What Uganda Do?: "So I heard that..." Stories from my Ugandan sex-ed class

     Term II is quickly coming to a close, and I had saved the best topic for last--reproductive health! However, I took all of the reproduction out of the topic, and rather talked about reproduction avoidance. :D I'm almost certain that my students know more about fertilization, pregnancy and birth than I do, especially with the birth rate in Uganda ((48.15 births/1,000 population (2008 estimate) as compared to that of America (13.5 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)) (Wikipedia). Additionally, I wanted to focus more on pregnancy avoidance in response to a recent article I read in the New Vision during World Population Day. (Being that it was New Vision, I'm not sure if any of it is true, but...) This article, entitled "Over half of Uganda's births are not planned," states, "The proportion of Ugandan births that were unplanned rose from 29% in 1995 to 38% in 2000/2001." Again, not sure how they got their numbers. Did they do a survey of women who had just given birth, "say, did you plan this one?" The article mentions that the average children to women is seven, which is the highest fertility rate in Africa and the third highest in the world. One point that the article made is definitely true, which is, "...many Ugandan women are hesitant to use contraceptive due to lack of accurate information about the safety of the available methods. A third of all Ugandan women of reproductive age want to stop or delay further childbearing but are not using modern contraceptive methods."
     A few questions/concerns raised during class...
     "I heard family planning pills make you barren."
     "My aunt used family planning pills and now she only has disabled children."
     "I heard that you bleed a lot when you use the pill."
     "Family planning pills lead to genetic alterations."

      We discussed how the pills actually work in the body, and the true risks involved with each form of birth control. However, even after explicitly explaining facts and myths, women still left thinking that the pills make you barren. (sigh)

      My lecture started with diagrams, looking at each part of the reproductive system, then it was supposed to go into STDs and finally contraceptives. It didn't go exactly in that order, and we didn't go deeply into STDs... but no worries! Important things were learned! Did you know that semen travels, on average, at a speed of 28 mph? When asked the question, "I heard that if you play sex standing up, you don't get pregnant. Is it true?" I referred to the that statistic to back up my point, as in, it's going to get where it's going...

      Other things students asked/commented-
      "I heard that the more you have sex, the bigger your penis grows."
      "If you have sex with a woman menstruating, you get gonorrhea."
      "What causes masturbation?"
      "Women masturbate? How?"
"Why don't penises burn?"

      (A note on that last bit-- students were convinced that penises do not burn. As in, if you were to burn a human male, his penis would remain, uncharred. I can't figure out the root of this myth, but students were saying "We burnt two thieves in the village, and their penises remained!" If you can help me find the root of this myth, I would greatly appreciate it.)

      Now, I don't want to paint Ugandans as completely ignorant when it comes to sexual-related topics. There were several questions and comments that were truthful and relevant. One girl asked about the relation between birth control pills and cancer, a correlation which is currently being studied. Additionally, the students could tell me each part of the reproductive system, and I'm certain that they all knew what the act involves. It just seems that misconceptions spread like wildfire, especially in relation to western medicines.

I ended the two-hour lecture with a hands-on activity--practicing the proper way using a condom. Because the students immediately tried to stash condoms for later use, I had to patrol each participant, watching them check the wrapper properly and then open it in front of me. I had to say more than once, "No, I do not have enough materials for independent study..."


Me, waving around an eggplant with a condom on it. (I realized in my last post that I mentioned eggplants for condom demonstrations without explaining that the eggplants here are much smaller. I can only imagine what you all must have thought...)