Potatoes, and condoms, and rockets! Oh, my!!
What has been going on with those Pondlets who have been slacking with their blogging? Well no worries, we are here now to fill you in!Sexual health week commences!! We started off last week teaching in grade 7, 8 and 9 classes about puberty. With some giggles, out of the way the students mastered their reproductive organ puzzles with the correct labels and everything. The boys even wanted to learn about menstruation and PMS (smart boys picking up on some tips when they are young). On top of that they got by the awkwardness and really took advantage of hearing the information from some younger non-teachers and were not afraid to ask questions. Unfortunately, I think we made the changes that happen during puberty seem like a scary event more than a natural one since some kids did not seem to want it to happen to them, but we cleared up those fears asap. Reba awoke early Tuesday morning with some interesting goodies in her back pack she could not wait to unleash to the unsuspecting children. Liz crawled out of bed only for coffee. Then it began… contraceptives day. With the kids expecting the typical banana demonstration for proper condom use, it was fun to see eyes widen when the life-like wooden penis from Pond’s great health resource centre was revealed. Reba performed an impeccable 10 step demonstration on how to use a condom which was emphasized as “FO FREE !!”at the health centre. After the kids came out of shock, we discussed some other forms of contraception available and mostly used in Pond based on our meeting with a health outreach worker in the community. This week we plan to go over STI’s and healthy relationships to emphasize our safe sex lessons.After teaching there is nothing better than hanging out with the kids after school in a non-rules environment. Floor hockey, hip hop, art club, movie night and volleyball were all chosen as after school activities for this week! We met tons of kids that we have not had the chance to talk with since we have not been in the primary school or senior grades as often, so this was awesome.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were Career and Technology System days for junior high. In the mornings, we helped in Anne’s rocket building class! Rockets were made out of plastic, construction paper, garbage bags, and glue. With some doubts, we hit the road outside away from wires and housing and were ready to test the homemade rockets with their inserted engines and gun powder. ALL OF THEM WORKED!! Expecting silence or at most a small lift off, when the first one shot up very quickly and out of sight it was realized we needed kids as shields just in case one went off route. Woops we mean we acted as shield for the kids….
For the whole afternoons, we had our very own CTS leadership class!! Our class was making a short video to the song “Hope” by Shaggy. With many scenes shot by some aspiring Steven Spielberg’s, which included locker scenes, bullying scenes, and dancing on desks after throwing papers at Liz, not to mention the dance Reba and Liz taught the class in the attempt to make a dance scene in the movie (but we were mostly just laughed at), the music video is now ready to be edited and sold to a big record industry.
This weekend the grannies finally stayed up late. At 10pm Jim Coax opens a window of a boarded house to sell candy until the wee hours of the morning. Seems sketchy, but it is the go to place for everyone in the community. On the midnight walk around town to get to the “candy store” we realized no one sleeps!! Kids from school were all shocked to see “we were awake at this hour”. Our pseudo-angry responses pretending to be young obviously was doing a great job at hiding our heavy eyes and yawns. With Pond turning from completely white to almost all brown ski-doos were being used on the water for rides for kids. Not only did we have a great time seeing so many kids but we met the love of our life!! It was a newborn puppy riding in a carriage with one bright blue and one brown eye. Both of us considered grabbing her and taking her back to Kingston…. still might happen. QHO mascot??
After our STI lesson today we got some disgusted faces and eeks so we think it was a pretty effective lesson. After lunch, we went down to Ulaajuk Primary School. It was the grade six graduation and we were trying to help get the kids all ready in their caps and gowns along with pump them up for their big day! It was adorable to see all the little graduates and QHO will have a great time teaching them soon when they are at Nasivvik. Not only did we get to meet tons of new younger students but we now will be teaching oral hygiene with the younger kids tomorrow. It has always been hard for QHO to teach in the primarily Inuktitut school so this is a huge step for us and we can’t wait for our lessons tomorrow!
Tomorrow night is the Nasivvik graduation dinner and Liz and Reba signed up to make scalloped potatoes and dip. Little did we know we would be presented with FOUR bags of potatoes (approximately 45lbs). We also want to make bracelets for every student we have taught (over 60) and make the ever so welcoming high school teachers a goodbye staff room treat. Can you say busy night!! Wish us luck, all you can hear is chopping and country music blasting from this kitchen.
Four more days left in Pond and we do not want to leave!!!Stealing Webby’s format...Most adorable part of the week:Puppy love and kids saying they were sad we are leaving soonMost disgusting part of the week:Reba using a 2008 expired condom for every contraception lesson (we lied and said it was fresh)Best purchase of the week:Celebratory $16 box of mocha ice cream (which we forgot in the school freezer this afternoon… nooooooooooooooo)Most proud moment of the week:Liz finally becoming a girl and learning how to make a bracelet AND do a french braid (que applause) Most embarrassing part of the week:Liz being told she looked like Frodo from ‘The Lord of the Rings’Looking forward to:Staying up all night on Thursday with the kids before we leave on our flight Friday morning Pond Potatoes out,Reba and Liz