I get a kick out of cheesy phrases, stupid jokes, and clichés. Nobody else in Namibia understands why I think it’s hilarious to name the health club Live Love Laugh.
Come to think of it American’s might not understand either, but I find it funny and that’s what matters. Just another inside joke with myself on my little island of me in Namibia.
It’s hard to say goodbye to such a smart and fun group of kids. Doing health lessons with them twice a week has been my favorite part of Peace Corps. On the last day of the club, we had them do a post test and evaluation. After reading them I’m disappointed not everyone retained the information from the club, (ie. the one who said a balanced meal is a sausage and grape juice). But I know each of them learned at least one thing from the 6 months of sessions. (ie. the person who said you’re only ready for sex if you and your partner have discussed it and are using contraception. yay!)
Health Club being healthy
One of the sessions covered gender identity with a discussion on non-traditional gender roles. The main message was to be yourself, and respect other people for they who are. A great movie on this that I pulled information from is ‘The Mask I Live In’. In the movie they cite a psychology study where only 4% of people fall into the socially defined personality of a man or a woman. The rest of us are somewhere in between, and the majority are smack dab in the middle. I wanted them to practice breaking out of traditional gender identities, so we had a crossdressing party (hence the men in dresses and women in sports clothes).
Crossdressing Party
On the last day of the health club, one of the learners told me ‘I didn’t like most of these people before joining the club, but now it feels like we are family’.
Water Balloon Fight
Next term we will start a health club at a different school to spread the love (and the laughter and the living). But maybe we’ll change the name. Any ideas?
4 Comments
The club for people who want to learn public health good and do other stuff good too
What is this a club for ants?!
“Live, Laugh, Love” is a great name for a health club. Frankly, it says it all. Sometimes cliches hold great wisdom. Finding out who we are is a lifetime process — you have succeeded in a lot if you have your own little island.
Thanks Baba 🙂