World AIDs Day

"I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain." --Springsteen, Streets of Philadelphia

On Saturday December 5, 2009, three Peace Corps Volunteers and 16 sixth grade students hosted an HIV/AIDs awareness event in the village of N. Aurora.

My last trip into the city in November was stressful. Catherine and myself had two and a half days to buy everything we needed for the World AIDs Day event. We ran around town buying t-shirts and other visuals for the event. The most stressful and unfortunately memorable moment of my trip to the city was when I got lost looking for the National AIDs Programme building, the place where I'd be given 600+ condoms to distribute amongst the village of N. Aurora. While looking for the building, I happened to walk right past it and into an AIDs treatment center. I'll never forget the looks of the faces on the people in the waiting room, their eyes full of despair while waiting to be tested for HIV. It brought on a whole new meaning to the work I was doing with these kids.

As for the AIDs day itself, it was an interesting event since we were dependent on the 6th graders to run the show. It was far from a success by American standards, but it was probably a success by local standards. We had 100% attendance and participation by the 6th graders which was my biggest fear and the sound board showed up only 30 minutes late, only minor details in this Peace Corps job. The event itself was fun to watch unfold. We started out by passing out pieces of yarn with a red bead to all those in attendance. This was a visual to unite our audience for the AIDs day and was very popular. Then, the kids did four skits and a few raps about how to prevent HIV. We had not been able to practice with microphones before this day because the electricity is so sporadic in this village so this added a bit of uncertainty to the event. Then, in the middle of the skits and raps, the kids--in charge of the soundboard, decided to throw on some dance music and improve a dance.
This left the Peace Corps Volunteers flabergasted and slightly amused, I think everyone else in attendance was just confused though. We wrapped up on stage with the kids receiving certificates from the Peace Corps staff who were in attendance. Finally, the volunteers in attendance passed out condoms to the villagers. People were happy to receive the condoms but a bit upset they could only get 9. They told us that 9 condoms would only last them 3 days--I'll be bringing back 1152 male condoms to the river next week.

In review, the World AIDs day event went about as smoothly as we could expect. Hopefully those in attendance will remember our event when they see a kid or a volunteer walking around the village sporting a red bead which were still being worn a week after the event. But most importantly, we got through to sixteen 6th graders whom I'm hoping won't ever have to sit in a room and be tested for HIV because they know how to prevent it.