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Fadzayi Maposah, Correspondent
The college years have got to be among the best years of one`s life.
There is so much to learn and get to understand regarding life situations.
I went to college when I was just out of high school. I was young and did not have much responsibility. The major one was to take care of myself.
Taking care of myself was a package.
It meant I had to be responsible for attending lectures and doing all my schoolwork. I had to make sure that I ate well to remain healthy.
I went to the college canteen for all my meals. Back then when I went to college, all meals were paid for as part of the fees.
I am among the students that never missed their meals unless I was sick or was from college. I would make sure that I went to the canteen, especially to get a hot meal.
My years in boarding school had taught me that tuck was to supplement the meals that the educational institution provided, and not the other way around.
Boarding school also taught me that eating can also be just for survival, enjoyment is peripheral. I have also learnt that recipes differ, and what someone may cook and consider being good may not appeal to others. In addition, it is not easy cooking for many people, one has to have the requisite skills, or just be a natural cook.
When we were in college, we took time to study the canteen staff members.
We realised the levels of generosity varied, and that some staff members tended to suddenly have stiff hands when it came to serving meat!
They would be generous with the starch and restrict the portions of meat, and if you were quiet as they served you, they would flood your plate with gravy. I do not care much for gravy. I was affected by the flooded plates that I saw and had in college!
One thing that we did in college was to get information.
My classmates and I sought information.
The fact that we were journalism students increased our appetite for information.
When there was an expo on campus, we would be there, just to find it what the it was about, and what we could benefit from it.
We attended automotive expos. We picked up leaflets that we would later go through and at times become more confused after reading than we had been before! We attended food expos, tasting what companies had come to promote on campus.
As long as we had time, we would get the energy to attend an expo or a fair that was on campus.
My attendance was recorded by many expos during my college years and since back then and even now I give feedback on products and services, I am certain I have influenced services and products!
On Thursday, college memories came flooding as my organisation’s car drove into Mkoba Teachers College, in Gweru, the provincial capital of the Midlands Province.
I went back down memory lane. I was in a college set up. It was early morning and the students were coming from the canteen for their breakfast.
Just like when I was in college, they were in small groups, probably groups of people with similar interests. We did the same back then! What has changed is the time but some things have remained the same. Young people still behave like young people.
The teachers’ college was the venue for the commemorations of the World Contraception Day held under the theme “Contraception; It’s your life, it’s your responsibility.”
There were tents and booths set up near the open hall where the official programme was held.
Going around the booths and tents, the students and members of the community engaged service providers to get information, services and also participate in quiz competitions and stand a chance to walk away with promotional material that would continue to remind them of the commemoration.
Some of the questions that were asked by the students and members of the community that attended the event is testimony that although as a country we have made great strides in reproductive health and specifically family planning services, there is still need to dispel myths and misconceptions regarding contraception.
There are people who strongly believe that when a woman takes a contraceptive, it releases something into her body that will weaken the man she has sexual intercourse with.
As a result, some men may not encourage their partners to use contraception.
I will also not support contraception if I was a man and that was one of the effects of having a partner on contraception. Let me dispel that myth.
There is no contraceptive that weakens a man sexually.
There are no contraceptives that have such side effects. Even if a man has to undergo vasectomy, he will not have his virility weakened.
A man can continue to have sexual relations and if there are changes, there could be underlying conditions unrelated to contraception that only medical tests can verify.
From my interactions with men, I have realised that they take seriously their ability to perform sexually and anything that can stop them from realising that is not entertained!
Male students and male community members who were in the minority as females dominated attendance at the commemoration need to be actively involved in reproductive health programmes and champion the contraception cause with full information.
As the theme says, it is your life and responsibility to access contraception.
One should never access a service without full information. Students in tertiary institutions are a key population for contraception as they are from diverse subgroups.
Some are not yet ready to have children. Others are married and have put on hold having children till they complete their studies, while others already have the children they want.
Online Reporter