Exits and Entrances

September, 2009

The last part of August I spent traveling with my visiting son and daughter in northern Botswana. We experienced the Okavanga Delta via plane and makoro or dug-out canoe. Between the Chobe and Moremi National Game Parks we were delighted to see herds of elephants, wild buffalo, impala, zebra, a lion with cubs, hyenas, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, wildebeests, baboons and lots of amazing birds. It was a welcomed change from the routine of counseling students at my senior secondary school. So after meeting lots of foreign travelers, few Peace Corps volunteers and numerous local people in my home village and around the country, my children returned to their studies and jobs, and I resumed my role as counselor with my with 2000 students. It was quite a jolt to transition so quickly. It turned out events moved quickly.
Soon after school started, a student who had fainted in class after a seizure-like episode was carried in to our guidance center. He was not responding, so I rushed off to get my senior teacher out of a meeting to determine if he needed to go to the hospital. She decided to let him rest because he was a known epileptic and had had a seizure since he had not been taking his medication. So I prepared to work nearby where I could observe him.
Soon after a student from my PACT club came by needing to revise a paper she was writing on domestic violence. We worked on it. While we were working, the sleeping student awoke and wanted to leave. So I retrieved the senior teacher again to assess the situation. She allowed him to leave after having contacted his relatives. Not long after another one of my PACT club students was carried in writhing and mumbling, evidently having been possessed by evil spirits. Once more I sought out the head counselor who called the student’s pastor. He came and proceeded to exorcise the evil spirits. Once the student had calmed down, she and the pastor saw the counselor.
Then I was left to meet with two other students who showed up for counseling and wanted to be seen immediately. I proceeded to learn about an attempted suicide she had witnessed. She was experiencing reoccurring trauma as the result of helping her friend. Not knowing how to deal with the situation, I turned the case over to the head counselor who had just finished with the pastor and our student. As my counterpart dealt with the traumatized student, I interviewed the remaining student. The story unfolded that she was cleaning her mother’s room when she found a card indicating her mother was HIV positive. That had been a year and a half ago. The student had said nothing and waited to hear it from her mother. Then during our school break, her aunt and grandmother inquired her if she knew her mother and sister were HIV positive. She did know about her mother but just had just learned about her sister. She was worried about them both. Her sister seemed unconcerned about the long term consequences. Her mother still had not talked to her directly. My student had not been tested for HIV and it was unclear where the virus had been encountered. The issue was how the student could initiate a conversation with her mother who lives in a different town. She agreed to return in the morning to see my counterpart who had already left for the day.
The following morning, I talked to the guidance head who had counseled two of the students. She was trying to get them seen at the local hospital. She also informed me that she might be having surgery soon and could be on leave for several weeks. Since she is the only trained person at the school, I began anticipating who I could call upon for help in the future. As of now, it is not clear if the surgery will be next week and who will be “covering” for her in her absence. So I have to hope that all goes well when she goes on medical leave. This does not appear to be a good situation since we are on a double shift and all the other teachers and administrators have their hands full. Likewise, my student troubled by the demons has been carried in two more times and the pastor continues to come and exorcise the spirits. Not knowing the language or cultural norms, my role is that of listener.
On a lighter note, the older form five students are busy finishing projects in various subjects before embarking on their important final exam for the senior secondary school. Because I have a camera, I have been summoned on short notice (which is usually the case here) by the home economics department to photograph a speech delivered to a class on teenage pregnancy and cooking students with the various prepared meals as well as the student the taste testers. The purpose is to enclose the photos with their projects so that outside monitors will know they have indeed completed their projects. This also explains why we at the guidance center are suddenly inundated with requests for information on drugs and alcohol abuse, ARVs (Anti Retro Viral medication for HIV), and teenage pregnancy and domestic violence since the projects are due now, now, as they say.
So my re-entry process has become one of total immersion. It also included baking a not so successful cake for the 30 plus PACT club party this Saturday to bid the older students farewell since they will be studying for exams and then leaving the school at the end of November. The event was well attended. Those leaving reflected on the trips and trainings they remembered and gave excellent advice to the new club members, such as be active, make the club fun, act as leaders and practice what you preach in terms of behaviour in and out of school. Everyone devoured all the snacks and treats myself and my counterpart provided. So it was a good parting and showed some results for all the activities we had engaged in for the past year. Now my wonderful club patron is looking forward a maternity leave in the coming months, which means yet another exit.