Graduation & Goodbyes

Friday was graduation from UCC for my 2 sisters! The have their undergraduate degrees in geography and history & french. They both want to continue on with school to get their masters degrees, but want to attend university in the USA for it!

The graduation here is a lot more chaotic than it is back home, although I guess I should have expected that. The students are all seated and graduate in order by discipline, but once they have their degrees they just disperse. They don't go back to their seats or throw their hats at any point...

There were way to many people to see much of anything since I was in the standing room section. But here is some idea of the graduation proceedings:

And here are my sisters and mom, and friends after graduation:

My mom is on the far left in the purple and yellow kente.  My sisters are the ones standing in their robes!

It was also our last outreach with the youth today as well... I had to run over there from graduation. The majority of the youth are boarders and therefore will be leaving on monday for the rest of the school semester at their boarding schools. It was actually a really good program. One of the youth (Silvester) taught and Danielle and I merely augmented the information. He did an awesome job and all the other youth were incredibly supportive. There were of course the obligatory giggles at points, but he managed to cover puberty in both boys and girls and then also explain both male and female reproductive systems.
(Danielle and I provided the diagrams)

Image from: homebusinessandfamilylife.com

Image from: hayatcenter.com

Image from: faculty.southwest.tn.edu

The two of us also did a short section on sexual rights.We highlighted the claims made in international rights treaties:
The right to receive and impart information related to sexuality.
The right to consensual sexual relations.
The right to decide whether or not and when to have children.
The right to bodily integrity.
The right to choose your sexual partner(s).
The right to pursue a satisfying, safe and pleasurable sexual life.

In the point "The right to choose your sexual partner(s)" we highlighted the risks of multiple partners and also suggested that this included the right to homosexuality. This comment caused a strong response. It turns out that homosexuality is illegal in Ghana. (Or so they told us...) At that point I made a point of explain the great qualities of my homosexual friends and how they are exactly the same as everyone else. The youth were then shocked that I am friends with and willing hang out with "these people". Danielle and I suggested that even if they felt it was wrong, it still is not our role in life to force our opinions on people and dictate how they live their lives, and they seemed to accept that. This promptly lead into the question of how gays have sex. (There was an earlier long term discussion about how girls have 3 passages out of the body and which one the boys were suposed to enter. They had apparently never been shown a diagram before and had no concept of the size of the Urethra, Vagina, and Anus and their respective positioning...)

So it was explained that males can have anal and oral sex with one another and females can stimulate one another without penatration, or through use of sexual aids. (I am currently amused that i could explain this to 20 people without cracking a smile, but as i write it down, I am grinning from ear to ear...)

The whole discussion seemed to go well, although they still are all very oposed to homosexuality, but they were engaged and asked a lot of questions! They took one last group shot with us before we said goodbye:

The guy in the white shirt between Danielle and I is Silvester, the teacher for the day!