Sorry for the delay in between posts, November has been a busy month for GRS in Malawi. Things are finally starting to settle down now that you lucky people in the States are getting ready to chow down on some Turkey.
Rachel and I hosted our third and final half-day VCT testing tournament this past Saturday in the Kawale district of Lilongwe and the event was a huge success. The final numbers on the day were as follows – 315 people tested, 9 people were found to be reactive and of those 9 only 2 of them were over the age of 18. I have a couple of notes about the day as a whole:
· The number 315 is absolutely phenomenal. In our previous two events we managed to test 120 people and 220 people respectively so to beat our previous high by almost 100 is a great achievement. The fact that we’re improving on our numbers by right around 100 people from one event to the other is making the GRS Malawi team recognize the limitless potential of these half-day events. With continued improvement we’re hoping that one day we can try to test 500 or even 1000 people at these half-day events.
· The final budget for the day ended up being around 270 dollars. With the help of Baylor Hospital here in Lilongwe we’ve managed to cut pretty much every single unnecessary expense so that we can focus our money on things that will make us more efficient. The fact that we’re testing over one person per dollar that we’re spending is a pretty cool stat; especially when you consider that the standard budgets for testing events in Southern Africa can go as high as two or three thousand bucks while testing right around the same number as us.
· The thing that amazed me most about the event was how smooth and hassle free it was. At the previous two events we had major problems that came out of nowhere at the last second, for example in Area 25 one of the teams didn’t show up and in Area 36 four of the teams showed up two hours late. We had a few unexpected hiccups at Kawale but for the most part we dealt with them quickly and didn’t let them disturb our rhythm at all. We avoided one major catastrophe when Mother Nature decided to be kind and hold off on the rain until the end of our event. At one point it started to drizzle a little bit and I totally froze. I knew that if it started pouring everything would have been ruined – the kids would have run home, the PA system guys would have packed up shop and the counselors would have gone home as well. I can’t even begin to imagine how terrible it would have been if it had started raining. For one thing, we probably wouldn’t have tested 50 people and all of the 270 bucks that we spent would have gone to waste.
· One of the toughest parts of the day was when this 18-year-old kid came up to me and told me that he had just tested positive for HIV/AIDS. I tried to support him as much as possible and raise his spirits but the worst part was that he didn’t believe the outcome of the test. He kept saying that he didn’t believe the doctors but when I asked him why he couldn’t come up with one good reason not to believe them. I tried my hardest to tell him that he had to visit the Baylor clinic in the next week to follow up the positive result and consult with one of the clinicians at the hospital but he seemed very hesitant and almost hostile. After a while we managed to calm him down and we booked him in for an appointment this week but for a little while that was kind of a scary moment. I think his reaction to the positive result was a product of two things: 1) I think he was scared and part of the HIV/AIDS culture here is to run away from things that scare you. 2) I also think that this was a classic case of HIV/AIDS stigma. The kid didn’t want to believe that the positive test was real because he didn’t want to accept that HIV/AIDS was a real problem. Either way, as long as he goes to his appointment and sticks to his ARV’s he’ll be ok but we definitely need to keep an eye on him.
· I don’t want to finish on such a somber note so just before I conclude my post I’m going to talk about one of the coolest things about the Kawale event -- the presence of the local community Chiefs. In Kawale, and actually in a lot of Malawian communities, the Chiefs are the most influential people in the area. We extended invitations to all 12 Chiefs in the Kawale area and we were all extremely surprised to see all 12 of them show up on the day of the event. These Chiefs were undoubtedly one of the main reasons we managed to boost our number to 315. Their presence inspired kids, mothers, fathers, and absolutely everyone around to come out to our event and test. The best part of the whole Chief experience is that some of them actually agreed to test. We were by no means expecting them to agree to test and we were ok with that, we thought their participation would be enough of a help to our event. In fact, some of them almost declined our invitations because they were worried that we would force them to test. But in the end, after they saw what we were doing for the kids and how fun everything was some of them actually agreed to go into the testing room. The fact that they not only showed up to the event but actually participated in the testing aspect was a huge help to GRS in Malawi and a testament to their wisdom as Chiefs. Hopefully we can continue to build a working relationship with them because their power is unparalleled in Malawian culture.
All in all the day was a huge success and I’m really happy because it means that I can start my 3-week journey home on a high note. Starting on Friday Rachel and I are planning a nice long trip from Lilongwe to Cape Town through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. We’re planning a couple of fun activities along the way – some of these fun activities include bungee jumping from Victoria Falls, sand dune surfing in Namibia, visiting a sweet safari park in Botswana and white water rafting down the Zambezi. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes if I survive and I’ll take as many pictures as possible.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you wherever you are in the world!
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