When I was in Peace Corp I was assigned to help out with the local chapter of the International Red Cross / Red Crescent.

At one point in my service I worked with the HIV prevention taskforce, who focused on what internationally were considered “high risk” populations - men who have sex with men (most experts note there are men, such as prisoners, who will still engage in sexual behavior but may still identify as straight so this is the official umbrella term) / youth, particularly those without access to safe sex education / and sex workers.

Working with this team led to some of the most amazing experiences of my entire volunteering time:

- I attended a secret gay pride party, complete with pole dancers and drag queens

- I visited a local men’s prison which was a converted kindergarten complete with a graveyard of children’s playground equipment outside

- I received donated wooden penis models in an amusing variety of shapes/sizes, to train local Red Cross chapters on how to use them in condom demonstrations

- I watched high school students go out into their community between training sessions to buy a condom, then come back to talk about their experiences (even my high school never did this kind of training - and holy hells is it effective)

- I traveled to the border to meet with sex workers, led by an Australian sex worker activist/consultant (absolutely the most amazing person I met my entire time in service), in order to engage and support community-driven prevention initiatives, while providing empathy training for local officials

While overall my time abroad had many down’s compared to up’s, these were the high points of my service. The local HIV prevention team I worked with were incredible people, all inspired to do better with whatever resources they had. I learned a lot about activism, public health, and breaking down barriers.

I also learned interesting phrases my fellow volunteers did not, including my favorite which roughly translated to “Hi, my name’s Wild Kitten, I’m a Russian sex worker.”

A friend and I worked at a shrimp factory once right after we graduated from high school. Being Black and living in Mississippi, the chances of getting a good job right out of high school was next to zero. We were desperate for spending money so we decided to give the local shrimp factory a try. You didn't have to fill out any paperwork to work at the shrimp factory. All you had to do was show up and they would give you a tin bucket that you were expected to fill with de-headed shrimp. You had to stand up on a platform where you could grab the shrimp as they passed by on a conveyor belt. You got paid by the bucket so the faster you were able to grab a handful of shrimp and snap the heads off, the quicker you filled your bucket. The more buckets you filled, the higher your tally was at the end of the day. At fifty-cents a bucket, you had to do some serious head-snapping to make some good pocket change.

Well, my friend and I only lasted a couple of days. We decided that pocket change was not worth smelling like a fish house every day and our fingers were pricked and sore from shrimp shells. Not to mention that I only made a little other a dollar each day. I would have to be a shrimp de-heading fool to make five bucks a day!

Whenever I think back on when I worked at the shrimp factory, I cannot help but laugh my head off. Thank goodness both me and my friend went on to furhter our education and had good careers. But that was indeed my strangest and funniest job ever.

“Being someone’s luggage”

daddy dearest only saw and treated me like I was simply a possession... his luggage.

He called me “The Apple of his eye” whatever that means

When we didn’t live in the car. He would toss me on the bed when the men would bring him his drugs and tell me to “lay down and take it”

He would wake me in the middle of the night, yank me out of bed by the arm, unmake my bed then yell at me demanding I remake it until he could pop a quarter on it. Then telling me “now get in bed. You made your bed now lay in it”

the strangest/oddest/freakie job I’ve ever done is being that sick man’s “daughter”

Daily beatings until I bled, kicking me in the face with his boot making me tumble backwards down the stairs. Locking me in the cellar, closet anything with a lid. Including the luggage!

Having to lay there and take it while the disgusting men do their dirty little deeds to me at the age of theee and four, for their sexual pleasure! Yes daddy dearest loved his drugs more’

and just think I had to do that job for free!!! No pay!!!

if you think that isn’t or wasn’t a JOB you are sadly mistakin!

being a mom is a job being a dad is a job!!! how can you think being an abused child having to endure such hatred isn’t a JOB?

you just probably haven’t looked at it like that.

not my only “bad” job either.

I was told just last week Iam an orphan. My mother died during childbirth and she was raped. Father unknown. I just found out I was taken!

I wasn’t even his “daughter”

made my job ever HARDER!

Athena

The final exam. We sat in rows at the college staring at the dots (the answer sheet). All our nerves were on edge because to fail this test meant we would not get to be a nurse. Silence filled the room.

Lilly fell to the floor right next to me! She curled and shook. Her legs hit my chair. Gasps, "Oh my Gods!" and furniture scooting away ensued. Lilly was foaming at the mouth. Her eyes rolled up and she was turning blue.

The instructor and I held her until she stopped. She'd peed on the floor.

Lilly got back into her chair and we became nurses.

This is something that happened to me a couple of years ago when I was in marching band in high school. It was at band camp and for it we usually go to a university and stay there for the week to practice. There was one moment that stood out in particular and that was when one of the boys in the boys dorms started putting someone else’s condoms on people’s doorknobs including the door to my room. The condoms supposedly belonged to a gay boy who was in the band and it made me suspicious as to why he took condoms to band camp. In the end it made me feel uncomfortable for the most part and is kinda etched into my memory.

When I was in mddle school I had very specific expectations for how my life was supposed to play out. I was going to go to college for teaching, move to marthas vineyard or somewhere equally dull and marry a man. I would wait to have sex until marriage. I wouldnt drink until I was 21, maybe not even then, and I would never ever do drugs. I would become a mother and a dutifull wife. I would be perfect. My life would be perfect.

But then I got to highschool and all of that kind of went to shit.

I went a little off the rails. I realized how fun it was to drink and smoke weed and pop the occasional pill. I lost my virginity, got my heart broken, and started actually living my life But every time I broke a rule new ones would pop up - ones that I thought would preserve my purity. One of my hard rules was that no matter what I would never ever have sex in public.

But then I did.

I had known him since first grade and while I was a budding delinquent he had been the poster child for a parent eye-roll since middle school. It was spur of the moment, he teted me and asked me if I wanted to have sex. I said yes. He said to mee him in thr stairwell, so I did. We had sex right there.

So few people know it happened but it did and it will remain, in my head, one of the stragnest times I ever broke a rule, one of the best 5 minute periods in my life, and the moment I decided that the me I wanted to be in middle school kind of sucked.