a good day

I am still wearing the red ribbon of the International AIDS day. Kids liked to make them and they look really nice. HIV/AIDS workshop went better than we expected. Marian was the greatest, smartest and he was helping with translation in Macedonian. Naum and Gjoko were making the biggest mess and noise, but they were in minority. Marija and Nikolja were also behaving nice and grown up (I am just writing it for myself to remember their names and what they were like).
In the beginning we made a name game and added their age, so to find out how old they actually are because Anja was scared that they are such kids when we entered the hall. However, they were all 12-13. Though Angela, Ana and Naum look for me like 7-8...
Then we showed the posters we accidentally got yesterday in ГТЦ while walking back from the language class. I told what is the difference between HIV and AIDS, how one can get HIV and how not. Sex is still a tabu topic here it seems. When I asked how you can get HIV, Marian said by blood. Yes, it is true. That is the most straightest way. But many people have it without mixing their blood. I noticed it also yesterday on Wikipedia in the Macedonian language - they mentioned only blood transfusion... Anyways they know about sex, too. Or know now.
The game with YES and NO on both sides of the room was working quite nice. Anja had translated the sentences from English in Macedonian and kids enjoyed walking and running from YES to NO and back.
In last 3 min we made the red ribbons and they left with the ribbons to school. Probably took them off before entering but that does not really matter.
The small kids were huggish and crazy as always. I got sick and sweaty running after them and twisting them around me while only holding their hands, and also pulling them by hands on the floor - cleaning it :)
They were drawing cards for Дедо Мраз/Dedo Mraz (Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas...Salatēvs, Дед Мороз) and writing what they would like from him (basketball ball, make-up, tetris...). When we were leaving (Anja took all their wishes and chards with her), one boy seriously asked what we are going to do with them and if we are going to give them to Dedo Mraz and if he will bring them these presents they wished for... They really do believe in this guy...
One of the small girls, she is a bit older really wanted me to explain what are those ribbons for (we made them also for the small kids because they also wanted such nice red ribbons). I told her that Anja can explain it better in Macedonian, but she did not want to hear it form Anja, but from me. So as good as I could I tried to explain that it is a disease many people have in the world and you can die from it, and you can get it from blood to blood or while having sex. I am not sure she got the sex part, but anyways... just raising awareness. First question when she saw the poster and us with the ribbons, and I told it is a disease, she asked if we have this disease.
Ok, must finish now and pack my back. I am taking the 17:00 bus to Prishtina.