I told you all I would keep you posted whenever some project idea came to fruition, so here it is.
I was on the radio again. This time I wasn't singing Katy Perry.
International AIDS awareness day was on December 1st, and in order to celebrate, one of my fellow volunteers (shout out to Danielle!) decided that we should do something in Meteti to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.
DONE. We decided to have a radio show to educate about HIV and AIDS. We all know I love radio. (I live across the street from the station, remember?) A third volunteer decided to help us (thanks Kerri!), and then I realized. . .we're discussing a sexual health topic with all female voices on the air. We need some testosterone up in this!
Luck was on my side, as there happened to be a lot of Peace Corps Volunteers floating around my site during this time. (I live in the travel hub for Darien and the Comarcas Emberá-Woounán, remember?) I asked a couple of the guys if they would help out, and we ended up drafting two volunteers (Nate and David, whaddup) and a staff member who was in the area who works in the Peace Corps office (Ben is awesome!). Vóila! Just like that, we have two genders evenly represented (in the binary sense, at least ;) ).
So the show happened. We scheduled and hour long show beginning at 7pm, when a lot of those campesinos who don't have TVs are listening to their radios. During this time of night, the radio normally encourages people to text the radio station and send shout-outs to their friends and family. We decided to use that for the AIDS show, and we asked the radio station if we could borrow the phone for our program and instead of shout-outs, have people text in their questions about HIV/AIDS. Two of us in the program were on phone duty, taking listeners' questions and reading them on the air so that the others could take turns answering. People in Darien began not only to text, but to CALL the radio station's phone with their questions (that means they SPENT MONEY on a phone call to ask a sensitive question)!
THE SHOW WAS SUCH A SUCCESS! We covered what the HIV/AIDS virus IS, how it is and isn't transmitted, and how you can protect yourself from the virus. In the beginning, Danielle and I were a little worried about how a sensitive topic would be recieved coming from what is technically a Catholic radio station--this was Peace Corp Panama's first venture onto the radio--but the response has been overwhelmingly positive, so far! People have been commenting to Peace Corps Volunteers about how much they learned. One older man even called into the radio to thank us for providing answers to some questions he had been having for years. The benefit of our arrangement on the radio is that people were able to anonymously ask questions that they may be too embarrassed to ask otherwise, and recieve answers.
The icing on the cake is that I HAVE A RECORDING OF THE RADIO SHOW. Ben, the Peace Corps staff member who accompanied us on the radio, suggested that I ask for a recording of the show. (I wouldn't even have thought to ask if the radio did that!) Thanks to him, I now have had the opportunity to listen back to the program and share the file that is our radio program. Listening back, the show sounded a lot more put together than it felt in the moment. On the air, you can't hear all of the silly faces and panicked gestures we were making to one another during the show!
AAAANYYYWAYYY. Welp, that was a success. I won't tell you about the charla the next day that nobody showed up to, but just know that even that wasn't a complete waste of time. . .I came into possession of quite a few Snickers bars among other things, AND got to make an AWESOME contact at the Ministry of Health. (Did you know my province has an HIV COORDINATOR who works with HIV positive patients? He's been HIV positive for almost two decades, so for the first time in my life, I know someone who is HIV positive.)
Welp, PC success stories. Those don't come at ya everyday, so it's always nice to feel like to actually got something done at the end of the day.
The holiday season is upon us, and I walking around in a skirt and a short sleeved polo! #teamnojacket
Christmas in Panama will be great. All my fam in the States, take pictures and send them to me! I want to see all of your lovely faces. I love you all, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's to you, if I don't blog again before then!
Mwaaaaahhh!
P.S. Cartucho says hi.
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