My Teach In: Stiching Up The Facts About AIDS,  went a thousand times better than I expected! The classes came in the workshop without complaining; they were more ” easy going” than I thought they would be. Then everyone sat down were we told them to, still no complains. After everyone was seated we started our Power Point. We talked through it 99.99% perfectly smoothly. The students were interested, they asked questions and told the rest of the group some facts. When it was time for the activity it was kind of hard to make everyone do their best. Some of the students just didn’t do their best and wante to finnish as quickly as possible, what I did in those situations: I would say like “you have one more changce to do it well here is another piece of felt you can start over and I am not giving you another piece after this”. That would work they would start trying. But the others did an AMAZING job!!!!!! I was so thankful of that , we were lucky to get the students we got because I am sure many many students are not this “easy going”. We made cookies they ate it and they liked it (which made me proud).What I learned during the Teach In is how to control/ watch/ teach younger kids because I had never done that before.

During the workshop I felt so good because I was older than the students and knew what I was talking about, I had the knowledge which is an amazing feeling.

Honestly NOTHING could have gone better. Now that the Teach In is over I feel very relieved but kind of sad at the same time because the whole process of this project was so much fun that I don’t want it to be over! Thank you Sarah and Momii for All of Your support!

For my 8th visit I went to AidForAids with my group. We got there and there was some kind of technical problem (in the computer) because the “door man ” didn’t have our names in the computer so he didn’t let us up. Then later when LEnny call AidForAids the problem was solved. We got there and Hannah welcomed us in and gave us a bucket with condoms, an information sheet, a plastic bag and we were suppose to put them all in a plastic bag. That is pretty much all we did. When I was there I looked around and saw these people next to us, they looked like they were having a meeting.  There was about a five year old kid, I think he was probably one of the people’s kid. The only awkward thing when we go to the AidForAids is that it is like one office with one (I am exagerating) big room so we kind of feel bad if we talk and the feeling is kind of awkward. But the people are so nice there that it’s okay. The goals that I set for my next visits are to be more involved as I said in the earlier blog post and to benefit as much as I can from the information the people that work at the organizations know/ can give me.Often I want to ask questions at the organizations/ places but I am not sure if the question I want to ask is “ridiculously easy” or something that I should already know… That visit was pretty fun.

3 Days ago I went to the AidsWalk wear house.  This is my 7th visit. When we got there we were folding papers and putting them into envelopes. The food there was something that was good (I don’t know the name of it…) and Chips. That’s all we did… I feel like when we go there we are given papers to fold and we ( my group/ LREI kids)  are kind of in our own world, we talk together and just fold, maybe an hour later a woman comes and says that it is over and we should leave (of course she says thanks for your help…).What I think of that is that we should be more involved, ask questions and try to be more into the learning. But I see other groups around us and they are the same. I have talked to some people about this and they said that maybe it is the organization that is the problem but we have gone to two different ones (not counting Rainforest Alliance) and they make us do the same things.

Something that I find really cool is that we adjusted stands and now two weeks later I see them in almost every store even in the LREI lobby… Pretty Proud!

Some Random Facts About Aids:

.HIV is the human immuno deficiency virus that causes AIDS.

.Aids is a disease that breaks down the  body’s immune system and is unable to fight off certain infections/ diseases, known as “opportunistic infections,” and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system.

. About 40,000 Americans become infected with HIV each year.

.In the US nearly one million people are infected have HIV infection or Aids.

Web Site I go to for simple imformation like this: http://www.thebody.com/content/art32981.html

For my 6th visit I went to the AidsWalk place with Jasper, Matan, Adam and Lenny. We got there and did the usual (Folding Papers). Later I went upstairs alone and put stamps on envelops. I did it with a girl I didnt know. She was about 18 and she was very nice. What I think was interesting about meeting her was that we kind of come from two completely different worlds but still had A LOT in common.  Later i signed up to volunteer to be some kind of assistant at the actual Aids Walk May 16th. That nigh we also had an interview with Sean Sheppards. He talked about many things including the fact that many celebrities came to the Aids Walk every year. How the Aids Walk people decide which celebrities they want to invite: they write on a piece of paper who the want and then invite them (this might be confusing because I am not sure how to explain this…).  That’s Pretty much all we did. That visit was nice and I liked meeting the girl. 🙂

