AIDS w/photos

*THESE PICTURES ILLUSTRATE OUR VISIT TO THE TOWNSHIP, NOT MY COMMENTS ABOUT AIDS. WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE IN THESE PICTURES.




Let's talk about AIDS. From all accounts we've heard here, more than 50% of adults in South Africa are infected. I kind of knew that when I came here, but I didn't realize how truly dire the situation is. Yesterday, we went on a tour of four of the Cape townships. FYI: Townships are the areas where the government decided to move black Cape residents when they reconfigured the city and under apartheid. Remember what I wrote about District Six? We're talking about people who before the upheaval lived in lovely, productive communities. Can I say the townships are uproductive? No, people are all over the place trying to work, but, they still are beset by grinding poverty and overcrowding.

For example, let me tell you about the preschool we visited yesterday. When we walked in the door, we were positively MOBBED by children. To the point that three or four kids would be trying to climb up you for a hug all at once and if they didn't get a hug, they were in tears. A HUG, I'm telling you. They were holding onto you for dear life. Hmmmmm. Maybe I should reset so you understand even more. This preschool was your typical, small, one-room, one-teacher/one-cook preschool. I counted about 75 kids in this room. There is no way on earth this one teacher could EDUCATE all these children. I do believe that it was all she could do (god bless her) to keep them in the room. And forget education, there's no way these kids are getting individual affection. Teachers mobbed, parents trying to work ...

Now, realize that in the townships where these kids are growing up, there are the further problems of about 35% unemployment (because the government has forcibly, artificially moved people around, so there are areas where there are waaaaaaaay too many workers and other where there are now not enough), women who aspire to have children (where isn't this the case, really?), shebeens (aka, pubs where men drink; again, where isn't this the case?), and an educational system compromised by overcrowding and misinformation (aka, president Thabo Mbeki, who in the past has asserted that HIV is not the cause of AIDs and who has fueled conspiracy theories, true or not, about the role of western pharmaceutical companies in the spread of the disease).

On overcrowding: We visited what is called a hostel - originally built for men who were forcibly moved to the area from other parts of South Africa to serve as forced laborers. Hostels, which in the U.S. would comfortably house two people, now house THREE FAMILIES. People are on top of each other all the time. As our tour guide Sam ever-so-subtley put it, "There is no privacy." If you get his hint.

On misinformation: We visited a "healer." OK, while healers are respected and part of tradition, this was a dude in a shanty that does not get electrical service who grinds up bits of snake skins and bone and uses that to cure people's ailments, INCLUDING HIV. Today, while we were in the market, one of the vendors was telling us about the meanings of all the carved stones he was selling, including the marijuana leaf. He told us it was used to CURE HIV. Sam told us that the townships are also beset by violence and that adds to the problem. Some of the residents take the attitude that if the HIV/AIDS doesn't kill them, violence will, so what is the point of getting educated about it?

It is such a spiral that I can't even opine about it. All I can think about is how it felt to be hugged by children who have nothing, want nothing but your affection, and who face an uncertain future.