When a Number Becomes a Face - World Aids Day 2011

Today, 1. December, is World Aids Day. Today we are reminded of the large number of people still affected by the disease. But with statistics reminding us of the magnitude of the problem, I sometimes tend to forget about the people, the individuals living with the disease. The human faces behind the statistics.

I actually know quite a few people living with HIV – no wonder really since more than 1 in 10 adults in Zimbabwe are HIV positive. But being in Harare you would not always know about people’s status as ARV’s (antiretroviral drugs) are now available to most people.

 However, that is not always the case when you get out of Harare – the further away you get from the bigger towns the less likely people are to have access to ARVs. Furthermore some 3/4 of ARVs available in Zimbabwe come from donors and should the donor for one reason or another pull out, the Zimbabwean government doesn’t have the resources to supply everyone with drugs. This is one of the worries aired by the director of the National Aids Council in November.

Recently I visited a remote rural area in the Zambezi Valley. It was dry and the heat unrelenting. The main challenge people faced there was access to water – for drinking, for washing, for the cattle and for growing crops. And then there was a long list of other challenges such as access to education, access to health care and just about every other developmental issue in the book – and of course HIV was also one of them.

In one village, after inspecting a borehole that a charity had helped build, a lady came up to me and asked me to come with her. She said there was a girl who wanted her photo taken but she was in a hut so we had to go there. On the way she told me that this girl was bedridden because of HIV and couldn’t come out. 

When we got to the hut family members had helped her on her feet and put her in the door opening. Her name was Fungai. And Fungai was indeed very sick. I felt slightly uncomfortable/surprised that they wanted me to take these photos, but I carried on not knowing what else to do. As she was sitting there she was staring intensely at me and I was wondering whether she really wanted her photo taken. Her eyes were very intense and it was obvious that she had been (was) a very pretty girl. Most likely that’s what got her into trouble.
I noticed that her lips were moving as if she was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her. After taking a few shots I went over to her and showed her the photos – she took a quick glance at them as if to pretend she was interested, but most of the time she was looking at me.

And then I heard what she was whispering – clearly not effortlessly. She kept repeating one word in Shona: rubatsiro, rubatsiro – help (me), help (me).

I don’t know what she wanted me to do – and I am sure that she didn’t know either. To her my white skin and the fact that someone from outside was there, probably amounted to the closest thing to help she was ever going to get.

I am pretty sure that this girl never had access to ARVs – chances are she doesn’t even know what ARVs are. Of course I know – but how was I to help her with ARVs?
Fact of the matter is also that the walls of probably every hut in the village would have a similar story to tell about a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a brother or a sister. So even if I could have helped her it doesn’t solve the big problem.

After showing her and her family the photos – pretending not to hear and understand what she was saying – I told her ‘Good luck’, got up and walked away.

That night, lying in bed, all I saw was her eyes staring at me every time I closed my eyes.

Today I am thinking of her again. It’s been a few months and I don’t even know whether she’s still alive.

What I do know is that HIV is still a huge problem and even if some countries have stopped categorising HIV/AIDS as a terminal disease and are now calling it a chronic disease for which you have to stay on medication for the rest of your life, in a country like Zimbabwe it is still very much terminal.

SOME FACTS:
- Between 2002 and 2006 it is estimated that the Zimbabwean population decreased by four million people

- Infant mortality has doubled since 1990

- Zimbabwe has a higher number of orphans, in proportion to its population, than any other country in the world, according to UNICEF. As many as one in four children in Zimbabwe are orphaned as a result of parents dying from AIDS.

To hear the story of Esther, a young HIV positive girl, go to http://zimbabweschildren.org/ - she becomes part of the orphan statistics during the filming of the documentary.  

Miracles in Lusaka with Doctor Muyonjo

When I first tried to force myself into putting something on this blog, I choose a light but serious issue - anal itch.

The inspiration was from an article in the Zambian newspaper, The Post, in which a Doctor Brown Kamanga explained what anal itch is ("an irritating sensation around the anus" - surprise!) and he offered advice on how to deal with anal itch (I've always wondered how to go about it myself).

The article (which can be found in the first post on this blog) was called 'Anal itch: embarrassing but avoidable'.

The photo that accompanied the article was a depiction of various deodorants and the caption read 'don't stick these up your...' - well not really, but something to that effect anyway.
I am not sure I agree with the choice of photo - after all you could have put just about anything there which is not supposed to be used back there (a Boeing 447, power tools, kitchen utensils.. well you name it), but I suppose that a photo that truly depicted the core of the matter could have caused one or two of The Post's readers to choke on their toast.

Anyway, this post is not about anal itch. It is about miracles in Lusaka. And Manwood.

The reason why I am mentioning the article about anal itch, is that this post was inspired by a Zambian when I was in Lusaka recently - much like the post about anal itch was inspired by The Post when I was in Lusaka in 2008.
And since I haven't updated this blog in a while this post will hopefully help me get started again - like the post about anal itch helped me get started in the first place. In both cases on a light note, I admit.

Ok, enough of the suspension - I am sure you would all like to know about miracles in Lusaka. And maybe even about Manwood too.

We all know that you can't sit around waiting for miracles to happen. Miracles happen when you least expect it, in places where you don't expect it. In my case I was driving through Lusaka and as I stopped at a red light a guy came up to my car to hand me a flyer. I usually never accept flyers from strangers, but in Lusaka the red lights take for ever to change, so I thought I'd take it anyway hoping to stay entertained while I waited for the light to change. And boy was I up for a life changing experience.

Here's the flyer:

The doctors of Zambia really know a lot, I have to say. Even though Doctor Muyonjo, who is advertising in this flyer, doesn't specifically mention anal itch, I am absolutely positive that he has got some good advice on how to deal with that too. What can I say - I'm impressed.

Doctor Muyonjo does just about anything that any other doctor does (and doesn't do) - and on top of that you can add marriage counselling, financial advice, legal advice, he removes bad luck, he solves family differences (even among family members!), he can turn your enemy into your best friends (if only Bush and Osama had known) and much much more. And we're not talking about normal advice - we're talking advice on miracle level. It sounds to me like it doesn't get any better - but hang on. It does get better.

You might think that Doctor Muyonjo is just in it for the money, but that's not the case at all. He charges 50.000 Zambian Kwacha for a consultation - that's like 10 USD!! For that kind of money you can fly from almost anywhere in the world for a consultation with Doctor Muyonjo and still pay less than legal fees alone would set you back in Europe or US!

Phone number is on the flyer so if you have a problem like any of the problems on the flyer (I bet you do), you know who to call!

Psst.. did I forget about Manwood? Well it's all in the flyer, but I can tell you that Manwood will do something real good for your manhood. You fill in the blanks..