Sir, yuh dun yet?

The girl looked at me and asked if I dun - I told her she was free to go where she wanted. In spite of several years of doing public education with Help & Shelter, I always feel incompetent around the 11 to 18 age group, and especially 11 to 18 boys because the creativity required in a facilitator to keep the attention span is beyond me.

Most of the adults we deal with tend to want to be in the sessions. Children are usually there because they are told to be there because 'dey gun learn someting'. The boys especially, difficult to keep attention going in an interactive session and if they would rather be somewhere else.

This group was special, they are temporarily placed in care because of abusive home situations. They have faced more in their lives than most of us have faced in lifetime, so talking about rights  to a 15 year old girl who was raped by her uncle and who had an abortion and who is uncertain of her HIV status.. who the hell am I? If she wants to sleep through my session, then well, I am glad she choose this session to do so.

We are in a breezy venue, and there is wide open space behind me.. a no no usually because distractions are all round. I am not going to stop anybody from getting up and running around. What terrifies me though, is that the some of the children are sleepy - the camp counsellor tells me that some are malnourished and anemic, some of them do not want to eat food and take their vitamins , I do not know if it some rebellion or protest. One small built guy tells me he will use the 10 minute break to 'tek a five'.

I ask them to say one good thing about themselves in the introductions, some of them good, many cannot and say they do not know anything. The others throw in some words for them. I forget about the horseplay and the constant movement, some of them are the teasing, turning into horseplay and fighting and then I watch the horseplay turning into hugs  and cuddles, not only between the girls, but between the boys as well. So in between all of this, I have to talk about rights, responsibilities, some of them know about it, but never been able to assert it. Some of them have spent a night in the police lockups for 'behaving bad' - I doubt that many of us adults have spent the night in any lockup for behaving bad.
One of the guys tells me he get beat 10,000 times, and nothing aint change. He says 'licks does bun and cool'.. I dont get to ask him what I should do then, if I have a problem with him. At the end though, it end up that we try to gaff while he on a chair and I am sitting on the ground, and even at that level, he cannot look at me in my face- with all the braggar. He give me the 'I have heard it all before responses' but he still does not look at me. Most of the times I have worked with children, they have no problem looking at me directly.



I try to organise them in groups, and some groups are okay, but I get some feedback.. like sir, not with she, or not with he. One group got round to working after they changed leader three times. They did their skits and disappeared and ran off.

Facilitator's evaluation - none of them asked me if I will be coming again.
Two girls were sick.. other people told me that they playing sick to get attention, but they were there in the group and did not leave. It was a lil nerves for me though, because I hoped that I was not endangering them more. Thanks to Lina for being around to see things.

So, to answer the girl about if I dun, nah, I hope not to  dun. I get plenty blessing.
I am a strong single man who ain't got no pickney so instead of drinking Stout like what Konshens say to do to be a real man and hold off de two gyurls,  I hope I could be a fake man and try to work on things which will make this place a lil bit better for children. I hope that we could work out a way to get professional psychologists to work with you; and that your education and health will be sorted out. I hope that we could work with your families so you could go back with them if you want to.