ISP!

We are now in week three of ISP: Independent Study Project.  As I mentioned when I first started this blog, the culmination of our studies here in Rwanda is a month-long research project of our choice.  I’ve been “working” at a nearby youth center called La Maison des Juenes de Kimisagara, or the Kimisagara One-Stop Youth and Productive Center.  I’ve finally settled into somewhat of a schedule and end up spending every day at the center from about 8/9am until 5pm.  The center has a ton of different projects—English classes, ICT training, entrepreneur skills training, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV, debates, dance classes, and tons of sports.  I’m headquartered in the office of VCT (the voluntary counseling and testing) because I’m interested mostly in the center’s sexual education program.  They do testing and counseling for HIV but also provide a lot of information about sexual health, safe sex, protective methods, etc.  They focus a lot on ABC (Abstinence, Being Faithful to your partner, and Condoms) and especially stress to young people that they should wait until marriage.  If they “fail” in doing that (their words), youth are encouraged to use condoms, distributed at the center.

After getting over the initial awkwardness of inserting yourself into a new place, I’m actually having a lot of fun!  It’s my first attempt at doing ethnographic research so it’s been an interesting process trying to figure it all out!  (There are lots of ethics about interviewing people for research and there’s a protocol that I’m having to learn about how to present my project to interviewees and make sure they’re ok with using their words in my research.)  But mostly I hang out in the VCT office with two peer educators, who speak only a little English, and try to plan out my project.  The language barrier has been a challenge—the coordinator of VCT services also only speaks a little English—so it’s been a bit difficult these past few days!  But my program gives us a stipend that allows use to hire translators for some of our work.  So I’ve been doing that a little bit and it’s helped a ton!

This past week, the center held a soccer tournament because it’s the last week of vacation for a lot of the youth in the area.  (Students get three weeks off and go back to school next week.)  The youth form teams in two divisions, ages 14-18 and 19-25, and the center provides uniforms, balls, volunteer referees, and announcers.  In the morning, a team of little boys takes a super long string and a bag of flour to mark the lines of the field, and the center sets up an announcement stand where young volunteers report on the soccer games and make intermittent announcements about the center’s free HIV testing.  Literally hoards of people show up to this—mostly boys, I would say (because it’s soccer) but of every single age possible.  Little boys toddle around in dirty shirts filled with holes, possibly orphans or maybe neighbors from the surrounding houses; skinny boys with hand-made soccer balls line the edge of the field cheering their teams on; well-dressed businessmen stand solemnly behind the happy, jittery boys, come to watch some free soccer.  It’s a great way to get people to come to the center to receive info and get tested.

So far, I’ve done several interviews, lots of participating, and a youth debate about the usefulness of condoms.  The youth debate was particularly fascinating; the center held a debate in one of their classrooms for 10 young men (ages probably 12-22) to argue for or against using condoms.  They mostly reiterated information that the center provides but I requested to talk with them at the conclusion of the debate and found out some really interesting stuff!  More to come as I keeping talking with people!