The Gods Must Be Crazy

School Magazine

So, as part of my “don’t have to talk about HIV all the time” new attitude this term my teacher friend Thato and I have been working on the school magazine, detailing the school year activities and taking class pictures.

As part of the magazine, we wanted to feature a poetry and story section featuring students’ work. We told the kids we were printing a “Poetry Corner” in the magazine. At first the kids didn’t really get it. They brought me stories from books that they liked and asked me to print it in the school magazine. When I told them they are the ones who should write the stories/poems, they were a little shocked. Creativity in school isn’t strongly encouraged here, students usually learn from route memorization, but they eventually came with poems of their own. Some of the students actually wrote poetry about HIV/AIDS, unprompted! So I can use that as justification for this project in my quarterly report. Score! This was a really fun project, and basically it was just helping to start a school newspaper. Never thought I would do that! Peace Corps is full of new opportunities.