You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. Oh, the raging of many nations— they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples— they roar like the roaring of great waters!
I'm worn out. Keeping track of all of this is wearing thin on me. On Friday, we went to an AIDS clinic to meet with HIV+ victims and to learn more about AIDS. To be honest, there wasn't too much new material for us considering in America we have a lot of education on AIDS in school, however we weren't too pretentious to say we knew everything otherwise we would have a cure. Granted, there are some pieces to how you get AIDS that are not being near as discussed as it was eight years ago. In Africa, they were a little more blunt about things. The statistics are showing that the number of people being infected is decreasing due to being educated about the disease but there are many people who are still not facing the disease as a reality and many are not getting medical attention. Many believe that it is just a rumor and that AIDS doesn't really exist.
Poverty has a big part in the disease. People that are in poverty are being abused, not just in Africa but all around the world. When you're in poverty you have tough decisions to make in order to keep food on the table. It's not surprising that many people have to end up selling their self for a loaf of bread, and yes more women are exploited from this disease than men, both because of status and the female body is more likely to contract the disease.
Also, a pregnant mother carrying the disease will most likely pass to the child; I believe there is a way from preventing this. Women then are left in the streets with their baby and must defend both lives for herself. Some women end up having to give up the child-- for whatever reason. Not to mention, that rape, child molestation, and incest happen more frequently in areas where people are uneducated. This problem is happening everywhere in the world and not just Africa. In some Native American reservations, sex is a large part of social status so incest is extremely common which causes a plethora of physical and mental problems. Education on sex is important, without it people tend to make up their own rules and the door to disease is opened to a greater extent, and it becomes harder to close.
Unfortunately, people in poverty are at a greater risk of coming in contact with this disease and it is much harder to afford or to obtain the medical attention needed to fight HIV so that it does not become AIDS. There is not a cure for it at this point, but there are drugs that can help a person live and stay HIV+ for a number of years instead of going straight into AIDS. A person can live a long time just as HIV+ if they have the appropriate medical attention. By getting involved with more HIV it will infect the person more and decrease the time between having HIV and AIDS.
In America AIDS is spread mainly from the age group of 16-25. We are taught about AIDS and other STDs, however many people just don't think it will happen to them. They continue to have sex with various people, without even knowing the history of their partners, and suddenly they have an STD. One of the most dangerous pools to be in is the homosexual crowd. You must understand that there's a few reasons for that; the big reason is: there are still high levels of promiscuity that are being reported in this community. I'm not going to go into this particular subject anymore here.I generally hear more and more ridiculous things about sex and how to prevent getting STDs and how to prevent being pregnant. First off, the pill is not 100% bullet proof. It can also cause strange problems in the female body, but that's understandable considering what it does. I would say it is one of the better products in preventing pregnancy but depending on the brand you can seriously put your menstrual cycle in jeopardy-- and more reports are coming out about female contraception devices that insight gender bending. The pill is much more widely debated than I had previously thought. Not until recently I learned that several churches frown upon the pill. As for condoms, last I heard they're only 80% safe and definitely not a shield against STDs. 80% is not that high and anyone who knows a little about statistics would find that 20% is a huge opportunity for something you may not have planned on having. As for any of the other medical products you can use, I believe they are significantly less protective and that's why we don't hear about them as often-- unless maybe they are extremely expensive.
Many teenagers have sex early because it is their "first love" and they don't expect that they will break up; they also are curious about sex because there is so much hype about sex in every medium. Plus, there is a ton of pressure to have sex from peers, especially boys. In my high school, the more nerdy, educated students were less likely to have sex. However, today's nerd is not what it used to be. There were still plenty of people in my AP classes that I knew were doing pretty crazy things; there was one who was already going to strip clubs-- he must have had an incredible fake ID. Actually, there were a few students who did that. There was one girl who told me she wanted to be a stripper when she grew up, and she meant it. Where do freshmen in high school come up with this stuff? It just seems sad to me to be so young and be exploited by sex when you could be beginning to blossom with your talents. None of these students were stupid, but they thought they were above the law or the disease, or they were bored and were looking for some entertainment. I don't think they really saw that it could happen to them or their bodies. In middle school, there were girls who were pregnant-- these were sixth and seventh graders.
Teenagers are just reckless. They mature from being children-- who we hope are filled with innocence-- to being responsible adults. The transition isn't made easy. Many teenagers and even twenty years olds have not grasped that they are mortal and that death is at every corner so they do irresponsible things because they perceive that they are invincible. It doesn't matter how many slideshows there are on STDs or drugs; they think they can say no later. Which is one of the biggest problems with being human. We think we have plenty of time when we only have a few precious amount of minutes. If we see later as now then we will say no to more things because we are approaching the bigger picture.
The first thing teenagers need to learn is that they are of value and the more that they see their self as fragile value they are more likely to care for their self. As well, they need to have friends, but also be independent of them so that they don't fall to peer pressure. They need things to do to keep them preoccupied from all the stupid things they could be doing, also it is better to keep them from being bored. They should be allowed to make their own decisions otherwise they may become defiant and do as they please and experiment rather than take advice. They need to be encouraged more than discouraged, but their head doesn't need to inflate to a drastic size. They need constructive criticism that is sensitive and not a personal attack. They need privacy, and they need facts. They need your trust so they don't have to experiment their selves.
