Sex Eggucation - Lost in translation

Today was the graduation ceremony of my 22 students this past year. And i can't even begin to describe how emotional it is to see them leave. After being together for this past year, living and learning together, and then to see them off to their own individual and uncertain futures, working for Community -based organizations, going back to their refugee camps and villages, and some going inside Burma, has got me...well...teary-eyed. However, through this emotional storm, I can't help but think of this one story that a student of mine, Kyin Nu, told me at my birthday celebration this past January.

Kyin Nu works for a rather renowned medical clinic here in Mae Sot, and part of her job in the past was working as a backpacker medic. The backpacker medics would go deep into the jungles of Burma to train refugees who are currently living there in basic medical care, prevention, and sexual education. One lesson in the sexual education training is to teach the participants how to use a condom. Because "learn by experience" is such a buzz phrase here on the border...and in many educational programs, they had decided to show the participants how to put on a condom by using local realia...the eggplant. Personally, I think it's a much more realistic replica than the Chiquita bananas used in the US these days, but that's a whole other website. Anyways, they trained their participants seemingly successfully as they had villagers of all ages skillfully putting condoms on eggplants of all shapes and sizes. It is even rumored one of the village leaders could do it with her teeth, but again, you will have to visit the aforementioned website for pics of that lady. So, the backpacker medics packed up and trekked back to Mae Sot, high-fiving each other all the way down the mountain on a successful training.

Now, as responsible trainers, the backpacker medics of course planned to re-visit this jungle community to assess if health needs were being met and if in fact, there were fewer cases of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. They were greeted by the villagers with enthusiasm and proclamations of how these rubber tubes had worked miracles for them. Hurriedly they led the backpacker medics to their garden to prove the effectiveness of their previous training. The backpacker medics stopped dead in their tracks, hearts sunk, and eyes affixed on an entire acre of ripe, plump, purple eggplants....all covered with condoms.