About two weeks ago I went to The Rainforest Alliance with Jasper. My topic is Aids but I went to this visit as extra credit… The Place was on Brodway a Couple of blocks from LREI. The Organization does projects in forests and get support from individuals. They also do projects in Asia, Peru, Africa and Latin America. They make  Organic food products that are sold all around the city. This is their logo:

When Jasper and I got there they greeted us very well and different people came to talk to us about their different jobs in the organization. The first woman explained her job as a someone who funraises. Then another woman came in and explained her job as a representitive of the Rainforest Alliance. She goes to schools and informs kids on the organization. After that a really fun guy came in and talked to us more about the organization. Then a guy from Madagascar showed us a power point on some projects they have done. They gave us a frog pet (fake don’t worry) and chocolate they made. That visit was very fun!! It was kind of awkward sometimes because they made like this whole “presentation” just for Jasper and I so I felt sort of bad. We were just sitting there and listening. At the same time we were very lucky so should not complain! 🙂

Yestirday I went to my fourth visit. I went to the Aids Walk group. I went with Jasper, Lenny and Katherine.When we got there Jennie welcomed us. She is AMAZINGLY nice and funny. Tall Brunette. She said that we should eat and then we can start working. Which we did. The food was Pasta and Bread with sodas. It was a delite. When we were finally done eating we started to sort and move around boxes. When we used up ALL OF OUR MUSCULE she finally told us we could sit down. When seated we did the piles of 25 handouts. After that we put stickers on stands. I asked Jennie if we could interview her, she said, “of course” with a lot of enthusiasm. We did. I will post the interview as soon as I have it. One thing she said that I remember is that Brooklyn is one of the places with the most Hiv and Aids. I am going back there next week, CANT WAIT:)!!

On Thursday Olivia and I went to meet Jasper, Adam and Matan on 119 west 24th street. Olivia and I got there and we got kind of lost in the building our meeting was at. We arrived at six and left at 8:30. Then this man came and we found our way. He was very nice and welcoming. We introduced ourselves and then we started working. We were all sitted at a table and we were givin pieces of paper that talked about the aids walk. We had to make piles of 25. After that we had to put stickers on the back of posters and sort the posters/stands.There was food there and they had THE BEST corn bread ever. They gave us two shirts each, a waterbottle and a cap. There were other people there to volunteer. They all looked a little older than us but they were in groups to. We worked very well as a team, and the people who worked there were nice and greatful. I really loved this visit and I am going back on Monday.

Today I went to my second visit at AidForAids on Wall Street.

I went with Olivia and Matan.

We came and we did the exact same thing as the time before, we sat down and folded handouts.

The same Handouts that talk about protection, Aids and HIV.

After folding the handouts we put all of them in a cart board box.

I got really exited because I wanted to fold as many as we could, we folded SO MANY like 400 of them.

It was very different going without Sara because I felt more the need to represent LREI. I was more insecure because in the beginning I got scared that without a teacher or an adult to control us (a group of teenage friends) we would go a little crazy, but it worked out perfectly!!

The visit was very fun and I like our group, I liked the fact that it was a small group because we got more into the actual work.

I am going to another visit tomorow I hope I will have more to say then.:)

Adam, Lenny, Olivia, Matan, Jasper, Katherine, Sarahand I all went to the organization AidForAids on 120 Wall Street.

What the organization AidForAids does is that when people change perscriptions the hospitals used to throw out the medicine that people don’t need anymore because they changed perscrition. But now instead the hospitals gives the medicine that isn’t used anymore to AidForAids instead of throwing it out.

We all got our own I.D’s before going there. Here is mine

When we got there we were split up into two groups. Lenny, Katherine, Matan and I had to fold handouts that talk about HIV and AIDS. They tell the three ways one can get transmited, one can get transmitted by sharing needles, blood, sexual contact and before and after giving birth (prenatal).

The little handout also talked about how on can tell if one is living with HIV or not, how to protect yourself and how it is not transmitted.

Here is the process of folding the handouts

This is the handout before we fold it

And then