AIDS Sensibilization

The volunteer who was doing all the cooking for Thanksgiving had planned to do an AIDS sensibilization on the same day, but since the holiday was overwhelming I did it for her while she cooked.

There were 15 boys and one teacher who came, with me and a Beninese woman doing the presentation. A short while in, a debate broke out about why the national brand of condoms were so cheap (4 for 22 cents). The big worry is that they have to be of poor quality, and that the condoms sold at the pharmacy (which are 40 times more expensive) are better. I explained that the government subsidizes them, but then the teacher started going on a rant about how they were uncomfortable and that women generally refuse the cheap brand.

Otherwise things went well, except for the part when the woman who was helping me just randomly started talking about how it wouldn’t be prudent to hire someone with AIDS to be your cook since they might cut themselves and get blood in the food, and then you could get AIDS. But since everything else she was saying was true I didn’t want to contradict her in front of the boys and ruin her credibility, so I just went along with it (it also was irrelevant since no one in the audience could even remotely afford to hire a cook).