In some cases AIDS is a choice. If you know all the facts and you have the choice of whether or not you want sex then you are actively making the decision whether or not you want to risk having the disease. AIDS isn't the only sexually transmitted disease either. But why risk having this disease to begin with? It should be one of the easiest ones to avoid. Unlike certain cancers and diabetes, AIDS should be much easier to extinguish from this world. And as for diabetes, there's some compounding factors there as well that are similar to the ones shaping AIDS. Part of it is a compulsive addictive behavior and part of it is depression or seeing one's self of less value and not caring. But diabetes can be hereditary. If we care more, we will do less harm to ourselves. Health is optimum and is not near as addressed as it should be.
It would be better to never have to fight the disease at all.While we were at the HIV clinic, what was astounding were the people that were willing to share their testimony with us. Most people with HIV are shunned from their community; it is similar to leprosy in the Bible. Families will disown you and people will flat out not want to touch you. Somehow everyone will know that you have the disease. Children at school won't play with you because they know you have the disease. Considering the severity of HIV, losing this kind of support can be detrimental.
In our session, we broke into smaller groups so we could talk with some of the HIV patients. In my group, there was a woman named Mary and also a woman with her baby. Mary was strong on the issue; it was almost like HIV made her care more about people and that she was trying to wake up her neighbors. Both of these women were facing poverty and came into one of the myriad of situations that cause it. They gave us some more insight on the disease and told us about how they were living in spite of it. At the end, our groups rejoined to discuss what we had learned from each other.
For a demonstration, they showed that by widening the amount of education we could build a wider bridge to cross in preventing ourselves from HIV. At the end, we handed various foods to the HIV victims. I believe that in every bag there was ugali which is a staple starch component that can be used several times. It is generally made from maize flour (or ground maize) and water, and varies in consistency from porridge to a dough-like substance. When ugali is made from another starch, it is usually given a specific regional name. Ugali, even though I got in trouble for calling it this, reminded me of playgdough but it was a lot better tasting-- I had to make edible playdough in elementary school.
Mary, from our group, was happy to tell her story to us and the team. She asked those that she shared her story with to always remember her.We then headed for an HIV testing clinic. The traffic was exceedingly heavy at this point. I can't remember how long it took us to get there. Most people were sleeping on the Matatu. I was sitting up front with Eric and we were making jokes and I was somewhat tired-- this trip was taking my energy away at every second. It was a lot of stop and go traffic, so I had the pleasure of seeing more vendors come to our bus to try and sell us various items. I still found the world maps that they were trying to sell pretty humorous.
Jenny made a brilliant comment about the maps and how it was like they were trying to help you find where you were in the world because you may be lost in traffic. There were also people trying to sell watches, exercise equipment, oranges, batteries, animal statues, and DVDs. On Eric's cellphone it randomly flashed "Everlasting Father." Which wasn't all that unusual except with the time and company it read something like "Safaricom 13:21 Everlasting Father." I said that sounded peculiarly like a Bible verse. And for some reason that was funny and quoted throughout the rest of the trip. Later, we would try to look it up to see if we could find any matches. (By looking up, I mean looking at the 13th chapter of every book in the Bible and see if in verse 21 it mentions "everlasting.")
During the entirely too long road trip to the other half of our HIV lesson, I took a picture of one of the Matatu's we rode in throughout the week. Unlike our vehicles in America, their's had lots of exciting flare, like this Condoleezza Rice van. They were heavily decorated. There was one Matatu that was covered in alien propaganda messages with crazy paint and flashing lights. Also, our worst Matatu experience was in one that was covered in Ohio State flare. I found this all to be entertaining-- maybe they were trying to make traffic a more enjoyable experience.We finally arrived at the clinic, and we were served a hearty meal-- meat, rice, cabbage, and chapatis. Chapatis were flat unleavened bread, and were more delicious each time I had it. After lunch they began taking volunteers for the HIV test. If you had wanted to you could see what it's like to go through the HIV test which is a series of questions and a finger pricking to sample your blood. I didn't feel comfortable about this for a variety of reasons so I opted out. We were at the clinic for a long time getting tests done.
A few of us played Frisbee while we waited. For whatever reason, playing Frisbee in Africa was just too surreal. It was like that day was a blurred dream. In fact, it is hard to go through this trip and realize that I was there and I did do all of these things.
That, and in each of these posts I've only told a fragment of all that happened while I was there and all the thoughts I had. I could write about this for centuries and still never finish the volume of things that happened while I was there. And that's amazing considering it was a little more than two weeks of my life, but those days were pivotal to my life and I've only just begun to see how.
And now, before I move to the next part of this unbelievable trip I would like you to take a moment to think about those that are suffering from HIV and AIDS throughout the world and to look at some of the faces who are struggling with this terrible disease. Please take a moment to think about them, their families, and what it would be like to be in their shoes. I also ask that you pray for them continually.
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"
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