Peer Ed in PG

Hey all!As promised, Peer Ed is back with new updates!This week has brought us new adventures in  Belize's 'deep south'. Representing the Peer Ed team, Ryan and I (Alex) spent the week all the way down  in the Toledo district, staying in the sleepy, colourful little town of Punta Gorda, which is perched right on the edge of the Gulf of Honduras. Temperatures down here have been sky-high this week. According to the weather report online, the daily highs were sitting around 38C plus humidity!This picture was taken just before the Peer Ed group split for the week with Nathan (left) and Tashu (right middle) spending the week in Dangriga and myself (Alex, left middle) and Ryan (Right) working in PG.We woke on Sunday morning eager to explore the beautiful town of PG but found the it to be very quite on this day of rest. We managed to get ah0ld of bikes and spent a number of hours cruising around PG and the surrounding areas which included a beautiful eco-park just outside of town! We met with the lovely Ms. Palma from the Ministry of Education on Sunday evening and discussed in a casual meeting sitting on the steps of the Ministry of Education building the plan of action for the week ahead!We visited Toledo Community College first thing Monday morning and met with both the school Principal and Student Affairs Counselor receiving our class assignments for the week. It was a busy time at TCC with exams and end of the year wrap-up etc so unfortunately we were unable to run our full peer ed workshops. Instead Ryan and I got into our teaching roles and spent the week teaching TCC's "Life Skills" classes. In teaching these classes we focused mainly on the topics of Values and Communication which were overall well received and encouraged plenty of student participation!We had a very productive week working at the Punta Gorda branch of the BFLA with Nurse Cus! We ran a very successful BFLA Open House Day on Wednesday with over 150 students in attendance! We had the students rotate through all of our activity stations including the Sperm&Egg Race, Condom Relay, "Can You Score?" Trivia and HIV/AIDS Jeopardy while the teachers and other community members had an opportunity to get their blood pressure and glucose levels checked by Nurses of the local Hillside Clinic. All of the students received snacks, small prizes and has access to many pamphlets and health resources before they left.Overall, Ryan and I had a very worthwhile and enjoyable week in PG! (Check out our "Tastes of Toledo" post for other reasons why the deep south is a must visit region of Belize!)