Wooden Penis, Rubber Vagina...and Good Governance

Last week was very busy...on Tuesday, I attended a workshop on creating a National Sustainable Development Strategy in Botswana, which was quite impressive. On Friday, I helped put on a UN Staff Orientation on HIV/AIDS. Details below, but first, the pictures of the condom demonstrations!


The goal of last Tuesday's workshop in Phakalane was to start a dialogue on how to create a National Strategy on Sustainable Development (NSSD). The process will probably take a couple of years (and this is just producing, not actually implementing, the strategy), so given the speed with which climate change is happening, addressing this now is a good thing. For example, the US, as you may know, does not have any such strategy in place--and produces significantly more greenhouse gases. For Botswana, learning how to manage their resources more effectively, and finding ways to diversify their economy (particularly in a way that is sustainable) is incredibly important--the country has experienced remarkable economic growth in the past 40 years, but most of this comes from mineral wealth. Since most of the land is desert, little agricultural production occurs--most food is imported from South Africa.

This workshop actually helped me believe some of the rumors about how Botswana is a developmental gem in Africa--the individuals present representing government and civil society were intelligent, full of good ideas, and genuinely concerned with addressing the topic at hand. By the end of the day they had reached a decent consensus on the way forward, wanted to involve more stakeholders into the decision-making process, and had come up with a realistic plan for future action. What was most impressive about this conference, however, was that the Minister of Environment was there ALL DAY. He not only had intelligent comments to make, but was open to criticism and listening to other people's contributions. Botswana may have only 2 million people, so maybe the Minister has more time on his hands than some, but I was still impressed that he took such a vested interest in the project.

Friday was the second of three workshops on HIV/AIDS that I'm organizing during my time here. The last workshop was all about the risks associated with multiple concurrent partnerships (having multiple sexual partners at the same time), and though it went well, I wasn't involved in the presentations--just the organizing. Today, I actually helped run the workshop with two of my co-workers. The workshop was for UN Employees on basic HIV information and HIV in the workplace--an attempt to make sure UN employees are actually educated about what they are supposed to be teaching others, or promoting through the Millennium Development Goals. It was definitely a learning experience--both for us, and the people in attendance.

During the ice-breaker, a game called "High Risk, Low Risk, No Risk", we had to explain (to some shocked faces): (1) the concept of 'blood brothers', (2) mutual masturbation, and (3) oral sex, among other things. The response to the explanation of #3 (and I'm not joking) was: "No one does that."

At the previous HIV/AIDS workshop, there was considerable interest in how HIV affects the gay community. Homosexuality is illegal in Botswana, so it's often not considered a major contributor to the HIV epidemic here, though it probably is to some extent. There was definitely misinformation floating around at the last session: one of the presenters thought different condoms are used for anal sex and referred to homosexuality as something that wouldn't be of concern to anyone present--as if to suggest no one in the room might be gay. To set the politically correct and factual records straight, I gave a brief presentation Friday on what activities can put men who have sex with men (MSM) at risk for HIV. I also included the results of a recent study conducted in Southern Africa cities (including Gaborone) that surveyed MSM about their sexual habits--over half of those surveyed had had sexual relations with both men and women in the past 6 months, a fact which shocked a lot of people--and definitely could contribute to the spread of HIV.

The highlight of the session though was definitely the condom demonstrations--ok, come on, when is using wooden penises and rubber vaginas NOT the highlight of a sex-ed or HIV session? And I had no idea how to use a female condom, so hey, it was informative for me too. But I still can't get over the fact that the rubber vagina is a box shape--reminds me of that SNL song/skit "Dick in a Box"...except I suppose this would be "Vag in a Box". Anyway, my co-worker, Kefi, gave a great presentation, we had volunteers help with the demonstration, and hilarity ensued. Though half of it was in Setswana, it was still funny. Kefi's final point was a good one too--Having open and honest discussions with our partners about sex and HIV may be something we like to assume we all do, but probably don't.

Here's to hoping the workshop changed that for some people.