but what I can do is reenact them.

Enjoy!  Besos!

Fun Fact of the Day: Where to Where Your Ring When you Visit Perú (especially Huantar)

A ring on the pinkie finger is for niños

A ring on the ring finger means you’re single (a surprising twist, no?)

A ring on the middle finger means you’re married

A ring on your index finger means you’re a widow (or widower)

A ring on your thumb means you’re divorced

Besos!

Summer (Well, Really Winter) Vacations in Huantar (July 31st, 2014)

There’s a two-week vacation from school here in Huantar and the boredom has already set in, despite there still being twelve more days to go.  No one seemed especially excited for it to come, nearly every child, mother, and father knew that it would bring nothing but malaise.  So far today, my host sister and I have drawn, done yoga, and I sent her on a pointless but time-consuming scavenger hunt.  The items on the list?

• A live spider
• A soccer ball
• A flower
• A marble
• A dog with four white paws
• Red sandals
• A rock the size of her head
• A fork with only three tines
• A person who can raise each eyebrow individually

It did not take nearly as much time to find these items as I initially hoped.

Here’s a picture of what I drew today:

Besos!

The Anemia Workshop (aka my Proudest Moment) (July 24th, 2014)

I’ve already written about my anemia charla but last week there was a little something-something added to the end; something to both inspire and aid the mothers. We made blood pudding!!!

But before I discuss that, let me just talk a little bit about how we got there.

About three weeks ago, a random doctor came to Huantar to test the hemoglobin counts of all the children.  The results were not spectacular, but they were especially abysmal in the inicial (the preschool and kindergarten).  The health post knows that I have a cookbook with recipes specifically designed to combat anemia, so they asked if I could give a charla.  I was thrilled.  A day was set aside, I was prepared, we had agreed to focus on a single topic, so the talk we were going to give would not be overwhelming, would last a reasonable amount of time, and hey, maybe, just maybe, we were actually going to get through to the parents.

Oh, how naïve I was.

By the time the actual arrived, we were going to give charlas about proper nutrition, hand-washing, teeth-brushing, and my anemia one.  Not only that, but we were now also going to fluoridate the teeth of the entire elementary and high school.  All in the same morning. 

Sigh. 

Suffice it to say that we arrived half an hour late, the nutrition charla ran on a bit longer than expected—like an hour and a half longer, and that I had a mildly difficult time keeping my annoyance out of my face.  And by mildly I mean very.  I was so bad at keeping my face neutral, that when the nurse introduced me, she did to the effect of “and now Kassel, who is very annoyed with us, will begin.”  Oops.

But then, things turned around.  I went through my talk, with all its shocking information (Did you know that peanuts are a significant source of iron?) and then I pulled out the big guns.  Blenders and blood. 

The mothers were SO skeptical.  There I was putting blood boiled with cinnamon in a blender with sugar, powdered milk, and vanilla, and telling them that it was going to turn out delicious.  I kept repeating how delicious it was going to be because, in truth, I didn’t actually know.  I had never made the recipe before and was desperately hoping that this blood pudding would in fact be delicious and a huge success. 

At long last the moment arrived.  All the ingredients had been blended together and there was nothing left to do but put it on a cracker and try it.  Gulp.

So I did.  And it was delicious.  Together with a nurse tech and the doctor, I passed out cracker after cracker, and slowly, one by one, the mothers tried it, nibbling at it at first and then eventually swallowing it all down.  By the fifteenth cracker, I wasn’t alone in encouraging the mothers to try it.  Those who had were chiming in, preaching it deliciousness and begging for seconds.  It was time, I decided, to put it to the Kix test—I wanted it to be “Kid-tested, Mother-approved.” BRING IN THE CHILDREN.

And oh did they eat it up.

 

The head of the health post also enjoys a cracker of blood now and again.

  

Slowly the blender emptied until there was only a Tupperware container’s worth of the pudding left.  I packed it up and together we all walked over to the elementary school to start fluoridating teeth.  Mind you, there were ten minutes left in the school day at this point, so all we really did was walk to the elementary and then turn right back around.

Except not me.  Because I had a dessert in my hand and the children picked up on that real quick.  “¿Podemos probar?” they asked me.  “Claro que si,” I responded.  So in the most unsanitary manner posible by US standards, but in a totally reasonable one by Peruvian, I spoonfed, using the same spoon, some sixty-plus kids blood pudding.  And oh did they eat it up.

Besos!

