Living HIV Positive

As a newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer I am fully aware that my work is about to begin and before I know it I'll be in the full swing of things in my village.  Aside from working on agricultural and environmental projects, one of the issues that I will spend much of my time addressing will be HIV / AIDS here in Zambia, specifically in Mufumbwe District (where I'll be living).  As a whole, about 16% of the Zambian population is infected with HIV - Zambia is right in the heart of the worldwide HIV / AIDS epicenter.

I have no idea how many questions I got about HIV / AIDS before coming to Zambia, but there is no doubt in my mind that people asked more about that than anything else.  For as much as we Americans know about HIV (how it is transmitted and those that are most at risk to contract it), we still don't know much about the virus itself, and we still attach a lot of stigmas to it.  So this blog, though brief, will be about my first (known) encounter with HIV + people and how they live their lives with it.

The first thing I will say about HIV - it isn't lurking around every corner here in Zambia, in Africa, or anywhere in the world.  It's out there, but it isn't everywhere.  The second thing, with advances in medicine those that are affected with HIV now have the opportunity to live more normal and long lives.  HIV no longer leads to the guaranteed death sentence that it use to, and that's a very, very good thing.

About five weeks ago, while in training, we had half a day in which five people that were HIV + came to meet with us and discuss how they handle being infected with HIV and how they live their daily lives.

One woman told the story of how when she found out she was infected she informed her husband and insisted he be tested.  He refused and left her completely.  Just a few short years later he died from AIDS, and she is still living.  It has since been determined that he gave her the virus many years before she was tested.

Another man told the story of how he has been living with it for over 20 years.  He had no idea that he had the virus until his daughter died suddenly of suspected tuberculosis.  TB is sometimes blamed for deaths when, in fact, the real culprit is HIV / AIDS.  After she passed he went and got tested... since then he has known he has it.

These are just a couple of the stories, but all of the people we spoke with had really compelling, heartbreaking, and hopeful stories.  And that's just it - everyone with this condition has a story and a battle.  Luckily the odds in successfully fighting this battle have greatly improved.  The key is to live a healthy lifestyle (good food and exercise) and take full advantage of the medicines that are freely and readily available.

John, Linus, Mary(?), Eugene, Me, and Charicia

It was one of the best sessions that we had during our entire three months of training, and to hear their stories was really a unique experience.  However, I think the thing (for me at least) that was the most useful was to actually put names and faces with this terrible virus.  It can be a bit difficult to totally understand the condition when you know absolutely no one that is affected by it.  I really want to thank all of these speakers for coming to talk with us trainees.