It’s been three full weeks that I’ve been Tanzania. In so many ways I feel like it has FLOWN by! I’m still not homesick, other than for people, but I am missing certain things – ice cream (it is SO hot here!), sushi, Mexican food! I also miss being able to talk to my friends and family on the phone. And I miss the gym!
I’ve learned all my kids’ names at this point. We have fun on Fridays – that’s when there is free time. They sing and dance and they are only 4 years old – they’re so little! They have a version of duck duck goose – except they say paca paca simba which is chicken, chicken, lion! They get so into it I laugh hysterically.
Monday I start my afternoon placement. My three weeks of cultural immersion activities are over, now I have more free time and I’ve opted to work for a local NGO. It’s called “UKUN” – the abbreviation is in Swahili – and it is an NGO focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, social awareness, and home-based treatment and care. Specifically, I will be going on home visits to AIDS patients with the head of the NGO and taking notes on what the AIDS patients require – often basic things like food and clothes.
Part of the problem is that HIV/AIDS individuals may receive antiretroviral drugs but may not have food, thus are taking the drugs on an empty stomach, leaving them weak and physically strained, potentially malnourished. UKUN looks to remedy some of these areas but is itself short on funding and resources. I have no doubt that the home visits will be difficult to experience but will give me valuable insight and a deeper understanding as to what it means to suffer from HIV/AIDS in a developing country.
Other work I hope to do relates to links between HIV/AIDS and nutrition. As I said above, they are intrinsically connected with overlapping causes and effects. Poor nutrition allows HIV/AIDS to onset much quicker, resulting in inability to work, provide for family members, and remain a functioning member of society. The social stigma is apparent as well – individuals with HIV/AIDS are viewed as promiscuous sexually, which in an already extremely conservative society, is looked down upon. Accordingly, higher levels of nutrition allow individuals with HIV/AIDS to continue working, taking antiretroviral drugs to delay the onset of full-blown AIDS, and provide for their families.
The related areas include poverty and education – being here has opened my eyes to how overlapping all these theoretically separate issues are – and how efforts by organizations like UKUN help to remedy multiple issues at once. Onset of HIV/AIDS traps people in poverty, infected parents unable to care for their children require kids to drop out of school to take care of younger siblings, take care of the home, and try to make money and get food. It’s a disastrous cycle, with no one cause or apparent solution. But I’m interested in it, in learning more, in increasing coordination of aid efforts between these areas.
I start Monday…. So wish me luck!
I’ve learned all my kids’ names at this point. We have fun on Fridays – that’s when there is free time. They sing and dance and they are only 4 years old – they’re so little! They have a version of duck duck goose – except they say paca paca simba which is chicken, chicken, lion! They get so into it I laugh hysterically.
Monday I start my afternoon placement. My three weeks of cultural immersion activities are over, now I have more free time and I’ve opted to work for a local NGO. It’s called “UKUN” – the abbreviation is in Swahili – and it is an NGO focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, social awareness, and home-based treatment and care. Specifically, I will be going on home visits to AIDS patients with the head of the NGO and taking notes on what the AIDS patients require – often basic things like food and clothes.
Part of the problem is that HIV/AIDS individuals may receive antiretroviral drugs but may not have food, thus are taking the drugs on an empty stomach, leaving them weak and physically strained, potentially malnourished. UKUN looks to remedy some of these areas but is itself short on funding and resources. I have no doubt that the home visits will be difficult to experience but will give me valuable insight and a deeper understanding as to what it means to suffer from HIV/AIDS in a developing country.
Other work I hope to do relates to links between HIV/AIDS and nutrition. As I said above, they are intrinsically connected with overlapping causes and effects. Poor nutrition allows HIV/AIDS to onset much quicker, resulting in inability to work, provide for family members, and remain a functioning member of society. The social stigma is apparent as well – individuals with HIV/AIDS are viewed as promiscuous sexually, which in an already extremely conservative society, is looked down upon. Accordingly, higher levels of nutrition allow individuals with HIV/AIDS to continue working, taking antiretroviral drugs to delay the onset of full-blown AIDS, and provide for their families.
The related areas include poverty and education – being here has opened my eyes to how overlapping all these theoretically separate issues are – and how efforts by organizations like UKUN help to remedy multiple issues at once. Onset of HIV/AIDS traps people in poverty, infected parents unable to care for their children require kids to drop out of school to take care of younger siblings, take care of the home, and try to make money and get food. It’s a disastrous cycle, with no one cause or apparent solution. But I’m interested in it, in learning more, in increasing coordination of aid efforts between these areas.
I start Monday…. So wish me luck!
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