Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Newbie

Tomorrow morning at 9:34 our newest member of the Chernivestka Oblast arrives for site visit at the Chernivsti Train Station. His village is a 25 minute Marshutka ride away from Chernivsti, and is rumored to have NOTHING (not a single flushing toilet in the whole town) 
so I'm thinking that he'll be in Chernivsti pretty often. I can't wait! I'm so excited to have new blood 
and someone else to hang out with! Hopefully he's cool and hopefully he likes his site and doesn't 
want to switch before they come permanently in December. We'll just have to convince him that 
we're awesome enough to put up with an outhouse for 2 years. :)

Besides meeting newbie at the train station, I will also be teaching my second lesson at a local Chernivsti school on how to prevent human trafficking. Now, in theory, I know what to do. I have a whole lesson planned on what I want to get across to these kids that are very at risk to be trafficked. And I'm really excited that I have this opportunity to get to spread the message to so many kids! In reality...it's a little different.

You think kids in the states are poorly behaved? Wow. I could not imagine kids in the states even attempting to act like the boys did during my first lesson. ESPECIALLY to a guest speaker! I did everything I could think of to get through to them. I waited. I threatened. I called them out and tried to make them repeat what other students had said. I stood next to their desks. I shouted over them. Nothing. It's so frustrating! After the lesson, a darling girlchild came up to me and told me a story 
about a woman she knew that was trafficked. She wanted to tell me during the lesson, but obviously 
couldn't make herself heard over her classmates. It's such a shame. Almost all of the girls were sitting there 
trying to listen, however, so I might make another visit to that school and talk to the all girls health class. Women are more at risked to be sexually trafficked, but I wish I could think of some way to get through to the boys too, since they're not immune to get trafficked, and even if they were, they all have sisters, mothers, and friends. The more we spread the word about ways to prevent it the better.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good luck with the newbie! I am sure they will adore you and enjoy you, because you are fantastic!
Sorry to hear about the difficulty with the guest speaking bit. It's so frustrating when you are trying to convey a message meant to be of help and to promote awareness and safety and the kids won't even listen. More brainstorming my friend, more brainstorming. You'll find a way I'm sure.