Hanging out at Taxi Stops

Way back in May the Honduran Red Cross did a training for volunteers of the Red Cross and the HIV Network in Santa Barbara, with the idea that those people would then train the local taxi drivers. Well, the project was not organized and there was nobody in charge so everyone was just waiting for somebody to tell them what to do. Luckily, the Red Cross eventually contracted a woman to carry out the project and train the 60 taxi drivers in Santa Barbara. I wondered who they had found to do the project because not just any Honduran woman can go talk to taxi drivers on the street about sex. Well, after working with Sara for a while I have nothing to worry about; she worked with commercial sex workers in San Pedro Sula for three years and she is awesome! So, they hired her and gave use a budget (a rather large budget actually, way more than we actually need, but they don’t seem to care about that). It has been wonderful to work with Sara because she has lots of strong points but I can also teach her a lot, so it is a wonderful partnership (I even helped her open up an e-mail account!) Together we wrote a work plan, a curriculum, and a budget.
Sara presenting

We have two techniques to work with the taxi drivers. First, we go to the taxi stops and just talk to them while they wait for their next passenger. Second, we have one hour meetings during which we do two activities that would be difficult to do in the street and then give them dinner. Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages and it has been a learning experience for both of us since the Red Cross has given us little direction and we have had to figure it out as we go.
Working with the taxi drivers is both rewarding and exhausting. It is rewarding because it is an important group to work with and people have told me that no other group has been able to work with them and they hold lots of erroneous beliefs about HIV and sex in general. Also, they really appreciate our work and love Sara and I and all say hi to me when I walk through town (if only I could get them to give me free rides). At the same time it is the most exhausting group I have ever had to work with. In many ways they act like little boys. During meetings they talk the entire time and interrupt me while I am talking and ask ridiculous questions and then don’t listen to my answers. There is even one that hits on me while I am presenting! If they get a question wrong they get upset and blame me or the question and threaten to leave the meeting. They make fun of each other without ceasing and bicker amongst one another and use horrible language. They seem to know nothing about how the female body works and what women want. But Sara and I are working together to make it happen.
I don´t remember this being part of the activity...

We also have the challenge of the disorganization of the central Red Cross office in Tegucigalpa. They have not yet sent us our money for the project (which technically began August 15th), which means that I have had to front some of my own money. Nor have they sent us the materials we need to give to the taxi drivers (which in their boyish way are complaining about not getting their stuff). On the other hand the central office really likes the methodology we are using and wants to adopt it in other projects as well. We are going to do a training of trainers of Red Cross volunteers in Santa Barbara and I might even go to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula to train other Red Cross employees to use the same methodology with the taxi drivers there.