Contraceptives Class

For the final class on sex education, Sachiko and the doctoral student Lourdes from the health center came to two schools to teach about contraceptives. I thought the rain/no electricity/leaky roof/honking bus fiasco of two weeks ago was the worst that Guatemala could throw at a teacher, but this week the schools found new ways to make a tough job even tougher.

Throughout the nurses’ entire presentation the first day, the nesting birds in the rafters of the classroom darted across the room and squawked. I vaguely remember that the birds irked me two years ago, but I think the I stopped hearing them mid-way through last year. The constant chorus was a new challenge to Sachiko and Lourdes, but they powered through it.



The next day I planned for Sachiko and Lourdes to teach contraceptives in four different sessions. However, Teacher’s Day (which is tomorrow) is a week-long celebration, and the director wanted us to wrap it up fast so that his vacation could start early. Thus, the school crammed all 120 seventh-graders into a classroom to hear the presentation all at once.



We managed it, but just barely. Lourdes was speechless at the end from yelling so much, and the students practically assaulted Sachiko to get copies of the pamphlets she distributed (why a seventh-grade boy wants a pamphlet on breast-feeding as a way to prevent pregnancy is beyond me). Full disclosure: I knew the students would go nuts over the free pamphlets, so I fed Sachiko to the wolves by delegating to her the responsibility to pass them out. She’s taller than I am. She can fight them off better.


Despite the hurdles, the students asked thoughtful questions and followed along with most of the information. The main message, as always, was: as teenagers, the best decision for you right now it abstinence. But if you decide to have sex, you need to protect yourself by using a condom.


Finally, I have another tale of condom misuse. Lourdes told us that a husband and wife arrived at the hospital saying that their family planning method was causing stomach aches in the husband. When Lourdes asked what their contraceptive method was, the husband explained that every time he slept with his wife, he swallowed a condom…