HIV/AIDS in Uganda

Last week I gave an HIV/AIDS Education Workshop at the primary school for the staff. It was something they had requested as they felt the need to educate their pupils more in this area. In fact, it’s actually an area I needed more education about before Peace Corps too. I watched Philadelphia in school, I knew some of the history of it in the U.S. (mostly thanks to Rent), I knew that HIV/AIDS was "bad in Africa" (and that’s probably one of the world’s most general statements ever), but I didn’t know much more than that. It seemed like a far-off, ancient problem - in my fairly sheltered American life, I had never even met anyone who had HIV or AIDS. Coming to Uganda, that all changed. Peace Corps provided me with the most thorough education on this subject that I had ever received, an education that seemed much more relevant and needed as I began to get to know more co-workers, students, and friends for whom HIV/AIDS had intimately, awfully, impacted their lives.

Uganda actually was considered a success story in sub-Saharan Africa when it came to HIV/AIDS, reducing the rate from up to 30% in the 1990s to 6.4% in 2006. Much of this has been credited to an extensive education program in the 90’s using the ABC approach: Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms. However, HIV prevalence has been on the rise again since 2006. Approximately one in 10 women now become HIV positive by their late 30s and for men, about one in 10 are infected by their early 40s. This is in part due to the government’s shift, somewhat under pressure from foreign countries like the U.S., towards abstinence-only programs during the 2000’s. Some health experts also blame the increasing rate of infection on “AIDS-fatigue,” a general complacency and reduction in safe sex that began once Uganda started to be lauded as a victor in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

Right now, 1.4 million people in Uganda are living with HIV, and, despite the nation’s early success in combating HIV/AIDS, there are 1.1 million children that have been orphaned by this epidemic. Many of my own pupils are part of this statistic. They live with extended family, adults who find it difficult to pay for their own children’s school fees, uniforms, and meals, not to mention doing the same for other young relatives, but nevertheless take them in.

Working to educate youth about HIV/AIDS is extremely important in Uganda, not only because HIV/AIDS is more prevalent here, but also because the median age is 15 (15!). With so many youth and so few adults, accurate facts and means of prevention can slip through the cracks and be replaced by rumors and misconceptions. HIV/AIDS and sex education are clearly urgently needed right now; only 39 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 know all the necessary facts about how HIV can be prevented. National prevention and treatment efforts also need to be supported, requiring a de-stigmatization of those living with HIV. Stigma and discrimination against people with HIV is still common in many rural areas, so even those who know their or their children’s positive status are reluctant to seek help for fear of “outing” themselves or their family members. The passage of the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act in Uganda, which sanctions forced disclosure and criminalizes transmission, attempted transmission, and “behavior that might result in transmission,” is only continuing to add to this problem.

In Peace Corps, and at my school, Ugandans and PCVs are continuing the fight from the ground up, working with people who can help affect some of the most change: teachers. In fact, a quarter of the people who are living with HIV in Uganda right now are a part of the school system - students or staff. At the workshop last week, we refreshed the basics, talked about incorporating literacy into HIV/AIDS education, discussed how gender roles can affect the spread of HIV/AIDs, detailed how to care for people with HIV, and played a lot of games and activities that the teachers can do with their pupils. During the games and activities, such as Jeopardy, foot races, Big Books, and play-acting, we also did some myth-busting. And man, are there some wildly inaccurate myths out there (and probably in the States too, unfortunately): condoms cause cancer; virgins can’t have HIV; having sex with a virgin will cure you; when an HIV+ mother breastfeeds, the baby dies; HIV can be transmitted by mosquitoes; washing out with Coca-Cola after sex will prevent you from being infected; HIV can be passed by kissing; America has a secret cure for HIV/AIDS; America invented HIV/AIDS (oh, conspiracy theories!). 

The teachers got extremely competitive during the final Jeopardy review!

One of the pre-assessments, where the average score was 70; everyone scored 100 or 95 on the post-assessments.

Doing a "Can Transmit" and "Cannot Transmit" activities sort - it's not every day that you get to explain to your coworkers the definition of pre-ejaculate in English...

