The week began with me popping to the shop to buy some tampons little did I realise this would turn into a epic hunt. After visiting several different types of shops and scanning wall upon wall of sanitary pads I realised I had not done my research properly before leaving the UK.
You may wonder why I am sharing all this information on my blog. Well I apologise to those of you who know me and read the blog to keep up to date on our travels (sorry Dad I'm sure you have no desire to read about tampons in South America) but in case anyone who doesn't know me stumbles across my page when searching for South American information I feel it is my duty to fill you in about the feminine product situation!
So I went on the Internet and did some research and found this very interesting webpage called lipgloss and a backpack which I then felt I needed to share with Sam, Alison, Natalie and Hannah while having a rant over text message! The website lists many countries and their tampon situation.
The hunt for tampons had not been a problem until now as I had squashed around 30 into a sandwich bag back in July when I left the UK, much to the amusement of many of my friends who said 'don't pack that many, just buy them out there!' Oh how easy they thought that would be!
So, as my research had informed me that although they were uncommon they were not impossible to find I set myself a mission to visit every shop in town. After several shops I was about the give up when I spotted a little packet hidden amongst the hundreds of nappies and towels! I picked it up and sure enough it was the treasure I had been looking for!!! As I looked beyond where I had lifted the packet, I saw that my initial concerns were confirmed, it was the only packet and contained 8! Yes ladies it had 8 tampons in!!!! To top the whole thing off it cost 3 times the amount of a pack of 20 in the UK!
So fingers crossed that I have more luck in Bolivia, Peru and Columbia but somehow I doubt that is going to be the case.
It's funny but I have forgotten on many occasions that I am not in or near the UK and that I am in South America. When I am sharing a meal, sharing drinks, chatting to my friends, going to the supermarket I sometimes forget how far I am from what I know and how unappreciative I can be of the small things that i take for granted back home. If I forget to pack a tampon at work I just pop down to Alison and Lynn in Welfare and they sort me out, whereas here it's been an ordeal. The same is true of human rights and laws that I just take for granted at home.
I have had two really interesting conversations linking to my life as an RS geek. Firstly we have been in Chile for over a month and only just realised that abortion is illegal here and the abortion law is one of the most restrictive in the world, however the morning after pill is legal. I found this quite controversial in itself because if the law is in place because the belief is that life begins at conception and if that is the view of the majority of the country then I can see why abortion is illegal however the morning after pill works up to 72 hours after conception so I find this interesting that it is legal.
The penalty for seeking an abortion is 3-5 years in prison and abortion is not allowed even in cases where the mothers life is at risk! When I am in my classroom back home talking about why abortion exists and the views of pro life and pro choice I forget that for some countries there is no choice!
Another issue that I got into an interesting conversation about is homosexuality within Chile. I was chatting to a guy who is in a homosexual relationship about how currently they are trying to get a law passed in Chile for legal recognition for same sex couples. Homosexuality has been legal since 1998 but the age of consent is still unequal with the age being 18 for a homosexual couple and much lower at 14 for a heterosexual couple. We got on to discussing gay marriage and he said he doesn't know if he wants to get married but would like the choice to be there for others and for his future if he decides he wants to go down the marriage route.
Paulina (one of our friends here who is also a lawyer) told me a story about a couple who were in a custody battle in 2003 over their children after their marriage had dissolved. The father argued that the children could not live with the mother as she was a lesbian and was living with her partner and that the environment was not good for a child and could lead to bullying! The court ruled in his favour. The mother did not let the decision stop there but even after several appeals the court still ruled in favour of the father due to the mothers sexual orientation. Luckily the mother put her case forward to the international court of human rights and finally won custody of her children.
It has really made me think about rights and how quickly I teach about what rights we have when I am in the classroom. I get the students to memorise the declaration of human rights as if it is accepted worldwide that all humans have the right to them when the truth is they do not. It doesn't matter how many case studies or facts I look at in my classroom at home the last week has definitely made me think in real life terms about the rights that others don't have and the choices that I openly debate with my students that in some countries are not choices at all.