World AIDS Day

       2011. Getting to Zero. That was this years theme, goal, message and expectation for World AIDS Day. Zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS related deaths and zero discrimination. It is a tall order and the bar for success is now set very high. World wide how do we actually implement this mentality? In Kayanga, a small village that doesn't even make it on Google maps, took a small step towards this goal. It was an entire community involvement, one that I was not able to fully see until I took a step back.

       The night before the event I watched as the woman's group practiced their drama and songs outside the church, the woman in charge of cooking were off to the far right, all in a line carrying water back in preparation for the next days cooking, and then the men and I caring to the cow. I witnessed from start to finish how they prepare beef, village style. I won't go into details in case it grosses people out or in case PETA stumbles across this blog, but I ended the night with my friend Peggy cooking our noodles in my kitchen hut while an ENTIRE cut up cow was lying next to us on an tin plate they use for some roofs just chilling right in my kitchen. It was placed on aluminium sheet and the raw meat was still pulsing from the cow having been killed an hour before. 

       The day's program went off without any big glitches. The day showcased the great skills from the dance group, pre-primary kids singing traditional songs, Catholic woman's choir busting out not only song and dance, but a theatrical performance, and then the girl's group brought to life some of the the biggest drivers of the HIV epidemic through skits. Speeches from the headman, the HIV counselor and people from New Start Clinic brought motivation and high expectations to increase HIV testing in the area and reducing deaths due to AIDS. We were able to bring testing directly to the people, something that is not normally done without proper refrigeration/electricity. The testing crew brought enough supplies for close to 50 tests but had to go get more when almost 200 people were lined to get tested. That is an insane number for one day, in one village, in a semi-public setting. Even more important is not necessarily the quantity of people but that men, young, men were getting standing in line getting tested among the older men and woman, both young and old.

        The day ended with a meal of porridge and beef that fed all that attended, face painting with wonderful friends that helped out, a raffle that people went nuts over, the ceremonial hand off of the cow head to the headman, a phenomenal dance circle to some great Namibian jams, and an AIDS mural that made for a well rounded day. It may seem like the highlight of this event was the number of people that found out their status, but what also was a big deal were the youth, that were such an integral part of the program, got a chance got to express themselves through song, dance, and drama. I hope the community as a whole got a little push to raise the bar and to that the event gave kids an essential confidence boost, which is a form of HIV prevention in itself.