HIV/AIDS Camp

Carol received grant money to conduct an HIV/AIDS camp for 6 high schools. She worked for three months to organize and implement the two-day camp for 220 students.
Thailand has a severe epidemic of AIDS and Peace Corps encourages HIV/AIDS education. Students had to attend 4 classes each day as well as participate in two large group activities. Carol enlisted the help of mental health workers, hospital workers, and all the teachers of her school. It was a monumental task, but Carol pulled it off! Carol found a young man with AIDS and with the help of a social worker, he addressed the students as the keynote speaker (top picture).

Bob and Mark Demonstrate Large Group Activity.

Bob and Mark (another Peace Corps Volunteer) demonstrate techniques for one of the two large group activities. In the second picture, Bob is getting romantic with Mark and encouraging him to exchange body fluids. (See below for explanations of the activities.)

Large Group Activities

The students had a lot of fun and hopefully learned a lot about the spread of AIDS! In the first and last pictures, the girls are the condoms and the boys are the penises (sp? maybe the plural of penis is peni). Anyone who could not match up were declared "unsafe" and were eliminated from the game. In the middle two pictures, one unexpecting student was infected with AIDS. After everyone had unprotected sex 6 times, they were tested for AIDS. If their body fluid (in the cup) turned pink, they had AIDS. Most students thought there would be 12 cases. But over 60 of them tested positive for AIDS. This demonstrated the rapid spread of the AIDS epidemic.

Carol is Honored for Her Efforts

The HIV/AIDS Camp was a huge success. The students gave it high marks and want to do it again. Carol put a lot of effort into the camp to insure its success. In the accompanying picture, Carol is presented a gift pack from our Supervisor, Khun Sura.

Lunch Time at HIV/AIDS Camp

What never ceases to amaze us is that students are expected to clean up after themselves! This includes washing your own dishes and neatly stacking them. No one complains! In America students expect adults to clean up! Maybe we could learn something from Thailand!

It's Off to Work We Go!

This is the most common form of transportation in our village. It is basically a tractor motor mounted on a wheel with long handlebars
and a trailer bed attached to it. These men are on their way to the rice fields but stopped while two other workers went to convenient stores to get refreshments. By the way, Thailand is the number one exporter of rice! In case you thought it was China, the keyword is exporter.

A Christmas Carol

Carol brought a little bit of Christmas into her classrooms. She made an 8-foot tall tree out of green meshing and had the students make decorations. Please left click on the picture to see the detail in the decorations! She then sang out-of-tune Christmas carols in true Blaisdell fashion!!!