| I have just a few minutes to let everyone know that I am ok. I will be posting more completely from Mbabane when we travel there next week. Swaziland is a beautiful country but the poverty and illness here are unimaginable. The majority of homes do not have electricity or water- the latter is fetched at a community tap or at the river. There is significant denial about HIV/AIDS. Everyone knows about the issue but no one is willing to admit anyone is dying from AIDS-related illnesses. There is significant death here and we are only at the beginning of this tragedy. 40% of the adult population (over 15) is infected and we currently have 60,000 orphans. People go without so much that we take for granted-vegetables, protein, decent clothing, and water, blessed water. My homestay family while in training is amazing. They are pretty well off in that they have electricity (no water) and a nice home. But with 6 children, one piece of chicken will feed two and it is rare to get that. Starches are the mainstay- mostly a porridge made of cornmeal. It costs money to send the kids to primary and secondary school and most of the family's money goes for that. The father works in South Africa in the mines and only gets home for a weekend every three weeks or so. There is much to tell you all but it will have to wait until I have more access next week. Most of us have gotten sick, but nothing serious. 5 trainees have already left, for various reasons, wo we are 29 now. I am able to keep up with my yoga and the kids love to practice with me when I do my practice outside. I think of you all but am in the right place. Nothing is more important than what we are doing now. Here even small efforts can change many lives. Peace. Namaste. Alyson |
November 7, 2004
I have so much to write about and insufficient time right now to do so. Training is moving along at a fast pace- we are already about or more than half way through our pre-service program. The language has proven challenging for many of us, but we seem to be picking up bits and pieces. Language acquisition is made more difficult by the fact that most of our host families speak English and love to practice their English skills. This may not be the case when we move to our sites in the southern part of the country and we are all feeling a real urgency about improving our SiSwati. Last week each of us spent a few days at a current volunteer’s site to give us a taste of what volunteer life is like. I think we were all encouraged by our experience. Caitlin and I stayed with Salina, a beautiful black woman from Oakland who stands about 6’2” and exudes power and energy. She has her own very unique style here and is well loved by her community. She lives in a round adobe brick hut with a grass roof, very traditional, with no water or electricity. She holds a life skills class once a week for 30+ young men from the local soccer team during which time they discuss any number of issues, many of which involve HIV prevention/education. She has also been struggling to find funds to keep some local orphans at school- out of school youth are at the highest risk of contracting, and subsequently spreading, HIV. The government has agreed to provide the funds for the staggering and increasing number of Swazi orphans but the funds are not getting to the schools and alternative sources are not plentiful or reliable.
Last week we visited a site that is dedicated to training traditional Swazi healers. We sat and spoke with the gogo that heads up the center and she answered many of our questions. She believes that many illnesses are caused by bad spirits and by people who cast bad spirits, but she seems to be relatively well informed about HIV/AIDS and does not claim to be able to cure the disease (many Swazi traditional healers lay claim to cures for AIDS). Many Swazi people use traditional healers who may be well-placed to address some of the symptoms of the opportunistic diseases associated with HIV and it is the hope of the Peace Corps here that we can establish liaisons with this important group in order to better target and help those who are HIV+. As an aside, I asked the gogo what she believes happens to us when we die. She says we all go to God, even those who cast evil spirits, we all go to God. Some of her trainees performed a ritual dance for us and we left. I did not have my camera with me but others were able to get pictures and I will try to post copies if possible. There is something about taking pictures that makes me feel somewhat removed and remote from the event I am capturing, that I am more a spectator than a participant. So, I have missed some great photo ops, but am having an incredible experience.
We had interviews with the Peace Corps staff about our potential placements after our training period is over. Most of the volunteers will be placed in very rural areas, I suspect most without water and electricity. The PC staff has something different in mind for me- it appears that I will be placed in an orphanage situated on a hill outside of a small town named Hlatikulu in southern Swaziland. I have not been to the town, but the area is the same as Salina’s and it is beautiful. The orphanage has 29 girls and is close to a hospital as well (forget all your classical ideas about what a hospital is- these are generally a collection of huts or small barrack like buildings). It sounds like there will be much opportunity for service and I am looking forward to this with great hope that I am up to the challenge. I expect, once I am settled, I can start to write a little more colorfully about the real Swaziland- the people, the environment, the beauty and the hardships.
This week we will be giving HIV/AIDS presentations to the local high school classes. A couple of the volunteers put question boxes in the schools in advance to get a sense of the current level of education/understanding about the subject. The questions were pretty raw and touching and I hope to be able to share some of them with you at some point. They clearly demonstrate that child sexual abuse here in Swaziland is not uncommon, and that the children are misinformed about HIV. There are beliefs that the white man intentionally introduced HIV to Africa, that HIV doesn’t exist but is simply a ploy to get African people to stop having children, that HIV can be contracted by condoms and cured by having sex with virgins and children, etc. One of the questions that stayed with me throughout the day was one that asked what percentage of Swazi people will be left after 20 years of this epidemic has passed. I would not even attempt an answer, of course, but knowing that abut 40% of the adult (over 15) population is infected, and that most will not get tested or treated, even considering the question was sobering. Let us hope, as gogo says, we all go to God when this is over.
In subsequent postings I will describe the “color” of this experience in more detail but I also hope to write a little about this pandemic. Given that ~38 million are infected worldwide, and given the high mutation rate of this virus and the emergence of drug-resistant strains, it will be good to get people to start thinking about this problem. The US is hardly “out of the woods” on this.
Love and peace.
| I only have 30 minutes at a time to read all my emails and msg board and to post, so it seems I have to constantly be brief. I will not have a chance to post on the anniversary of Joel's death, nor will I even get some time to myself to meditate, contemplate, or grieve a little. It came on me a bit today and I wonder if you all, by thinking and remembering, have brought his absence closer to me. We go on and I have to remind myself that he would not be taking any of this too seriously. Remember the smile and let's keep each other in our thoughts over the next few days. I will be able to check back in next week sometime, maybe around Thanksgiving. Thanks for every good thought and well wish. |
No comments:
Post a Comment