A Random Mix, Ending on a Serious Note

Fun Facts:
*It's the tail end of the rainy season and I haven't bothered to replace my lost umbrella since I got here
*Fly bites lend to interesting results
*I'm finally breaking out of my Spanish-nervous-shell

Things I've been considering:

~I have a tv this year, and some of the shows are in Spanish, but there are a few channels that are almost exclusively English with Spanish Subtitles. When I watch these channels, I always read the subtitles. For a while, I was coming to the conclusion that Spanish isn't as dynamic as English. Subtleties to the language were being lost in translation. Otherwise, the translations were good. I couldn't figure why they would leave out the equivalent phrases unless they didn't exist. It's recently occurred to me that there are many different “Spanishes.” Guatemalan-Spanish is different from Honduran-Spanish, is different from Spain-Spanish, is different from Ecuadorian-Spanish. So, I'm now taking comfort in that the subtitles probably use the most direct and simple form of what is being said so it can be understood by a broader audience instead of choosing the colloquialisms that may only work for a couple of countries.

~I love taking pictures. I love the act of taking pictures. I love cropping them down to just capture the best parts of the scene. I have really enjoyed playing with space and light in my pictures. Feel free to give me tips!

~Probably the most important is: No sex ed leads to absolutely incredible rumors and beliefs among the students. Things you or I wouldn't even consider.

In a sixth grade classroom discussion, HIV/AIDS came up and the teacher was quickly informed that men, or boys, cannot get HIV. Every student in the room believed it was true.

The seventh grader boys, during their library time, all gather around the book called “Where Babies Come From” but refuse to check it out because they don't want anyone else to know they are curious.

There's a lot of controversy about how sex ed is taught, or what it should entail. In this conservative society, it always been strongly suggested to me that I just avoid all topics that could lead to those topics (though, I do teach younger children, but they are getting old enough to start being very curious.) But nothing is not good enough. It never occurred to be how little is understood if no one at school OR home will talk about it. It is not okay.

The teachers have begun to get very concerned about the lack of sex ed. With so little understanding of how things work that an entire class can believe that males cannot contract HIV, the consequences have the potential to be horrible. We've started to push the administration to allow a sex ed class, starting in 6th grade and continuing into secondary. Someone needs to teach these kids the facts of live, or at least, the consequences.