From the Swali Box

For the past week I've been teaching at an HIV/AIDS day camp, working with a classroom of about 44 students, most of whom are only a few years younger than me and have had essentially no sex education at all. One of our most treasured classrom rituals is the daily reading of the "Swali Box," which is a time for answering the students' anonymous questions (swali, in Kiswahili, means "question"). Here's the best of the best:

- If a woman who is HIV positive has sex with a dog, can the dog get HIV/AIDS?
- Why is your skin white? Why is my skin black?
- What's a lesbian?
- Have you ever had sex? If so, what does it feel like?
- Why do women want to be equal to men? Don't they know they're physically weaker?
- I'm in love with a boy, but he doesn't love me back. What should I do?
- What are the biological effects of being in love?
- I just have a comment: the correct name for a mother's first breastmilk is colostrum.