Celebrating the School’s Anniversary

My high school celebrated their anniversary the first week of July.  They celebrated it the week after my town’s anniversary, which meant that school was canceled for two weeks.  No comment.  The anniversary was celebrated by having a high school from another state come to visit Huantar (which meant there were two schools missing a week of school.  Again, no comment) and having the two schools dance.  This is how all school anniversaries are celebrated in Perú.  Every grade practices for weeks beforehand (not after school, but in place of their normal classes.  Say it with me, no comment) and then on the day in question the students’ parents and family members, along with the odd drunk who wanders in, sit on the bleachers and watch the students perform.  Most of the dances are traditional dances from either the sierra, Peru, or the Peru/Ecuador/Bolivia region, and I like that the kids are learning and maintaining the customs of the region.  I just really wish it didn’t come at the expense of their other classes.

That said, here are some of the highlights of the dances.  The costumes, if nothing else, were pretty spectacular.

Besos!

The visiting school's dance involved the teachers in classic Peruvian sierra blackface.  They strutted their stuff around Huantar's plaza for a good portion of the morning

The ringleader/bandleader/just-leader was decked out in a purple tailcoat

And they waved ribbons on a stick

Primero grado shows up their hauyno dancing.  This is the dance that involves the woman fake slapping the man at a certain point

Tercero went for a selva theme.  The costumes were INCREDIBLE as you will soon see

These three girls (and four of the other dancers) are in my Pasos class.  Represent.

Segundo grado (my host sister Lesslye's grade) gets ready to dance saiya

Quinto grade waits on the sidelines

Segundo after the dance

My host sister Lesslye is on the left

Close up of one of the palla dancers

Quinto after they danced.  Sidenotes: the teacher in the orange shirt is really drunk in this photo and the boy three from the left is currently blind in his right eye after a splinter of wood shot into it. 

This costume is traditionally worn by men, but for some reason this day it was worn by the ladies of cuarto grado

Coming Home After the Pasos Conference (July 5th, 2014)

Back in early June I took three kids from Huantar to Huaraz for a Pasos Adelante Conference.  The conference was overall a success, but why would I write about the super successful parts of the conference?  Far better to entertain with the story of how we got back.

1)      Did the bus leave on time? Of course not.  No, the bus arrived an hour late, after I had already dragged the kids from their lunch, forcing them to eat the end-of-the-conference cake as they briskly walked.

2)      Did we make good time after starting an hour later than we were supposed to? Of course not.  We obviously stopped in every single town to pick and/or drop people off and dillydallied there for ungodly amounts of time.

3)      Did the bus in fact arrive at our destination?  Of course not.  The bus stopped one town away from ours, and stalled for a good twenty minutes.  At which point, the bus engine went silent, the bus lights went off, and we told to get off until a van could be found to carry us all to our next stop.

4)      Did the van they summoned have enough space for everyone?  Of course not.  Nothing like having a van made to seat fifteen comfortably, eighteen in a pinch, being crammed with twenty-seven people and all of their luggage.  I was mildly concerned about getting enough air.

5)      Was the car to drive us up to Huantar waiting in Succha like it was supposed?  Of course not.  Despite me calling the driver an hour earlier and him assuring me that we would be waiting for us, the was no car in sight. So I was stuck with three kids at the bottom of the hill at eight pm, with no cell service and no car.

6)      Did the car eventually come, did we all make it up the hill without dying, did we make it back safely?  Of course.

Besos!

Health Post Activities…from March 2014

Just to keep you belatedly updated here are some of the activities I’ve been doing with my health post.

The health post tried to represent during Día de la Mujer (March 8th, International Women’s Day) but they were mildly outshone by the health post from Chucos.  Please note the placement of the letters on the banner (my work) and also note the facial expressions—Peruvians, as a rule, don’t smile in pictures.  Only way you could tell that I’m not Peruvian.

Every month at the very least the health post has a parade through town to promote awareness about some issue or another.  They take about three grades out of school from the primaria in order to have them shout out phrases. I have certain opinions on the effectiveness and usefulness of these activities that I will keep to myself.  This month it was vaccines.  Note once again the placement of the letters on the banner (once again my work).  One day I’ll take a picture of a banner not designed by me so that you can fully appreciate the spacing of the letters.

Every month, the health post staff is required to do sesiones demostrativas in the caserios of Huantar.  The actually utility of these sessions is debatable, but excitingly, this time one of the dads participated.  This never happens.  I think it was due in large part to the fact that the male doctor was participating and he peer pressured the fathers pretty hard until one of them joined in.

Besos!