Tuesday, October 30, 2012
A Month into Working Life
I have been a Communications Assistant at SFH for one month now. And it has been a busy month! My body is still trying to get used to the 8-5, Monday thru Friday schedule after being in the village life for 2 years where my days consisted of killing time by reading, washing clothes, cleaning, and hanging out with people with a scheduled program every now and then.
So far it's been a good month. My job as a CA is to go out and create demand for SFH products and services. So we sell items like condoms, clorin for safe drinking water, birth control pills, and then we educate communities and schools on things like male circumcision, long term family planning methods (IUDS), and going to get tested for HIV and create demand for them to get these services. As the Copperbelt platform we have insane targets that each department has to meet each month (for example, the MC team has a target of providing 2,175 circumcisions every month) and so the CA is very important to help these departments reach these numbers.
We've been going around to a few schools and doing some of the GrassRoots Soccer activities I learned to teach about HIV in a non formal way. Then we also go on outreaches where we attack some speakers to the top of the cruiser and drive around talking in a microphone alerting people that we are there and they should come and get the service we are offering. Going around like this with the PA system is really effective. Even though we can tell a clinic we are there and hope word spreads around, most times in the more urban areas the correct message doesn't reach everyone so this method targets a large number of people.
So far in my month I have seen not only a lot of Kitwe, but also a lot of the Copperbelt thanks to the outreaches we've done. I've been to many of the districts including Chingola, Chililabombwe, and Mufulira.I still have yet to make it to Ndola, the provincial capitol, but I am hoping that one of our trips will take me there.
Next up, we as a communications team have been planning a workshop for teachers to train them about MC so that they can tell their students about it and hopefully be referring them to our site so they can get circumcised. Being that pretty much every baby gets circumcised in the States I had never thought that much about it, but here it is really being pushed because it can help lower the risk of getting HIV by 60%, and lower the chances of the man passing on HPV to women which can cause cervical cancer. And MC is being provided for free to Zambian men thanks to funding from USAID. So thank you America!
Otherwise, life outside of work is going well. I am slowing figuring out where to buy certain things in town and I am loving living in my house that has running water (most of the time, I still stock it up in a dish just in case it stops), power, a stove, and a fridge.
Only a little over 1 month until I am in America for the holidays! I can't wait to see everyone and be back for some American living!!!
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It is good to see the efforts to promote circumcision. If you are looking for any info, this post outlines a lot of the health benefits from circumcising: http://www.cafemom.com/group/115189/forums/read/17536321/Circumcision_Information I know on babies the extra foreskin is easily removed and it is so much easier to look after keeping a boy clean when he has been circumcised. But I also recommend circumcising because it is also a lot healthier for boys, and as babies they will never remember it. I know the guys I've talked to prefer to be circumcised, and uncircumcised guys usually wish they had been. I think it is because guys like the fact that their penis stays cleaner without the foreskin, and some women find the idea of a guy not being circumcised to be kind of unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteSorry in advance for the TMI. I am sure a lot of uncircumcised guys aren't like this, but I had an ex that wasn't circumcised and he was embarrassed about it, and of course there is place for smegma, urine, sweat, or lint to build up. I wanted to use condoms, but they wouldn't stay on. As you put them on they foreskin tries to roll back, but if you can keep the foreskin rolled over the head of the penis then fit the condom, it will stay on, but then the guy won't feel anything because he won't get sensation through the foreskin. If you pull the foreskin back first and put the condom on, that will work, but the foreskin rolls back and forth and the condom will just slip off anyways. I wanted us to be using condoms, but I had to be on the pill instead to make it work, which I didn't like because at least with a circumcised penis is going to stay cleaner, there is no foreskin to even make smegma. My ex honestly did more to keep clean than some of the other guys I've been with, but it wouldn't take long for it to get kind of nasty down there. When I was with him, he was the only time I have ever had yeast infections, so I know that had something to do with it too. If I am going to be intimate with a guy, I want him clean. Uncircumcised guys are more sensitive, but not in a good way like these women like to talk about it. Like I could only give him a hand job if I kept the foreskin over the head of the penis, and he was too sensitive for bj, and he had to be on top or the skin could kind of get caught and hurt him. The extra skin seems like such a nuisance for a guy....and really does look kind of gross. I am glad I didn't have to do that cleaning with my own son. When a boy isn't circumcised, its 10 times more work to keep his penis clean. This will sound kind of extreme, and I believe it should still be the parents choice, but honestly, I don't feel that it is fair to leave a boy uncircumcised.
My doctor recommended that my son be circumcised and I am very glad that she did. I was there when he was done and he didn't even feel it.
I work in childcare, so I know if boys aren't done at birth, they aren't good at keeping themselves clean and its pretty common for them to need to be circumcised later in life. I didn't want to risk putting my son through that. Also, with my childcare experience, I know that keeping a circumcised penis clean is much easier, especially when they are younger, and without the foreskin there is no place for an infection to start. Plus, I have yet to meet a single man that wasn't happy to be circumcised, but a lot of uncircumcised guys seem to wish they had been snipped.
Hope it was okay to pass that on to you? Sorry I wrote so much, do have strong feelings about this topic because of my personal experience and thought I should share that.
Stacy
stacy.stack@yahoo.com