Overall, I like to think the workshop was a success – the pre- and post-assessments on HIV/AIDS I gave out showed drastic improvement, and the teachers were excited (and very competitive!) while practicing a variety of ways to educate their pupils on HIV prevention, treatment, and care. I’m looking forward to seeing the teachers use their new skills to give the kids an opportunity to play and learn at the same time. It is just a start, and a small one at that, but it's one I was proud to be asked to be a part of.

There is a saying in Tibetan, "Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength." No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.

- Dalai Lama

Mailtime!

Almost every Saturday, Kris and I wake up, fry up some eggs and toast, and then make the 45-minute trek to the nearest post office. It’s actually a really nice walk with beautiful views, and it passes by a place I suspect is a vineyard. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet gotten up the courage to follow through on my plan of climbing the mountain it’s on, knocking on the door, asking if they are actually a vineyard, and then gracefully accepting a few free bottles of wine.

After my weekly longing glance at Wine Mountain, we reach the post office and are enthusiastically greeted by the post master who we forever ingratiated ourselves with by speaking to him in hesitant, stumbling Runyankore when we first met him. He ducks into the back of the two-room building and, on the best days, comes out looking like a Ugandan Santa Claus, his arms full of letters and packages and his face beaming. We stuff our loot into Kris’s backpack, pay the delivery fees, and race back home where we allow ourselves to open one letter or package upon arrival. We then try to space out the opening of any other mail we’ve received for the rest of the day. Sometimes we even save a letter for the upcoming week when we know that one or both of us has a potentially rough or stressful day coming up. Mail from home is, without a doubt, one of the best outlets we have here.

Life is a new kind of stressful as Peace Corps Volunteers, and we have to find new ways to deal with it. A lot of outlets come from within – exercise, meditation, yoga, creative cooking, crafting, journaling, decorating. This inner dependence is not initially by choice; with unreliable electricity (I’ve discovered that I have the magical ability to make the house go dark by shaving my legs), limited grocery options, and expensive airtime, a lot of these are our only options for free-time activities. But those limited choices are actually one of the amazing things about being a PCV. You are pushed to reflect, rely upon yourself, and grow in a way that you have never been able to before.

However, there is only so much meditation and friendship-bracelet making you can do before you go insane. Luckily, we have incredible friends and family who have helped us to keep going, day after day, with our new-found appreciation of the lost art of mail. There is just nothing like a long, handwritten letter, the crack of the tape on a package as you tear into it, or the feeling of pulling one over on the postal system by stuffing as many things as possible into an envelope without having to add any more stamps.

This blog is a thank you for that appreciation, that outlet, that sanity. A thank you to not just those mentioned in this blog but to everyone out there who has brightened our day, helped us continue our work, and made us feel like we are still a part of their lives with a letter, a package, a card, a donation, an email, a Facebook message, a comment, or even a 12-year-old scotch. Webare munonga, banwanyi baitu.

Care packages galore! Ben, Laurel, Mom, Amanda, Grandma, Aunt Susie, Becky - you guys know how to pack a box! 

 Letters, cards, and assorted goodies from home - including several from Nita, our most avid pen pal.

 Pen, paper, and a wine cork, and Andrea made one of the most inspiring and treasured possessions we have.

A letter from Steve and Amanda doubling as both wall decoration and crazy awesome emotional support.

Unk Ritchie - making us laugh, think, and appreciate, all at the same time.

Every time I look at this, it makes me smile.

One of the best presents I've ever gotten, Shawn - really.

My pupils are reaping the benefits of our care packages too!

Although it is leading to the perpetuation of some American stereotypes...

Marilyn, Amanda, and Mom - they absolutely love the books you sent! My library is more flooded with excited readers than ever.

"Happiness is only real when shared." - Christopher McCandless

Grand Opening

The last few days of the term I opened up the little library that I have been working on for months. The students flocked in, destroying any semblance of order I had imposed since I haven't yet had the chance to teach them how to properly use a library, but they absolutely loved it. Seeing the looks on their faces, watching them pour over the books, and hearing them read aloud their favorite picks have been some of my happiest moments here, hands down. It was a great way to end my first term at the the primary school.

