Uncategorized

Ever wondered just how big the global AIDS problem is? Let’s see if we can give a little quantitative scope to this planet-wide pandemic. Right now, 34 million people are living with HIV. Most of them—22.9 million—are in Africa, the continent from which the disease originated. 9 African countries suffer from a prevalence rate greater than 10 percent. One in ten carries HIV. Of those 9 countries, 3 are especially devastated. Though South Africa has the greatest total number of victims in the world, with 5.6 million South Africans (17.8%) infected with HIV, 24.8% of Botswana’s population has the virus. Regionally, Southern Africa is the hottest hot spot, Eastern Africa [...]

July 4, 2012 The car horn gets me moving quickly and I grab my water bottle on my way out the door. Q and I are going a couple of hours away to conduct a chicken training to a group of grandma's who are caring for orphans. Along the way, we talk about many things: the role of women in Zimbabwean society, life during the colonial days, what sort of foods are eaten here which I haven't had yet (worms, field mice, etc), Hwange National Park, Victoria Falls, the price of food and how it is changing the face of poverty, Lassie, scary-looking dogs, etc, etc. We sit under an [...]

June 29, 2012 - Mahwanke, Zimbabwe     While Juju convinces Aiden that she can carry him like African women carry their babies, I prepare for a day in the field:       Water bottle. Snack. Sunglasses. Paper and pen. Camera. Toilet paper I am on the road again. This time, I am on my way to Mahwanke with Shungu (monitoring and evaluation guy) and Q to distribute 32 goats to some elderly Go-gos (grandmothers) in the middle of nowhere. We talk easily as now-familiar scenery flashes by the side windows of the car. I don't lift up my camera when a troop of baboons cross my path or [...]

One of the worst things about AIDS is that it’s not just a disease. It’s not just a biological phenomenon. It’s a degrading status symbol. Around the world, AIDS is associated with degenerate morality and shame. Once you have it, it becomes an unwanted social marker if you tell and a death sentence if you don’t—and all too often, it is both. The phrase ‘insult to injury’ could never has been more apt. HIV comes with a terrible weight on the victim’s shoulders—not just because knowing that something lethal lives inside you puts an ominous feeling in the pit of your stomach, but because you now have a humiliating social [...]

June 28, 2012 - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe     Cows in Riverbed     Water is such an immense issue, isn't it? Where I am right this instant, in Bulawayo, water is scarse. Not as scarse as outside of the city, though, where we drive by countless dry riverbeds, all full of sand and the hoofprints of horses and the footprints of other animals. I don't know where animals and people go to find water, but am told it can be 20 kilometers for a person to get water. When they arrive at the water hole, the creek bed, the borehole, the well, they take time to get their water and [...]

June 25, 2012 - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe     Incredible Rock Formations in Matopos       Jodi has left us and returned home. We will miss her, as she is kind, affable, knowledgeable, loving, and sweet. She also has so many talents! If she had stayed here all summer, she would not have run out of things she could teach and share with others. I do hope she will return one day soon, but this time, with Ed.       straw used for roofing         This morning I meet with folks from Forgotten Voices (an NGO from PA who also work here, but in a different [...]

Today is gorgeous. It is just me and the young ones - Aiden and Juju. Morgan is out with friends for a sleepover and Eric and Jodi are at another training. I have cleaned, washed clothes, fed four kids, played with the same kids, made potato salad for a bar-b-q we've been invited to tonight, caught up on some emails, and overall, had a busy morning. One thing that makes today gorgeous is that face that we have two little friends over - Jonathan is four and Anesu is eight. They belong to my friends Sugu and KC (I can't pronounce his given name) and their parents had something to [...]

June 21 - Mayezane, Zimbabwe From Eric Weaver     Jodi Teaching with Q     Today Jodi, Q and I went to a workshop in Mayezane, Zimbabwe. Mayezane is located about 2 ½ hours outside of Bulawayo. A third of the trip was on paved roads but the remaining 2/3 was on sandy dirt roads through a very arid area looking much like Nevada or southern Texas. (It totally amazes me how Q was able to find this place.) We arrived at a small school house where about 200 kids attend school, some of them walking up to 10 km to get there. This community, like many others in [...]

Around the turn of the century, a wave of activism combined with the generic production of AIDS-combating drugs significantly lowered the price of first-line treatment for HIV. Now, because the price of a standard antiretroviral (ARV) regimen hovers around $160 per person per year, the majority of AIDS victims around the world have access to this baseline version of ARV. This is an amazing reduction from the $10,000-15,000 range of the late 1990s. However, even the lowered price is prohibitively expensive for many developing countries, and unfortunately, international trade law still prevents a straightforward price reduction of ALL types of ARV. Second-line ARV drugs, developed after the less sophisticated first-line [...]

tran June 19, 2012 – Masvingo, Zimbabwe         Juju's lemon eyes       The morning starts at 5:30am, getting ready for a new adventure to give out sixty goats to children and their guardians. We pluck the kids out of bed while it is still dark and join Ncube, who is driving us. Boiled eggs, peanut butter sandwiches and water accompany us for the long trip ahead. Eric, Ncube and I are in charge of delivering, vaccinating and tagging the goats and I can’t wait. We arrive at a dusty, dry, forlorn, tiny grouping of houses and hear signing in the distance. Up ahead just a [...]