World AIDS Day

I love the randomness of my job here...I've been visiting the Richmond Hill Prison (the only one in Grenada) the past few weeks and talking with the men about HIV & AIDS. Dr. Szauer from the university here (a powerful catalyst), one of my community partners Mrs. Hopkin (a passionate woman who I'm really excited to work with over at the Limes After School Program too), and some medical students have been conducting the Peer Educators Program for the past 2 months with about 20 inmates who've chosen to get educated on HIV & AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, so they can then share that information with other prisoners and encourage them to get tested for HIV. It was a huge success as a beginning program and I think almost half of the prison voluntarily got tested. I came in toward the end, but still had some great opportunities to get to know the men participating, hear their stories, and promote HIV awareness among a few I spoke with behind bars. All in all, it was just cool to interact with them because of the obvious stigma they're used to having placed on them, being criminals. Many of them asked me if I was afraid coming into the prison, but surprisingly I never felt scared. I said they were humans who made mistakes like everyone else...they just got caught. Good guys though. Would you pray for the ones I spoke with who'll be released soon, that they won't fall back into their old habits. And the ones who remain, that they will set a positive example to their peers.

With World AIDS Day coming up, my friend Megan and I had a session on HIV & AIDS with some of the teenage girls from my program. Most of them didn't know a thing about the virus, so it was a great opportunity to bring up issues and taboo subjects that are never discussed in their schools. It basically turned into a sex-ed conversation, but it was great that they felt comfortable enough to ask those questions and a great time to share with them about lifestyle choices.

We also had our first EARTHQUAKE on Thursday! It originated up north off the coast of Martinique and was a magnitude of 7.4, but we only felt a bit of the shock and no damage was caused here. The crazy part was how many Grenadians had never been through one, and that some businesses even let their employees go home! But there's an active volcano called "Kick 'Em Jenny" right off the coast so I don't blame their paranoia.