DAY 8: May 25- TASO

First off, HAPPY 24 BIRTHDAY BLAKE! Miss and love you brother! Wish I could be home celebrating with you! OR I actually wish you could be here, because I love being in Africa. Hope you had a wonderful day!

Woke up at 7 am to finish my paper before breakfast and class (which got moved to the morning for just today.) Breakfast. Finished my paper. Class. We decided to have class outside. Class with Selby in the morning is hilarious. He’s shaking from the 4 cups of STRONG African coffee.. and it’s wonderful. Half way through class, DP (Dr. Perrin) was leaving. Kinda sad. I think we will all miss DP’s .. um.. energy?.. we said a prayer for him and we all said our goodbyes. It was sad for about 235 seconds, until Selby clapped his hands and said “back to class.”

So class in almost ¾ over and guess what happens?! The clouds start to darken.. the sky looks ominous.. and well it starts to sprinkle.. I decide to move over to a different seat, consider the wind direction wasn’t in my favor (I could feel the drops on my back). Before we know it, Selby is shouting because it’s pouring and I mean POURING down. It was great. I especially loved seeing our clothes drying in the “sun.” After class we hid our laptops in jackets and ran to the house.

I finished my blog for yesterday, while waiting for the Matatu to come to bring us into town so we don’t have to walk in the rain. A group of us decide to have lunch at The Source. I had a breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese, and sausage (like stuff, not exactly what you would think sausage is, but it was still good).. Man, I missed eggs so much!

Next it was off to our Serving Learning component of the day. TASO (The AIDS Support Organization). When we got there, the four of us were greeted outside the building by Sebastian. We walked in to see a packed room filled with at least 80 people. We followed him upstairs into his office where he talked about the organization and the problems/causes of HIV. He told us that at TASO they try to give the people packets with information about how to live their life with HIV and counseling (hence the Support part in its name).

He also explained how the spread of HIV really occurs in the African culture. In Africa polygamy is acceptable. Men can have many wives. But along with wives they can have what he called “side dishes” or girlfriends on top of having a few wives. The wives and children probably even know about these girlfriends. When they get bored with their wives or they are irritating them they will go see their girlfriends. Also, women might do that too. They might pretend to be going back to their parents’ house, and really arrange to meet with their first boyfriend/lover. Yes, this is all true. And yes, I do think it is crazy. But that is only because it is completely opposite of the way I have been raised.

So this is how HIV spreads. Also, even if people have HIV, they still could lie to someone else, just because the “urge” to have sexual relations is so strong here. Also, some people live in denial. If someone tells them they have HIV, they will just say “no, you don’t” and continue on with the sexual relations.

He said that HIV isn’t as big of a deal anymore, especially because people know about TASO and its 100% free services. So they know that if they contract HIV, they won’t be completely in the dark. To me that sounds so backwards.. it’s like TASO is trying to help, but is it making people less careful?! AIDS and HIV is just SO completely different here.

He also told us that they do 2 different types of services. One was at the facility we were at, the second was home (field) visits, where doctors and counselors go to people’s homes or villages. They also test for other diseases. If one person in the family has Malaria, then they will test the whole family. Because previously if one person had malaria, and someone else in the family got sick with Malaria they would just share their own medication with the family member instead of getting individual medicine for the other person.

After we talked for about an hour, we got to have a tour of the place. What a sobering experience. For such an established program, I just couldn’t believe how their standards were so much lower than the US standards. It’s hard to explain what I mean, but I just mean, honestly, it was just kinda trashy, less organized or orderly, and lacking space. When we walked downstairs, we found out that the majority of the people packed in the room were probably HIV positive… Wow. You always hear about AIDS in Africa, but here I was staring directly at it. It’s hard to believe it.

We even walked to the Pharmacy (which was what everyone was waiting for, everyone was waiting for drugs). And it was maybe the ¾ the size of my bedroom. It was tiny. With just boxes of drugs, and 4 people trying to get them ready while 100 people wait to hear their name called. Yet, the workers and “clients” (they do not call them patients cause that has a negative connotation like something is wrong with them) were still laughing with each other… unbelievable from my perspective. It was also unbelievable that Sebastian told us that if we wanted to come back we could help pack drugs in envelops for them.. in the U.S. I think you have to have a degree for that… dot dot dot.

Also, their filing system is crazy.. there’s like 3 storage places for the files. Which are like handwritten with numbers to identify the people. After each person comes in, their information is recorded in their file, and then workers input it into the computer system, and the files are re filed. But they don’t have enough space for all their files.

Gosh. I wish I could really express in words what it felt like to be there, but honestly I don’t think I can. But even though there are so many things that I would want to change about TASO, I am also blown away that it functions so well for what resources it has and how it can positively help so many people. People really rely on TASO, and these people (including the US donors that support the organization) are doing something really special there.

When our tour concluded, we left with just a whole new cultural experience. It’s probably going to be an image that will be hard for me to ever forget, but then again, it’s one I never want to forget.

Compared to this experience. I feel like the rest of my day wasn’t too important. But on the way home my roommate and I were discussing what we saw and how we felt. We realized how ignorant we were. When we went there initially we were nervous. We had never been around HIV patients. You could tell that part of us was fearful that these people hated that we were there, and fearful that we could some how catch HIV. Although, there probably is a slightly better chance of us contracting the virus in TASO, then say back at home, the reality is: talking to something with HIV or just being in a room with HIV positive people does not mean you will catch HIV.. however, it is a lot harder thing to really understand. Although, it makes sense in words, the gut feeling you have is a lot different. But we realized how terrible that is… and it is something we need to break away from.. our fear. It is people like us that make those infected with HIV feel outcasted and inhuman.. I think it’s time to break the bubble I’ve been living in, open my eyes to the realities of life here, and dive right in.. life here isn’t changing anytime soon, but I can.. we can.