hard at work (written Jan 9)

This week (the week of Jan 10-14) will be a busy one for me*. The village baby weighing Monday, yay babies! I’m helping another PCV with an HIV/AIDS workshop for the next 2 weeks. I’ll be conducting a review session at the end of each day consisting of Q&As and a truth or myth presentation. I’ve also organized a communal workday on market day for the village to mold 500 of the local bricks. With the bricks, we’ll make two bathhouses and a latrine for the nurse I’ve been working to get in the village. My original goal for having the clinic open was January, now I’ll be lucky if we’re open by March. I also will be meeting with the District’s new Medical Director to discuss ideas and goals for the district. I’m looking forward to seeing whether we have similar ambitions. I’m also working on making another garden off the back of our house. It will be a model garden for the clans in the village who want to have a Moringa garden. I’m planning to get funding for enough bamboo for a garden large enough for 40-50 trees for each clan to have a Moringa garden. Kris and I will make our own for reference.

We’ve been at site about 5 months and in Ghana about 7 months and I can tell the rest of our time here will fly by. Kris and I are slowly becoming known for our cooking and baking skills. It’s a pain for other volunteers to travel to our site for a visit, but with mango bread, fresh cow milk and chili, they might keep coming back, I hope so, we love visitors. I keep saying this, but the days do go by slowly, but the months seem to fly by. Before I know it, it’ll be June and there will be some new Peace Corps Trainees in Ghana, I won’t be new anymore, I’ll be one of those older, wiser, tougher and unshakable volunteers. I hope you all are enjoying the New Year. I know it’s cold back home, quit complaining and come visit me! I promise you won’t need to bring more than t-shirts and shorts; you won’t need a sweater like me.

*(written January 12) Lesson learned, don’t overextend yourself. As some of you know, I got dysentery this week. It was not planned into my busy schedule, yet overtook all of my plans. Let’s just say I didn’t think 20 trips to the latrine in one day was possible, especially with no food in ones stomach. I am now into day 3/3 of antibiotics and think I’m beginning to feeling better. I doubt I’ll be at full strength for awhile, but will do my best to take it easy and return to normal. I’m starting to eat again and have been trying my best to replace fluids in greater amounts than they are lost, seemingly impossible without an IV. Kris is holding up his part of the sickness/health bargain (once again). Even though it seems like I’ve been a magnet for illness, I’d rather it be me than him, I’m perfectly fine distracting myself from feeling sick by watching endless amounts of TV shows whereas he’s not quite as patient. Thanks for all of the thoughts, concern, and prayers. I have an amazing support system back home and couldn’t do any of this without you.

For those already affected...

And for those already affected by HIV/AIDS, i.e. infected, here's an article from Doctors Without Borders with some bad news regarding treatment of HIV in developing areas of the world (i.e. those areas in which people cannot afford the $10,000 a year cost for antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), not to mention the millions of dollars (billions?) to find a cure for HIV).

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=4887&cat=press-release

World AIDS Day

How did you celebrate World AIDS Day?

I decided that instead of teaching mathematics to my students I would instead talk about and have an informal question and answer session on HIV and AIDS.  I was pleasantly surprised with their knowledge of the disease; they were able to identify the three major ways it is transmitted, how it affects the body (one student answered “it takes away your body’s ‘soldiers’” – he was speaking of antibodies), and how to prevent transmission.  However, they were overly fascinated with transmission by blood (i.e. blood to blood contact), and asked a million questions about it.  Everything from, “If I use sandals that an infected person has used if they have a wound on their toe” to “if a barber is cutting hair with a razor blade and accidentally cuts your scalp.”  I had to keep reminding them that only a small fraction of people get HIV this way, and that the majority get it from unprotected sex.  I also asked how they would treat a person they knew was infected with HIV, and their answers were terrifying.  One told me he would kill the infected person, so that they could not spread the disease further.  Another said he would try to convince the person to commit suicide, for the same reason.  A more compassionate student said they would encourage the person to seek help from the hospital to get the ARV medicines so they can live better.  In general they were afraid of the thought of being around someone with HIV.  I suggested that because it is so hard to know if a person has HIV, and there are so many activities you can do with that person and not be at risk of getting HIV, why not just treat them normally, as you would any other person?  I also emphasized that because the only way to know if you have HIV is to get tested, they should be proud of getting a test done, instead of embarrassed.  HIV is increasingly more prevalent in Ghana by the day, so why not brag that you have been tested and you’re negative?  And for the girls, I told them to not believe a man when he says he is negative but “lost the test results.”  No results, no sex.  The boys laughed at this, but I think the girls for a moment saw their opportunity to assert themselves and control their destiny (which doesn’t happen often in this culture).

So the question stands: what have you done for World AIDS Day today?  Now I know you could go out and buy a new Project Red iPod, and that would fund AIDS relief…somehow (I’m not sure about the details).  You could even give money more directly to aid organizations working on AIDS relief and prevention of HIV.  Honestly the most important thing I think you can do is educate.  Otherwise HIV will continue to spread like wildfire.  In the states everybody knows about AIDS and HIV.  Here, I would venture a guess that people get it before they have even heard about it. Not all get it because they are promiscuous.  Some even thought they were being smart and asked their partner, but were lied to; still others simply don’t know how to use a condom properly.  If everyone were equipped with this knowledge, HIV wouldn’t stand a chance.