Appendix 3: Questi onnaire for fem ale Basotho teachers
Understanding adolescent sexuality in the memories of four female
Basotho teachers: An auto/biographical study
Task: Please respond to the following questions on the spaces provided. If your response needs more space, please feel free to use the back of the page and indicate the question number. There is no right or wrong answer, so feel free to express yourself.
Questions
1. I am a 16year old girl and have been masturbating regularly for a couple of years now. I like masturbatinga lot, but I think I want to stop. Should I stop?
2. I am 16 year old girl,and I don't actually know what oral sex is. What falls under that category? My boyfriend asked me if I will have oral sex with him,but I don't know,how or what it is! Can 1get HIVfrom oral sex?
3. I am an 18 year old,attractive African woman, and many guys are dying to go out with me. The problem is that I am gay. I've been living a lie in fear of being rejected by my famil y, but now I feel it's time to come out of the closet. I've dated som e boysin order to cover up the truth,but I havenever enjoyed it,and the relationshipsdidn't last. How do I break the news to my family?
4. I'm 15 years old and have been going out with my boyfriend for six months. We love each other very much and he says he doesn't mind waiting until I'm ready to have sex.But often when we're making out he wants to take things a lot further. I don't know if I'm ready to go there yet, because I'm still a virgin. I don't like saying 'no ' to him, but I'm not sure if I want to or not. Please tell me how I can handle this!
5. I am 18 years old and I am ready for sex. I' ve talked to my partn er. We are very open about when the time is right and birth control. The only thing I am afraid of is the pain. I'm afraid it will hurt too much. When he has touched me ithurt a bit, but it was a good pain. Also, we are both virgins, so how will we know where to
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place the penis? How will we be able to tell the urethra openin g from the vagina l opening?
6. My boy friend went to work in Johanne sburg three months ago and since his return, he has told me that my vag ina is not the same anymorc. He suspec ts that I chea ted on him. He said somet hing has changed and it feels as if my vagina is very loo se, witho utany elastici tywhen he penetrates me. I have used ice cubes in it to make it sma ller. I am just not happ y with the way my boyfri end look s atme after we have had sex. What can I do?
7. Iam curio us to know. If I have vaginal intercourse in a pool, Jacuzzi or bathtub, will the sperm die when it comes into contact with water? Am I safe from HIV and pregn ancy when havingunprot ect ed sex 'underwater'?
8. My ex-boyfriend and
r
are sexually active and he uses the withdrawal method becau se we don' t use condo ms. I am also not on the pill or any form of birth control. The last time we had sex, he didn 't pull out his penis. What are the cha nces of me bein gpregn ant ?When mustI take apregn an cytest?9. How commo n is this phenom enon of female 'wet dream s ' ? My boyfri end says he' s neve r heard of it, but I'm sure I've talked to a coupleof my girlfriends about it over the years, and they' ve said they have expe rienced them too. Any statistic s on this?
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Appendix 4: Guide for memor y writing exercise
Understanding adolescent sexuality in the memories of four female Basotho teachers: An auto/biographical study
Memory guide
• Looking back at your lifeas an adolescent schoo lgirl, can you please recall any part icul ar episod es or events pert ainin g to your sex uality that caused a shin orchan ge in your life?
• Please write about one such incidence which you consider a life changing exp erien ce for you, in as much detail as possible. Do not worry abo u t spe lli ng and gramm atical mistake s. Just write what com es to mind as it comes.Write your story in the first person . When you feel you have writt en all there is, then re-write your story in the third perso n using your name or apseud on ym .
• What impact do you think this part icular experience has had on your life and on your teachersel f?
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Appendix5: Guid eforfocu s group discussions with fem ale Basothoteachers
Understanding adolescent sexuality in the memories of four female Basotho teachers: An auto/biographical study
Focus group discussion guide
(forthreedifferentmeetings)Session 1(First meeting)
Greet theparticipants and use an icebr eakerto initiateconversation.Thensay:
Let us talk about our experiences of growing as 8asoth o girls. Specifically, would likeusto talk about our ado lescent sexual experiences gene rallysuch as:
• Menstr uation
• Bod ychangesincludingpulling of theinnerlabia
• Boyfriend sand sex ual debut
• Expectatio nsfrom the society and the church Start the discussion byrevealin g your memories.
