Saturday, April 01, 2006

so today marks 6 months in country and i am in the capital of antananarivo awaiting the 3-day training session that all volunteers take part in after being at site for 3 months (though it has been closer to 4 months for us). i had a steady february, yet a slow march. have taught HIV/AIDS lessons at the local highschool and middle school. but my primary work continues to be making trips out to the rural villages doing presentations and i have been devoting most of my time/energy into HIV/AIDS awareness and education. The social climate is ripe here it seems for the disease to take hold. Promiscuity and infidelity are quite commonplace. I highlight three main messages...you can't tell my looking if someone has HIV/AIDS; we shouldn't abandon people who have AIDS (given that there are so many ways that it is not spread); and prevention is very easy (given that there are very few ways that it is spread). I use a comparison that S. Africa 10 years ago was where Madagascar is today (about 1 in 90 prevalence rate). And show them where S. Africa is today (about 1 in 3) and tell them i am trying to scare them. But just a little. And use the analogy of climbing in that when i am climbing, as long as i'm a little scared (vs. being too scared), that my mind is more focused and i am better able to protect myself from harm. But stress that i in no way want them to be too scared, which only leads to abandonment and stigmatiztion. And spend alot of time showing all the ways that the disease is not spread. And devote a good bit of the teaching to showing a picture of three couples and telling a story involving infidelity and how even the partners who are faithful and only have sex with their spouse/sign. other are still susceptible and get the disease from their unfaithful other. A common, strong reaction to learning that one is infected is to assume they are a bad person and did something wrong that they are being punished for. And many believe these bad people should be locked away and not allowed to interact with the outside community. I hope it hits the mark.

Otherwise, my 3 main complaints/challenges remain unchanged...the unwanted attention (god i miss my anonymity and now know what it must feel like to be a rock star); not being able to (more) fully express wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas (given the lingering, unavoidable language barrier); and the isolation and being cutoff from the outside world.

otherwise i am very excited about cashing in some accrued vacation days and have plans to embark on an extended cycling trip covering 990 km and just under 2 weeks going from the interior to the west coast. such a great mode of transport and allows for bonafide interaction with communities that one passes through. and having a bit of a handle on the language, allows for some unique exchanges not afforded the 'typical' tourist.

will wrap up with a bit of a story...discovered first hand this past week a custom that i had been told existed. it has to do with parents employing deceipt and fear to get children to behave. still not entirely sure how widespread the practice is. as i was walking along an alley on my way home one early afternoon, a malagasy woman and her young daughter about 2yrs old (though she could easily be 2x that age due to the nutritional deficiency that exists here. i have met 14 and 15 year old boys that you would swear were no older than 8 or 9 by our standards) were drawing water from the community spigot. anyway, as i got near to them, the mother bent down and was whispering into the little girls ear and pointing me out. i very deliberately approached and asked what she was explaining to her daughter and she forthrightly admitted that she was telling her if she was naughty, i would eat her (this is also related to the decreased diet as we foreigners are seen as unnaturally big in their eyes). now i had just come from the market with a sack of produce and showed the little girl the contents and told her that, like everyone else, i liked eatting pineapple and mangoes and peppers and not malagasy children who are naughty. and proceeded on my way home declaring loudly while walking down the street (in malagasy of course) that i do not eat malagasy children who are naughty. so now i finally know why when i arrive at a rural village, many of the children run off in terror.

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