Guidance and Counseling

When Peace Corps is assigning volunteers a site, they will also assign us a counterpart, that is, a local leader who will work as a partner for us at our organization (DAC office, NGO, school, or clinic). Counterparts can prove to be one of the most rewarding parts of service, or the hardest. And sometimes, they are transferred. Such was the case for Lucas’ counterpart Mma Ramakgati. Mma Rammoi was assigned as acting guidance counselor until Mma Ramakgati’s position could be filled. Unfortunately Mma Rammoi had scheduling conflicts with her current classes and the guidance classes. Lucas and I offered to teach her Form 3 classes.
We chose Form 3 hoping that they would know the most English (they are the oldest class at Lempu Jr Sec. School ~ 10th graders). I had been wanting to promote sexual health and education in the schools and was eager to take advantage of the opportunity. I’m glad that Lucas and I were both teaching. One, we could help to control the classroom. And two, we thought it would make both sexes more comfortable that there was a man and a woman to talk about sex. We planned to avoid lecture-based lessons (only a small percentage of students could keep up with our English) and do more activities in which students could participate. We had 6 40-minute classes, four days a week.
Together we wrote up lesson plans that covered gender identity, sexual biology, teen pregnancy, relationships, communication skills, before sex, and introduction to careers. We got creative with some of our activities, including; having a group of students describe a sexual body part or behavior written on the board to a student whose back was facing the board (without saying the word), having students put posters in order that describes how a woman falls pregnant, and teaching communication skills by pairing up students, having one describe a drawing on the board and the other student recreate the drawing without looking. We taught how to complete a formal letter of application (even if they had no previous work experience). I invited a member of the clinic staff to come and talk with students about what services the clinic offers as far as protection and what to do if you think you might be pregnant. We tried to create a comfortable environment where the students felt they could talk openly about sex and not be judged.
I was surprised how mature the students were talking about puberty and sexual behaviors. One activity we had the students determine what was considered abstaining from sex and what wasn’t, for example open mouth kissing, masturbating, fondling a partner’s sexual body parts, or having sex with a condom. Once they decided, they had to argue the other side why they considered the behavior abstinence or not. It forced the students to decide before hand what activities they were willing to partake in. A separate activity, the class wrote up two lists: reasons why to have sex, and reasons to wait. Our intentions are for the students to decide on their own to wait, not for us to decide for them.
Since we didn’t have exams to give them the last week of Term 2, we brought a game. I gave them a short survey to determine what, if anything, they learned during our class. I wrote the questions in English and Setswana so that everyone in the class could participate. Unfortunately, the students answered in Setswana as well so I’ll be busy translating those… The big surprise was BINGO. No English required, no skill required. It was perfect. The students loved it!