Reality Check: I work with HIV/AIDs in Botswana

Hello again everyone, I know it’s been awhile once but it is funny how life is getting so normal here that nothing really seams blog worthy anymore.  I mean at first I wanted to write about everything I did because it was so fresh.  However, the novelty of being Africa is starting to wear off and the reality of the challenges the country face, and the reason I am here, are beginning to come overwhelming clear.

This realization first hit me on Fourth of July.  I was sitting on this old navy green cot eating a steak and drinking a beer while watching the sunset go down over the palm trees and small concrete houses that make up my front porch view.  Eventually, the kids I mentioned in the last past became curious to what I was doing and sat down with me.  I didn’t think anything of it and actually was trying to explain that steak (or your preferred BBQ) and beer was the traditional American meal on the Fourth of July. 

But then something caught my eye.  It was this little white dot on Great’s, the one year old, arm.   I asked Nila, the ten-year old, what it was and she said it was a shot for a disease.  Almost immediately I was thinking of how babies born to mothers with HIV/AIDs get ARV medicine to prevent transmission (ARV stands for Anti-Retroviral Virus and lowers the viral load of HIV in a person).   At this point I was staring at Great and wondering if either he or his mother had HIV/AIDs.  And this is where it struck me that I am in a country where these thoughts are not that far-fetched.   In my district, the Okavango, Orphans and Vulnerable Children (orphans are classified as having lost one parent) are a priority for the District Aids Commission.   The HIV/AIDs prevalence rate for working age adults is close to 30% or almost 1 out of every 3 working age adults.  The life expectancy in Botswana is barely over 50 and death has become so normal that funerals were once commonplace on Saturday.  In fact, funerals were so commonplace that Unity Dow, a former Botswana judge, wrote a book call Saturday is Funerals that tells the stories of different Batswana living with HIV/AIDs as an introduction to the many different causes and issues of HIV/AIDs.     

Now, I have since come to realize that babies do not get ARV’s through shots, so my thought process was actually not really justified.  But nonetheless it was there and I couldn’t these statistics out of my mind. 

Having been in the country for over four months and gone through two months of rigorous training where these stats were given to us over and over again, it might seem crazy to some that I am just starting to get the picture of HIV/AIDs in Botswana now.  To be fair, Botswana has done such a great job treating people with HIV/AIDs that you don’t really see these statistics.  What I mean is that people who have HIV/AIDs don’t seem like the stereotypical HIV/AIDs patients that you might think of.  People living with HIV/AIDs in Botswana are healthy and can live long productive lives, which is great and a testament to the countries response.  However, it does make it hard to really grasp the situation unless you have lived here for most of your life. 

So what got me with Great’s arm was that it connected the HIV/AIDs statistics with children and I couldn’t help but think that all too frequently children are growing up in Botswana with either one or both parents dyeing of HIV/AIDs.   

To emphasize this point, I recently just attended a retreat two weeks for thirteen orphan and vulnerable children (OVCs) and fifteen of their caregivers.   These twenty eight people were from one small village, Etsa 13.   All of the OVC’s had lost one or more parents to HIV/AIDs and most were disabled.  One OVC, a seventeen old year old boy, was deaf, mute, and lost both parents to HIV/AIDs.  The OVC’s caregivers were relatives like a grandparent, sister, mother, or brother.  None of the participants had a great deal of resources.  In fact, two deaf and mute boys where, I was told, living with their mother underneath a tree.

Yet, despite all that I have seen, and relayed to you in this post, the people in Botswana have responded with such care for one another that at times you just sit back and watch in amazement.  I mean at the retreat most of the people met for the first time, but the familial feel was overwhelming.   The government workers responsible for organizing and funding the retreat seamlessly blended with their “clients” and laughed with them like they were best friends.  Even more impressive were the caregivers.  Like I mentioned earlier, most of the caregivers were poor, but despite all this they took in their relatives and treated them like sons and daughter. 

The best part of is that the familial feel is throughout Botswana and seems to fuel the hope and smiles that are seen in every village across the country.  Again using the retreat as an example, despite all the obstacles facing the seventeen year old boy I mentioned earlier he had a big smile on his face during the retreat and shared with the group his ambitions to be a sign language translator. 

Now, not everything is one big happy family as the rest of the post can attest, but the care for one another that I have seen so far, and experienced first-hand with my homestay family, has truly been one the best parts of living in Botswana.   So, on that good note I will leave you all. 

Like always, please send me updates on how you all are doing.  Oh, I just got internet at the house so no more excuses for slacking on the blog posts.  Also, that means pictures will be up by the end of the week (use the Flickr link on the side to access them).         

 Thanks for reading!  Hope everyone is doing well.