Sex Talks in Spanish

Have you ever taught sex ed to a room full of teenagers or adults?

Have you ever done it in a foreign language and/or in a culture totally different from your own?

Just imagine…

Before moving to Peru I had never taught sexual education in my life and quite frankly I was mortified to do so. During Peace Corps training before moving to Huallanca, they taught us how to teach sex ed to youth and it terrified me because I knew I was going to have to do it and I didn’t want to. I actually hate public speaking, let alone public speaking about sex…in Spanish. When they taught us how to teach sex ed to youth, I though “How will I ever be able to do this in real life?!”

Looking back on how scared I was to teach sex ed is now very funny because it’s the main thing that I do here in Peru and I am so comfortable with it now. Now I can talk about safe sex practices to youth and adults like I am talking about the weather. But it definitely didn’t happen over night!

 I definitely didn’t start teaching sex ed classes in Huallanca right away. The Peace Corps highly discourages teaching sexual education during your first year of service. Why you ask? Well for many reasons. The main reason is because it’s first very important to gain the trust of your students and community over time before you start teaching sex ed. Imagine if some strange white girl showed up to a small town in the middle of the mountains of Peru and just started teaching people about sex ed...the locals may be astounded and offended and probably wouldn't take to heart what this strange foreigner was saying. Sex is a highly taboo topic in Peru, partly because it’s a very passive culture and also partly because Peru is a very catholic country.

While sex is a very highly taboo topic, every year there are dozens and dozens of unplanned teen pregnancies just in our small mountain town. Teen pregnancy is fairly common all over Peru because of the lack of sexual education, but it’s even more common than normal in Huallanca because of all the nearby mines. Huallanca is a mining town which means that we are the closest town to the biggest mine in Peru as well as several other large mines. Mines attract working men, whom on their days off like to come down to Huallanca to hang out, eat, drink, and go out dancing. And unfortunately these men like to sleep with young girls in Huallanca, often causing unwanted pregnancies.

Ask any person who lives in Huallanca and they will tell you that the biggest social problem is the high amount of teen pregnancies. Everyone knows it’s a big problem, but nobody wants to do anything about it. Why does nobody want to do anything about? Because that would require actually talking about sex which most Peruvians are terrified of. Also, people would have no idea what to say because most adults here have little to no knowledge about HIV, STDs, or birth control methods. 

So guess why two Peace Corps Volunteers were sent to Huallanca?...Yep-to teach sexual education in a sustainable manner and do all we can to help lower the teen pregnancy rate. But like I said, I didn’t start teaching sexual education right away. For my first 8 months in site, I taught many other things. This allowed me to get a respectable reputation in Huallanca and to gain trust as a teacher. Most of the students and teachers know me, know my teaching styles, and know that they can trust me which is important since I am not from Huallanca nor from Peru.

I’ve found that since my students have been oppressed from ever being able to talk about sex with an adult, they are EXTREMELY curious! They love learning about sex ed and they always have so many questions. They approach me outside of the class room and ask when I am going to enter their classroom to teach them more, and they even approach me to ask personal questions about sex ed. I love that they feel they can trust me and that they ask me so many questions! I teach them about birth control methods, correct condom use, the names of the reproductive organs, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS, abstinence, etc.

I am not only teaching youth about sexual education, but I am also teaching parents and teachers. One of my main projects as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to implement a strong sexual education program in the local schools that will continue on even after I am no longer serving in Huallanca. This means that I am training teachers how to teach sex ed to their students and how to talk to students about sex so that they can teach sex ed sessions without me. I am in the process of putting together a sexual education manual for the teachers as well. Teaching parents about sex ed is also very important-like I said, most adults in Huallanca have little to no knowledge about birth control methods, STIs, HIV/AIDS, etc. I am also teaching parents how to openly communicate with their youth about sex. Not only youth, but adults are also very curious about sex ed since they have so little knowledge.

Most people in the community are very content that I am teaching sex ed and I think it’s because they know that it’s very necessary. I’ve only had a few negative comments about it. Sexual education can be a very controversial topic even in the United States. A teacher here in Huallanca once told me: “Teenagers are very curious at their age and teaching them about sex will only make them want to do it. If you don’t teach them about sex, it won’t futher their curiosities and they won’t do it.”

I calmly responded and explained to him that we live in a world where technology and the internet dominate everything. If we as educators don’t teach our youth about sex then they will learn about it incorrectly from movies, the radio, television, pornography, and the internet.

Something that was once a big fear of mine is now a big passion. I never ever thought I would hear myself say that I am passionate about teaching sexual education. But I am, very much so. I am passionate about it because I feel like I am empowering my students to take control of their futures by choosing to avoid unwanted pregnancies, STIs, and HIV/AIDS. Sex is a part of life and every human being has the right to learn about sexual health and education to be able to make smart decisions for their bodies and well being.

Knowledge = power!

Correct condom use demonstrations

Correct condom use demonstrations

Tabeling a correct condom use demonstration at the high school.

Our weekly sex ed group in the health center

Our weekly sex ed group in the health center

I didn't even know all the correct names of the reproductive organs in English...but I had definitely to learn all the correct names in Spanish so that I could teach it to my students.

Teaching the kids the reproductive organs. 

Teaching the kids the reproductive organs.

Working with one of  my best counter parts- a teacher who wants to work with me to teach sex ed to his students (this is something really hard to come by here).