Session 2 (Second meetin g)
Use the memory accounts written in the third person to guide discussion during this session. Particip ants should have read the different accounts so that they can talk about the different experiences recorded in the memory accounts. Start with your reflection on these experiences.
Session3 (Third meeting)
Use the respon ses from the questionn aire to guide discussions around how the part icip ants feel their ado lescent sexual experiences have influenced the way they have responde d to the question s. Lead the discussion to how participant s would react if the same question swere raised intheir classroom s.
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Appendix 6: Sample transcript
R: You can start at any point ofyour adolescence: any memory is fine by me.
P: I had my first menstrual period when I was thi rt een, I was at home when it happened and I got very excited because my friends at school already had it. I told my mother "Mom, I am bleeding..." My mother bought me some pads and then said to me "Now that you are bleeding you will have a child if you sleep with boys ... " That is all she said. You know I had wanted to get my periods long before.When we were at school we would ask a friend who was having a period to smear our panties with her blood so that we could also show others that we were doing it.
R: Really ? You did that?
P: Yes! We wanted to be grown up too. At school we were never told about menstruation and what it implied to us as girls.It was only when we got to form C that we were taught about puberty and secondary sexual characteristics. I remember that we used to do our washing at the river. This where I learnt about pulling the things, you know!One older girl would show the younger ones how to do it.She asked us to sit in pairs,while we waited few our washing to dry, so that we could pull each other. I hated having to pull somebody down there. It was yucky and I decided that I would always run away from the liver after the washing. I did not understand why we had to pull those things, and even now I am not sure what the real importan ce is. Istopped goin g to the river when Iwent to high school and I never pulled after that, but my husband has never complained.
Peoplesay that thepulling gives a man pleasure but isit true? The'bean' (clitoris) gets smaller when you do the pulling.
R: That isreally interesting! I never heard of peoplepulling each other!
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P: That is what we did.Maybe it helped because when youpull each other you apply a lot of force and make them grow longer. When I was in high school that iswhen I had my first boyfriend. I had a crush on him. I loved seeing him and greeting him. Maybe he proposed me becausehe saw that I loved him. I was happy when he eventually proposed. I remember the day he kissed me. That was my first kiss.
I was so happ ythat day. I do not remember whether I enjoyed it or not,but I was very happy and excited that 1 had kissed a boy.
R: Did you have any mummies or babies? I know that I had a very crazy mummy whowanted to kiss me all thetime.
P: The high school I went to was a boarding school, so there were many of those.
The mummies would be the older girls who already knew about the rules of the school and they would choose some younger girls who just arrived to be their babies. This helped the young girls becau se they could get protection from bullying through their mummies. The payment for the protection was that the babie s had to do some chore and run errands for the mummies. Sometimes you would find that the mummies and babies sleep together. I am not sure how far the sleeping togeth er went. I never slept with my mummy, but we kissed a lot.
Sometimes she would touch me all over and I would be scared. In my mind,such kind oftouchingwasonlypermissiblebetween a boy and agirl.
R: What kind of clothingwasin fashion then?
P: Trousers were not in fashion then. If one wore pants or short skirts they were labelled as awhore who wantsto impressboys. Only a few individualswore tight pants or short skirts. Wewould sit around in groups and start talking about other girls and their boyfriends, those who were having sex, those who have started menstruating and those who were still virgins. 1 Iearnt a lot from these discussions.I always pretend ed that I knew what hey were talking about because I was afraid of letting them know that I wasstill a virgin. I remember that in ford D we were taught about sexually transmitted diseases,but not much was said about HIV and AIDS. Even the media then did not cover a lot on HIV and AIDS. I read
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