We started our day off early today, and at 8:30am split into pairs and went to a number of different high schools in the area to do research on the effect of pregnancy and school dropouts. Dian and I headed to a private high school where we met with a friendly headmaster, and I also met a tourism teacher who spoke English since his step-father is from Detroit. We talked for a while, and he gave me some advice on Thailand because he lived there for a few years. He also gave us a hint that there was a private school near Louvina that only takes parents, both mothers and fathers, who have been kicked out or have dropped out of other schools.
Next we went to another private high school with a less friendly headmaster (this is my judgement based on body language since Dian translated for me the whole day). They repeated the first school’s sentiment that they did not have an issue with teen pregnancies, but then told us about an alternative schooling method called Packet C. Packet C is a 3 times a week afternoon school for students who can’t afford school fees or have gotten pregnant. This leads me to think pregnancy is an issue, since they said about half of the 36 students are or have been pregnant.
Then we met up with the rest of our group (minus Abhi who was at the Department of Education) at a public school. There we learned about the situation a bit more from the public school side rather than the private schools we had already talked to. After that we headed to the beach! It was for a meeting, I swear. But really we shared all the information we had all learned and decided on our course of action for the rest of the day.
First up was lunch, where I had some crazily spicy vegetables, I think called Cap Cahuanay or something similar. It was good but I couldn’t really taste much since my mouth was on fire. We then tried to go to the school for parents, but unfortunately the headmaster was out for the day, so we made an appointment for next week. Next we tried to head to an NGO which happened to be at my favorite wifi spot, so when that was closed we just did Internet research for the rest of the time.
After meeting as a class for the first time all day Erica and I walked home, and she informed me I have been talking to her in my sleep again! I quite enjoy hearing about these conversations of mine, especially since I haven’t had a roommate in a long time to share them with me. Evidently as she was putting something into her closet yesterday night I propped myself up on an elbow and told her, “you can’t put that there!” She assures me she will try and ask me some questions the next time this happens.
Now I think we are going to venture out and explore a little as neither of us are hungry and we can’t decide what we want to do.
*My days seem to be off so in the editing process I have decided to name this day 14.5!
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