Putting the ed in sex ed

This week was kind of strange one.  The first part, as I mentioned before, was rather uneventful.  Wednesday we went to visit the CHE (community, health, education) program Papa Mwaku (not Moku as I previously thought; I'm terrible with names here guys) set up with the church at the site of an old missionary settlement.  It was so nice!  They have a large, nice school, a church, new latrines, and as close to running water as is feasible in Camp Luka.  Also, it's in an idyllic location with a fantastic view of the city and a constant breeze.  View from near the school:

Papa Mwaku's house:

Some of the new latrines:

Other than the squat toilet style, I feel like these are nicer than a lot of public bathrooms I've seen in the US. Here is the school (and the water storage cistern):

A valley behind the church:

Both this program and Bon Berger have a sewing class, originally formed to give young women an alternative to prostitution.  Several young men have joined as well now.

I always wonder if this hurts their heads:

An old latrine (at least it has walls):

The new shower and latrine building being constructed for the house (the style is a ventilated improved pit latrine, if anyone is curious):

This is the new version for people who can't afford the plaster one (the bolts are made of beer bottle caps!):

The Congolese eat oranges very differently.  Using a knife, they peel down to the white stuff.  They cut off the very top, sprinkle salt and chili powder on it, and suck out all the juice.  Then, they flip it inside out and peel off the segments to eat:

After lunch, we met with the church women here who do the same job as the water and sanitation teams at Bon Berger.  I was so impressed with their knowledge of disease transmission and prevention. They are doing such great work.

Kids interested in the mundele:

View of kinshasa from the site (most of it is obscured by haze, unfortunately):

Erosion is a big problem here, which they combat with sand bags:

Friday I visited the classroom for both the literacy and sewing classes at Bon Berger.  I taught a sex ed class for the sewing people.  While there are ostensibly 10 girls in the class, only 5 showed up, along with 2 guys.  I had a lovely time doing anatomy drawings and discussing methods of birth control and std prevention.  I wasn't sure what to expect, as the subject is very taboo here, but most were surprisingly engaged.  One of the guys was actually the most interested and asked a lot of intelligent questions, which I thought was encouraging. I asked them some questions too, and learned that not only do parents not tell their kids anything, but kids start having sex around 10 or 11 years old.  That's insane! We're going to try to expand the community education to include the importance of parents talking to their children about these things. The classroom before being set up:

Before I forget, I still can't get the wedding videos to load, but here's a picture of the bride and groom (yes, that's a light pink suit. Apparently that's his favorite color):