Found my first bookworm while getting the library ready - it wasn't quite as cute as my Mom and I were when we dressed up as bookworms for Halloween.

 The view outside our library.

 Our small collection of books, which will hopefully start growing!

 Dropping some of my Runyankore knowledge on the pupils.

 All of the books are graded according to reading level - which involved a lot of educated guessing, especially for the Runyankore books. If I could read it - beginning level!

 Reading corner.

 Grain sacks make great posters.

 Some of the pictures the pupils drew during DEAR Day.

Just one of the best things ever.

A happy heart.

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."

- Jorge Luis Borges

Creation with Donations

I love libraries - any kind of library. Two shelves in a friend's home that I pour through, looking for books I haven't read yet that I can steal. An old, musty library where I can get lost in the stacks, running my hands along the coarse spines of aged books. A new library, full of light and computers where kids plop down in sunny spots filled with brightly-colored mini-tables and chairs. Some of my happiest and most content moments in life have taken place inside that comforting, inspiring, and magical setting.

I have been volunteering or working in libraries ever since elementary school (although in elementary school "volunteer" really meant bugging the librarians until they would let me help them). I am not surprised, but rather incredibly happy, that I find myself working in a library in Uganda as well, although this time I am doing more than just working in one - I am creating one. Which, let's just face it, is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

As the first step to creating an actual library through financial aid and book donations as requested by my primary school, I have been working with the teachers to bring down the books that they do have to an empty classroom. After several Primary 7 pupils helped me carry down the few cabinets of books, I spent several weeks dusting, debugging, taping, and otherwise repairing and organizing the collection. This gave me a lot of time to think about the nature of book donations in general.

Most of the books in our current collection have been donated to the school in the past from Western countries. While I know that sending books to Africa is mostly done with the best of intentions, it appears that some education about donations needs to go along with those intentions. The kids at my school are hungry for books, this is true, but it does not mean that any book will suit their needs.

 We have a set of 25 books on shorthand - and not introductory shorthand, but accompanying texts to an intermediate book.

We also have a set of books on Canadian business mathematics - I mean, when will knowing what 50 cents in Canadian currency looks like NOT be useful in Uganda?

While sending old books that are no longer used in the U.S., Britain, or Canada may seem like a win-win for both those schools and African schools, outdated texts that are often eurocentric are not necessarily helpful for African students anymore either.

 I am guessing that kid probably didn't get his money...I wonder if he still feels the same about Metallica.

Copyright 1964 - and this is not the oldest textbook we have.

Despite the years that have passed, the jokes still remain the same.

In order for truly successful and useful libraries in Africa to be created, donations need to be solicited in a way that enables the recipient librarian to evaluate and select the materials that they need with their patrons in mind. Unfortunately, not just any books will do. Libraries need stock which is relevant, of an appropriate reading and language level, and reflective of their own culture and literature as well as others. 20 copies of Vanna White's biography just don't quite meet those standards.

It is true that my students are desperate to read, gain knowledge and further their educations; so much of their potential is going unfulfilled because of a lack of supplies, and I know that they are grateful for any books that are placed in their hands. However, to make their potential a reality, they don't need just any tools - they need the right tools. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to provide just that. We already are lucky to have some books that address the language, current issues, and culture of our kids, and I am so excited to share those books with them:

A book in the local language, Runyankore - reading these books helps me study too!

Part of the Fountain Youth Survival Kit for Schools, created with Ugandan youth in mind.

A beginning English book written and published in Uganda.

With time, more work, and donations that take the needs of both the donor and recipient into account, we could reveal paths to these students that they have never been able to glimpse before and possibly even provide some of the comfort, inspiration, and magic that filled my childhood.

If you are interested in learning a little more about this, the following paper is one of the few studies I've found that addresses this issue. It also offers several new ideas to traditional book donation: Traditional Book Donation to Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Harry — I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!”

And she sprinted away, up the stairs.

“What does she understand?” said Harry distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.

“Loads more than I do,” said Ron, shaking his head.

“But why’s she got to go to the library?”

“Because that’s what Hermione does,” said Ron, shrugging. “When in doubt, go to the library.” 

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets