The Clitoris

And other things that are missing from CINI’s Family Life Education Manual. To add on to my normal load of writing up documents, I am also working with the resource team to edit and bring up to snuff their training manuals. Which I have to say is a nice break from just writing up youth friendly stuff (especially since my things are a bit delayed because my field visits and focus group discussions keep being delayed by one thing or another).

Originally I was expecting just a little bit of clean up work, I was not prepared for the gross misinformation and missing information that I found. It’s amazing how preference of males has even trickled down to their training manuals. All of the male parts were present and plenty of time was given to explaining that wet dreams were normal. All of the external female reproductive parts were missing (vulva, clitoris, major and minor labia), and though there are great taboos on menstruation here (people believe that girls on their period are unclean and shouldn't be allowed to pray, eat, etc with the rest of the family) there was only two small notes stating that it was natural. While there was extensive information on male arousal and ejaculation the female section only included reproductive functions.

Masturbation was of course mainly discussed from the male point of view. Though I did give them points for saying “his or her genitals.” And the whole thing is written that excludes anything that is not male and female reproductive sex. Even the section on gender only talked about gender discrimination towards females.

So I’ve been spending the last couple of days editing these sections, and it has been good fun if not equally frustrating (especially to someone who gave a class on foreplay to my 10th grade learners in Namibia). There have been some gross errors “STDs can be completely cured with treatment,” “HIV is passed from mother to child through the uterus,” and “Girls should not bathe in lakes during their menses because the uterus is more open and susceptible to infection” Plus I find out interesting things while finding double checking info. Like that semen apparently is only 15 calories.

I do have to say that it’s really tempting to include the really shocking things like g-spots and female ejaculation, but I do want them to actually use my suggestions.