Condom Handling At Its Best

Our AIDS/HIV wall was completed this week. My fellow PCV, Naeta, and her flawless French, came all the way from the border of Mali to help. We estimate that about 125 persons, mostly under the age of 25 years (precisely my target demographic) turned out to see what I had planned for this wall. Indeed, well over a hundred showed-up, but only about 75 participated actively in the condom demonstration, the sensibilization about HIV, the games, and for the hand-print decoration of the wall.

Sometimes there simply aren't enough wooden penises. In our health kit the PC provides one wooden penis and one wooden device that purportedly represents external female genitalia (though, trust me, it doesn't). So what do we have this time of year in Pô that can be used to demonstrate condom use? Why, the cucumber, of course. And during the time of cool-season gardening, these are cucumbers of no small size. In fact, they're enormous . . . and inexpensive . . . and uncircumcised. Perfect for a demonstration about how to use a condom.

And who doesn't love a condom-application speed-race using a cucumber?  Now I don't know whether it's good news or bad news, but my students are experts. The goal was to properly dress the cucumber with a condom, beginning with the visual inspection of the condom package (expiry date, right?), forming/identifying the petit chapeau at the tip of the condom, application of the condom . . . and continuing the demo right up to removal and proper disposal of the condom. Trash can disposal here is not an option for a number of reasons. Of course, Pô simply doesn't have enough trash cans . . . it's not as if every household has a trash can. Imagine that! But the bigger problem is that Pô's children are drawn to trash cans as so many American children are drawn to the foot of the Christmas tree . . . treasure lurks therein. Thus, the only place to dispose of a condom is in the hole of a latrine.

I've attended and assisted with a number of Sex Ed classes at Pô's Lycée, so I know that the my students already receive accurate knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention. The real question is whether they (or any of us) actually apply the knowledge to day-to-day living. After all, you can lead a horse to water . . . .

After the fun with condoms, each of Pô's Petites donned a latex glove that was then slathered with paint. They said aloud the healthy lifestyle promise and placed their hand print on the painted wall with the AIDS ribbon. While I had envisioned a wall with the red AIDS ribbon and a lot of red hands, I was happy that there were  many paint colors from which to choose. Most of Pô preferred green, which they recognize as the color of life. In any event, lots of multi-colored hands made for a much more colorful wall.

The Maison de Jeune is directly across from one of Pô's finest hair salons. Yes, my village has hair salons. These young ladies, generally too timid to join in the hand-print fun, definitely wanted condoms. So we took the party across the road to their salon and continued the education with our wooden devices. They look quite happy about the event, don't you think?

Yes, the day was passed discussing a very serious topic. But when it comes to young people, cucumbers, condoms, and colored paint, one can expect a lot of giggles. I encourage this. It's hard to be serious while tightly grasping a cucumber and trying to slip on a pre-lubricated condom. Giggling is entirely appropriate. Additionally, I'm convinced that all the giggling takes away some of the mystique, embarrassment, awkwardness [insert your own descriptive phrase here] from real-time condom usage, which is a serious issue here.

The grand finale of the day was the donation of a permanent hand-washing station (a bidon) at the Maison de Jeune. Liquid soap was donated, and now Pô's Petites have yet another location in Pô to practice hygiene. Yes, there was one tiny problem. As is so often the case in little Pô, the AIDS wall project came on a day when Pô was completely without water. Had it not been for our latex gloves, the village would have had their hands in oil-based car paint, with nothing but gasoline to remove that odorous paint. Hardly a desirable practice for safety and health. But hopefully by this afternoon, this bidon actually be filled with water for a true hand-washing station.

Once again, I say thank you . . . insofar as you, you, you (and Naeta's flawless French) helped make this possible for Pô's Petites.