Recent Happenings

A lot of "Africa stuff" has been happening lately. I've talked about the TAPP program in Uganda a lot & how the women there make necklaces. We have started selling those necklaces here and have made so much money for the women in Uganda. A group of us are turning it into a business thing where the women there will be able to earn a steady income from making the necklaces. We're still in the planning stages, but are selling the necklaces & it's going great.

My school has an Acting on AIDS group on campus. A group of us planned an AIDS summit recently. We got together every other Sunday for awhile planning it and 2 weeks before it happened we started our advertising for it. We made posters and flyers all out of used cardboard & paper & used spray paint and some of our Africa pics. We all either used a red shirt we already had or bought one at goodwill, turned it insideout, & spray painted an AIDS ribbon on it w/the date of the summit & wore the shirts for 2 weeks to advertise. It is a great way to recycle shirts so if you need a shirt for some event or something, the spray paint thing is great.

Throughout the week before the summit we had different activities. On Wednesday evening we showed the movie AIDS in Black America. On Thursday evening we showed the movie Blood Diamond, you know, the new one w/Leonardo DiCaprio. It's sad b/c I know people who bought the movie b/c it's him and a good action movie. It's real life!

After the movie a girl who spent last semester in Sierra Leone (where the movie took place) spoke. She told about a pastor she lived with while there. During the time of the diamond conflict, the pastor and his family was saved from the RUF many times. One time they needed to cross a bridge, but the RUF was letting people go, but shooting them as they crossed. The congregation needed to cross so they just started praying & walking. When the started to cross a bridge, a soldier a little ways away started going crazy & all the other soldiers left to see what was going on and the congregation was able to cross safely. As soon as they had crossed, the soldiers shot the soldier going crazy, went back to their positions and again started killing people that crossed the bridge. Another time the RUF took all the women in the pastor's congregation into a room and shot all of them, all except the pastor's wife. They were so glad God was there for their family. But that night as I walked back to my apartment by myself I cried & asked God where he was for all the other people crossing that bridge, where he was for all the other women in that congregation.

Friday we had a big bell in the valley of the campus. We rang it every 14 seconds to represent that every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa.

Saturday was the summit. We had a few tables set up. Acting on AIDS had a table, TAPP, Bound4Freedom (a group that makes & sells homemade journals to raise money, we-TAPP- are partnering with them), & the ONE campaign. The day was great. Steve Haas from World Vision was the speaker & he was really good. We also had breakout sessions. On Thursdays I go to a guy's house who has AIDS as part of our local AIDS ministry & this guy led a breakout session & that is the first one I went to. He talked about AIDS in the US & basically just told his story. One of the women in the session asked him who he had for support. His answer was "myself. and these girls" meaning us that go & visit with him. It was crazy to realize how much it means to him and made me feel bad for the times I didn't go just b/c I had too much homework or something. The other breakout session I went to was about HIV in women and was led by Cassie, one of the women who led my last Africa trip, and Lolly, one of my social work professors. They are both amazing women & I have learned a lot from them since I have known them and learned a lot in their breakout session. I got teary eyed a lot during this day & one of those times was when Lolly said that in East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania & Kenya) most girls' first sexual experience is forced. I immediately thought of my sponsor girl Rachael.

For lunch that day we had a poverty meal. We ate the corn soy porridge that the US sends to Africa for hunger relief. As we ate we read stories of children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. The food didn't taste too bad, but it definitely wasn't good. Definitely wouldn't be something I'd eat if I had the choice. But the people who do eat it don't have a choice. The meal just made me realize even more all the things we take advantage of. You may think, oh the US is helping them with their hunger by giving them food so things are okay now. But still think how unequal it is. When we are hungry, we can choose what we eat. They may not be starving anymore, but unlike us, they don't get to choose what to eat. It also made me think of all the times we look in the pantry or the fridge that is full and say "there's nothing to eat."

The weekend after the summit I did a thing called Youth for Africa. One of the social clubs on campus put it together. They made "African huts" and asked people that had been to Africa &/or knew stuff about HIV/AIDS to come and talk and invited area youth groups. 2 or 3 people were in each hut & the topics were things like AIDS 101, AIDS in the US, Women & HIV/AIDS, Socioeconomics, and family dynamics/sponsorship. I was in the hut for family dynamics/sponsorship. It was me, a guy who lived in Africa for a year, and Scott who went on both of my Uganda trips with me. I told the story of me meeting my sponsor girl which was a great example of family dynamics in Africa also. Then the guy who lived in Africa told a story of his neighbors that started an orphanage & then we all just started talking about family life in Africa as well as lots of other things. We were the group that always went over our time limit:). It was really good. Not a lot of youth groups showed up, but the ones who did seemed to enjoy it and the girls in the social club got to participate and said they learned a lot.

Like I mentioned before, every Thursday I got to visit a man who has AIDS. This is part of our local AIDS ministry. The man lives in Anderson and every Thursday me & 3 other girls go to this man's house to hang out, eat dinner, and help with cleaning. He is very lonely and depressed and loves company so a couple Fridays ago we had a cookout with 13 people at his house. We all helped out with the cooking and it was a lot of fun. A lot of people had to leave around 7, but me & 4 other girls stayed until 9 and played dice with him and just hung out and talked and listened to music. It is a joy to spend time with this man and it was also fun to hang out with these other girls because they are really neat, but I don't know them very well and don't normally get to hang out with them.

This summer I am taking a course taught by Cassie, the leader of my Uganda trip. It is spiritual care for those with HIV/AIDS. It's only for a week and I just recently got the syllabus and it is going to be amazing. I am going to learn so much and I think the community in the class will be awesome as well.

I have been e-mailing David, the leader of TAPP in Uganda, back and forth a bit lately. He recently told me the news that his wife is pregnant and they are expecting the baby in July! So pray for him & his family that the birth goes well and the baby & his wife stay healthy.