So, big, crazy day at Skillz Street on testing day. Jim got a call the morning of and the doctor from the clinic that nurses were going to come from said that he didn't feel that two signed consent forms were enough and that he didn't want to give the girls the results of their tests. He said he would talk to them about health needs for girls (pregnancy etc.) and he would take blood samples for statistics, but he didn't want to tell the girls if they were HIV positive or negative.
This was a bit of a problem for us so we spent a good chunk of the morning deciding what to do. First, being able to test, and showing how easy it is to know your status is a huge part of this curriculum, so that was too bad. Secondly, If one of the tests were to be positive, it's kinda our duty to inform the child . Thirdly, if we allowed him to give statistics and there were a positive test, would this cause trouble with the girls' mindsets.
We eventually decided to let him do things his way so at least the girls would see that getting pricked and tested wasn't THAT scary. Turns out though that the doctor was not done declaring his issues. I wasn't at the program, but supposedly he was lecturing everyone and started going at Danny for filming the girls (even though she gets everyone's consent) and went on about how parental consent is when the parents look him in the eye and say he can test their child. Oh, and the kicker: that the white interns there were ruining his country.
Eventful, to say the least. I almost wish I had been there, but at least no one told me I was destroying a country.
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