Doing what you gotta do

My work in health is focused on education.

The regular stuff like malaria prevention,

cleaning small cuts before infection, drinking

ample amount of water and HIV prevention

among other topics.

Last week during a session with a class of 

young girls we had to use a close to 7 ft pole

for a condom demonstration.

It worked but was cumbersome and not

practical to carry around when going out to

the villages. 

There was supposed to be a wooden penis

somewhere around but we couldn't find it.

It'll probably show up sooner or later.

So, easiest thing to do is make one, as you can

see the object in the center between the 

machete and the multi-purpose leatherman type

tool.

I cut one of the multi trunks coming from one

of the eucalyptus trees. I showed the piece of 

wood to one of the mid-wives and she told me

it wasn't thick enough. This eucalyptus tree 

has a tendency to dry out and shrink a bit.

Only thing to do was go back and cut a bigger

one. Used the machete to cut the trunk and

the knife on the multi-purpose tool to whittle

and voila ... wooden eucalyptus penis and 

we're in business. Now condom demonstrations

at the spur of the moment if neccessary.

I have done some wood working in the past

but no penis fabrications. It is another first

of many since living in different countries

and not having the Home Depots and 

anything available in minutes. It definitely

sparks the imagination and gives a decent

sense of accomplishment after having 

figured something out by using just what's

around.

By the way the mid-wife was right that shrunk

by almost 33% in a few days.