Dec, 19th 2008

Wiki moja (week one) is over. It’s gone by pretty fast, but I have learned so much and done so much this week. As a volunteer you see the direct and dramatic impact of AIDs/HIV in the Bagamoyo community. Truly though, poverty is the root cause of the problems here. Lack of education is also a huge problem, especially for girls. 85% of the people here earn less than a dollar a day. Despite the extreme poverty, the people here seem very happy (for the most part) and thankful for the smallest gestures of kindness. They are also very generous.

On my first day, I had a quick orientation which included learning how to give an HIV test. A little scary dealing with needles…There is a VCT (volunteer counseling and testing center) here at UKUN. Normally, I won’t be giving the HIV tests, but this week a local woman walked three hours to get here and the director wasn’t going to be in, so I had to give the test. There was a counselor here who could speak to the woman in Swahili. Luckily, she was negative.

This week, I have done many home visits. During home visits we bring nutritious food to the sick patient(s) and their families, clean water and meds (ARVs-anti retro virals). We also check in on them, to check for progress/deterioration, etc. The people are so excited to see us when we come.
I was in charge of buying all of the food for the home visits. Miraculously, I have learned enough Swahili to ask for everything I need which includes eggs, oranges, potatoes, clean water, and orange juice. Mango juice is a treat so I got some of that too. UKUN sent Luka, a local masai who guards UKUN at night with me to the market so I wouldn’t get “muzungu” (gringo) prices. Everyone here is on “TFT” which Mama C and Zik say is Tanzania flex time. No one is in a hurry and you just can’t go by a watch around here. Plus people love to stop and greet you which can take a long time, as we go through every possible greeting they think I might know in Swahili. Mostly, I say “poa” in response to all greetings. Poa means, “it’s cool.” It’s considered rude if you don’t stop for a chat. The trip to the market was interesting and everyone was staring at me, but it was a success and I got lots of good healthy food. A few of the families/patients we visited were:

Mwanahawa. She is an HIV + woman probably in her forties living with 5 grand kids in a one room mud house. Her husband left her when he found out she was HIV +. There is a stigma here towards people with HIV. Her kids brought us sugar cane to say thanks for the meds and food. Mwanahawa needs to have a duck coop built that attaches to her house. Currently, she brings her ducks inside her home at night b/c if she left them outside they would get stolen. So, 6 ducks and 5 people are all under one roof-completely unsanitary and very sad. We took pictures and are going to build a duck coop next week, so she won’t have to sleep with the ducks.

Mariam is the next woman we visited. She is HIV + and bed ridden. She was really happy to see us and especially excited for the mango juice. She wanted us to take a picture of her whole family, so we did and we’ll give it to them next week. I almost lost it on this visit –it was just so sad to see how she was….Of course, I kept it together, but I am definitely not used to this.

The last visit of the day was a happy one. We went to see Salamai Abdalla and her 4 quadruplets (1 girl, 3 boys). It was close to their first birthday, so we brought toys and cake and had a little celebration. The babies (mtoto) are as cute as can be and super smiley. All 5 are HIV+, but everyone was feeling good today and very happy (Nafurahi). Trying to learn my Swahili so I can speak with everyone!! The language is hard for me. The way it’s written is not always how it is spoken and there was a brief period when it was only a spoken language.