Family Health Center

I have just 5 minutes before the internet cafe people go on break.
This week the “expert” from Moscow was visiting. She did the same thing that visiting corporate experts usually do – brought a new program, which means a new system for keeping track of the needle exchanges, new rules for exchange points etc. What a huge pain! They were doing everything according to a certian format this year, which so happens to be the format that the expert brought them last year. Now of course there is a newer better format, and they have to rewrite everyhting from this year into that format!! My poor co-workers., As if they don’t have enough to worry about.
Starting yesterday we began working in the Center for Social and Family Affairs. Basically similar to social services plus several other programs. One of them is the sex ed. /family planning program for school kids (15-16). I need to write more details another time...

Monday- Okay so let's stick to chronological order- where I left off... Yes, the sex ed./family planning prog. for 10th graders. We sat in on the class on thursday. The Ob/gyn who teaches the medical part of the class does a great job. It was not a "lecture" as in the usual Russian format, but more like a discussion between students and doctor. He used several videos- two old cartoons about where babies actually come from and how our bodies develop. He then went on to discuss STIs and STDs and the dangers of them. Each student received a packet with the usual reproductive organ diagrams and brochures.
Then he went into a long discussion about contraception and abortions. This was great because this is one of the health issues that Russia seriously struggles with and this is the right group to target with that information. I think I mentioned that the most common form of contraception here is abortions. One abortion is harmful enough physically, hormonally, and psychologically. 4-5 is a problem that Dr. Yuri was very familiar with and warned them about. Better to use "modern" contraception. They asked some questions about the Rythm method and Withdrawal which I guess are also pretty common methods here. Then another film about teen pregnancy.

Day 2: with Dr. Yuri
Watched film about AIDS stigma, went over quiz on HIV/AIDS that he sent home with them the night before. Talked about the dual effectiveness of condoms- against pregnancy and STDs. He told some really funny stories about the ways that people misuse condoms. The funniest one was about this family that had their second baby and he needed to make a home visit to them. He was standing in the kitchen waiting to talk to them and he saw the clothes line with diapers hanging on it and also condoms!! :) They thought that they were saving money by reusing them!

Contrary to popular belief I did not disappear over the weekend. My friend Pasha was visiting me from Ufa and so I decided not to make him sit in the internet cafe with me. Natasha, my host sister who goes to college in Samara, and I had a lot of fun showing Pasha around the city. We walked along the river, visited the huge outdoor computer game/dvd market, made our own discotecka in Natasha's living room, and laughed so much my face was hurting.
Sunday I found my way to the branch in Samara and enjoyed the meetings thoroughly. I love hearing the sacrament blessing in Russian. I can't really explain why. Just some associations from my mission I guess. Plus now they have all of the hymns in Russian- the whole hymn book! They reserve 15 minutes at the end of sacrament meeting for learning them. That was fun.