talking sex and the metamorphosis of the pink lady

14 November 2014

With the students in class 8 getting ready to go out to new schools my counterpart and I decided it would be a good idea to do some workshops on puberty change, parts of the body and other aspects of adult reproductive health. ARH isn’t taught often because the topics are considered tabu by many so a lot of teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching. Also, everyone in Vanuatu is family so when you have students who call you Mami, Dadi, Uncle or Anti it’s hard for people to feel comfortable with these topics. But no worries, Litiean and I were ready to get awkward and get down to business making sure these kids know how their bodies work before they go out and do something silly!

the girls' squad

folding and fastening

For three Wednesdays we took the students from class 7 and 8, separated them into boys and girls and did lessons on puberty change, parts of the body, period and pregnancy and talked about SEX. The first week was awkward to start but once we sang the fruit salad song (playful, purposeful metaphors for reproductive health) and I mimed “guava and banana” everyone was laughing and the mood was more relaxed. I was excited when some girls stayed after the lesson to ask questions they weren’t comfortable asking in front of the group and even more excited when I had some of the boys come to my house to say how much he like the lessons. Going into it I thought the boys would be harder to work with, you know, with their dirty early-teen minds and refusal to take me seriously, but they were actually really into it. At the end of the workshop we did tie dye as a treat which really went over well (for everyone but me…)

beautiful counterpart Litiean!

I set up two different stations at my house so that the girls and boys could work simultaneously without bugging each other too much. I helped out showing them how to fasten elastics and rope around the shirts then they went wild with the dye. When we were done I had a little paint left over so I invited some of the women in the community to try. At the end of the first day I still had some left over so I told some other people the next day that they could use it if they wanted. Well, after this I had more and more people come to ask so I ended up mixing a little more paint that I had left and pretty much tie dyed for four straight days. Towards the end I was getting sick of it and unfortunately for me let that impact my life for the next two weeks…

Friday morning I was tired of tie dye (yeah, never thought id say that!) so when I was rinsing some bed sheets that I had dyed for myself I was lazy and didn’t rinse them as thoroughly as you should rinse something that will be all over your body…Saturday morning I woke up and my face was totally pink, my arms and legs were speckled pink and the bottoms of my feet were 100% pink…well, good thing I looked closely in the mirror before going to church. Oh wait, I didn’t! I woke up late and rushed to change and go to church. When I got to church I could feel lots of eyes on me, which is normal but I could sense that something was wrong. I sat down next to a girl named Niki and asked her if there was something on my face and she nonchalantly said, “yes your face is red.” This is when I looked down at my arms, legs, feet and all and realized I was literally a pink lady. As soon as the service was over I rushed home and attempted to clean myself. Unfortunately, tie dye paint is rather permanent so the next week I spent hours scrubbing my feet, arms, legs and the floor of my house trying to remove the pink paint that had fully permeated my life. Every time I thought my feet were clean for good I would walk around for awhile and then realize they were pink again. I wasn’t sure how this was possible until I realized that the paint had soaked into my sandals so every time I wore them my feet were turned pink again. Well that was the end of those sandals…

I think I’ve come to the end of the haunting of the pink paint but I can still see distinct traces of it on my floor.