condoms

ay, so tired.  i've been leaving the condo around 7 and getting back at 10 these last few days... but today I got to sleep in and not leave 'til 9, but alas I didn't return until 12:30!

i should change my blogger clock to reflect real time...

ANYWAY today among other things I went to another urban poor community, this one way up north, and hung out in the home of Ate G - wonderful lady, works for an NGO i'm partnering with..  I wanted to ask where she (and her children and her niece) slept in that tiny room, but I thought it would be rude.. based on the pillows and blankets on a shelf, I could only assume on the floor... the concrete floor.  but perhaps there was a clever system set up and a more comfortable situation was hiding along a wall or something.  i wish i'd been brave enough to ask.

I was, however, brave enough to bring up the question of sex ed and contraceptive use with the kids i was hanging out with (the board of the youth club in the community - I call them kids but some were my age) and after a brief awkward silence we had a great discussion.  i asked about sex ed at their schools and whether talking about sex was still as taboo as it used to be, they asked if the US had an HIV problem and whether contraceptives were openly bought and used.  highlight: they were astonished to discover that at school i have access to free condoms (I didn't even mention that entire CITIES have access to free condoms).  and they bemoaned the high cost of condoms in their community (24 pesos a pack... that's less than fifty cents.  but fifty cents buys a lot more here and is a lot harder to come by in these communities.  but let's not talk about how much i had in my pocket at the time.  arrrrrrgh the money i don't know what to do about it).

anyway, they asked when I would come back to the Philippines (cue stuttering) and I said whenever it was, i would bring free American condoms as souvenirs from the states.  a boxful, I said, and H pointed at my shoulder bag and said, "no, bags full," and a boy  laughed, and said, "a truck!" and I said, "ok, ok, a plane!"   and then a kid in the corner said, "ah, but you'll need extra small sizes, for the filipinos..." and a kid in the other corner piped up in tagalog - not for me!  and we all laughed.  and I wondered about 24 pesos, and 13-year-old mothers, and the catholic church, and the HIV epidemic at call centers, and the fact that ate G won't sell condoms from her corner shop to anybody under 18 - but the kids here go to college at 15, if they go to college, and there are people getting married at 14. and then H was asking if she could come to my wedding, and we decided she could be my flowergirl, and then later we talked about throwing condoms around the streets of valenzuela city like a flowergirl throwing flowers and we all laughed.

what's the point of this story again?  oh yes.  condoms.  and how you, my american friends, should not take your free condoms (or your ability to afford to buy them) for granted.