Waikiki Health Center

Service learning journal, entry #2

by Lisa Walden


I have now completed up to a total of 14 hours and 45 minutes. The past few times that I have been going to the Waikiki Health Center to volunteer on the STD/AIDS hot line has sometimes very busy and sometimes slow. I start at two o'clock in the afternoon and stay until four o'clock. Sometimes I will even stay until six o'clock.

I sometimes catch the after schoolers who call the hot line after they finish school. It really shocks me that lithe kids are asking questions about sex and condoms. I don't have any problem with young kids asking questions because it is really good that they do get educated. However, I do have a slight problem with them having sex because most of them do not use condoms and they are really putting themselves and their lives at risk to catch a sexually transmitted disease like HIV.

I had a twelve-year old girl call me at the hot line. She wanted to know if she should make her fifteen-year old boyfriend wear a condom when they have sex. She said that she is his only girlfriend and that he said he doesn't have any type or kind of diseases. In my mind I was thinking. . . "hello little girl! Is there a brain in that young head of yours?" However, we volunteers at the hot line are not judgmental so I let it go. Then I gave her some credit for at least making an effort to get some information on the precautions. I told her that it would be a very good idea if she told her boyfriend to wear a condom.

I also gave her a little more additional advice. I figured she was so young and I would hate it if she had to find out the hard and long way. I told her that just because he says she is his only girlfriend and that him saying that he doesn't have any diseases is not a good enough reason to not wear a condom. Just because he says he doesn't have any diseases doesn't guarantee he doesn't have any diseases unless he is getting constantly tested, used protection during sex or abstained from sex. Even those three things do not guarantee you are SO D free (except for abstinence).

I also told her that transmitting and receiving a sexuaRy transmitted disease is very easy to do without the correct type of protection. She agreed and said she would tell him to wear a condom when they have sex. I tried to hint to her since she was so young that the safest sex is no sex.

I had a sixteen-year old male caller who wanted to know if he could receive tIIV from a female. I told him that it was in fact possible. If her vaginal fluid entered into his bloodstream then it was quite possible. I advised him if he wanted to lower the chances of catching or gnzing anything he should use the proper protection like a latex condom.

I had another male caner one day, a fifteen-year old, who wanted to know if it was possible to cure sores on his penis. The way he described his symptoms seemed as if he had the herpes virus. I told him that if it was indeed herpes then it would not be curable because the virus stays in your system until kingdom comes. I advised him that he should get tested to make sure what kind of sores he has on his penis.

I also told him that he could pass the sores to someone else during sexual contact if h was herpes. He wanted the number to the Waikiki Health Center so he could make an appointment to get tested for any sexually transmitted diseases.

The hot line is not only a place where questions can be answered but also a place where problems can be listened to. I have had many callers who have just wanted to talk out some of their problems. I have also had some callers who have crossed over the line in what they were talking about and even tried to get me invoh ed into it. That is when I politely hung up on them.

I had a male caller who did something the night before and really needed to tank to someone about it. He had sexual activity with someone and he felt really guilty about doing it and with whom he had done it with. He said that he had been drinking and that he and that person he had the sexual activity with were driving around. Then they started fooling around and blah blah. Anyway, I just listened to a certain extent until he started getfing into detail. Then I told him very politely that I was there to listen to a certain point. He apologized then he started to talk about his feelings. He asked me for my opinion and I told him that I don't really have one because I haven't been in that situation before. I did ask him if he used protection and he said yes because he knew of the dangers of catching a STD through unprotected sex.

I have had a mother call who was just so concerned for her son and needed to talk to someone about it. Her son was a seventeen-year old who was very much sexually active since he was fourteen years old. He has contracted mild sexually transmitted diseases. The family had just found out that he was H[V positive. They were not too sure when and from who had he contracted the disease from. The mom told me that her son was bisexual and had intercourse with males also. I thought that it might have been possible that he contracted through anal sex because it is more transmissible that way than vaginal sex because the anus will tear and that would be an easy access opportunity for the virus to get into the bloodstream.

I really felt for the mother. I know that she must really going through a painful time. I didn't have much to say and I knew she just wanted to be listened to. I referred her to a number to a place where she and her son can go together to let out their feeling.

Moments like those just really make me stop and think about how real HIV is. I am really glad that there are institutions out here like the Waikiki Health Center. Education on HIV really does help some people in making safe decisions in their life.




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