Massive VCT event in Kawale

Man oh man, this is definitely one of those times when I wished that I had updated this guy a couple of weeks ago. So many amazing things have happened since the last time I wrote an entry and I definitely have no idea where to begin. I’ve been thinking about the best way to attack all of the events that have unfolded recently and I’ve decided to do my best to write about each interesting episode in several installments over the next week or so.

I think the first thing that I want to discuss is the half-day VCT event that we hosted this past Saturday (March 20^th) in the Kawale district of Lilongwe. The event itself was absolutely positively the most successful testing tournament that Rachel and I organized since we arrived in Lilongwe. We spent a lot of time planning this event, almost double the amount of time we spent planning all of the other VCT events combined because for some crazy reason we decided to invite four different secondary schools instead of one or two. Our thinking was that if we invited four separate schools, we would sensitize four completely different areas to the joys of a VCT event. We also figured that if we invited four different schools, we would have community members from four different districts in attendance. In the end, this wacky thinking proved to be pretty accurate because in the end we managed to test 483 people in less than 5 hours! Our previous high for a half-day VCT event was 330 people so we were really happy with the final results. The most striking thing about this event was that we managed to test 483 people while still managing to stick to our strict budget of around 300 dollars.

Testing 483 people while only spending 300 bucks is insane and almost completely unheard of in the world of HIV testing in this area. To put things into perspective for you I’ll compare our event to the massive testing event that GRS co-hosted with a couple of months ago. At this event 615 people were tested, which was a record for testing turnout in the history of HIV testing in Malawi, but at the same time this incredibly high budget came with a price tag of over 800 dollars. In addition, the huge turnout was almost definitely a result of the big celebrities in attendance, celebrities like Mafunyeta who is undoubtedly one of the biggest musicians in Southern Africa right now. At our event, we spent 500 bucks less, didn’t have any major celebrities, and did it in 5 hours instead of 10. Pretty mind blowing when you think about it.

Normally I include VCT related posts with the best thing that happened during the day and the worst thing as well. This time I’m going to finish with a story that almost fits into both categories:

At the beginning of the day I met this kid that I had worked with at our previous VCT event in Kawale. When I saw him I talked to him for a little while, asked him how things were going, and then asked him if he was going to test. He kept saying that he didn’t want to test because he was scared. This is a pretty standard response to the question of testing so I didn’t let it stop me and kept persisting and told him that he should test because I’m sure everything would turn out well. After a couple of hours of seeing him around and constantly asking him, he finally got tested. Minutes after he got tested, and before he had gotten his result, he came running up to me saying that he had gotten tested and that everything was ok. He was so excited and pumped that he started telling everyone. Unfortunately, a couple of minutes later I learned from one of our counselors that he had actually tested positive but that they hadn’t told him yet because they couldn’t find him. As soon as I heard the news this huge wave of sadness came over me. I felt like the whole situation was my fault and couldn’t help but feel responsible for all the sadness that he would feel when he learned his positive result. The whole situation rocked my world and I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night.

After thinking about it for so long and talking to a couple of people I realized that it was actually a good thing because now he knew his status and could get treatment and ultimately have a much better shot at living a long, healthy life. Needless to say the whole event made the HIV/AIDS issue even more real for me but I think my final conclusion is that we did a good thing by helping him learn his status. The bottom line is that he has HIV/AIDS, and that he needs to do something to address the virus if he wants to be happier in the long run.

All right, that’s enough from me for today. I’m going to write something about Teen Club in my next entry in a couple of days so stay tuned! Hope everyone is healthy and happy. 

Malaria and the after life

So it turns out malaria is a serious illness. I found this out first hand last week. For the longest time I thought it was nothing more than a more severe version of the flu or something along those lines. In my six months in Senegal, and in my first seven months here in Malawi, I’d been bitten millions of times by mosquitoes but nothing ever come of it until last week. And then all of a sudden everything caught up to me and my luck vanished into thin air. Malaria hit me harder than a punch from Manny Pacquiao and for a little while everything was looking a little grim – but I’m back now and everything is ok. I guess the good news is that I can’t get it again, so now I can let those little bloodsuckers eat me as much as they want without worrying.

I got back to work late last week and was thrown back into it right away. We had a two-day training for our peer health evaluators to help them in their Teen Club duties. A lot of them had been complaining about a couple of things so we decided to put together a training session to help them feel more comfortable and well equipped for Teen Club.

This week Rachel and I have been planning our first half-day VCT since after Christmas break. The tournament is going to be this Saturday and for the first time ever we’re inviting four different schools to participate – that way community members from four separate districts will come and support their schools (and hopefully get tested too!). As you can probably guess, the more schools we invite the more work we have to do to make sure everything is ready for the tournament.  Rachel and I have basically been going from one school to the other to make sure that everything is in place for Saturday. We’ve talked to countless teachers, and embarrassed ourselves in front of four separate school assemblies (where there are between 500 and 800 people normally watching).

Before we started doing these school assemblies to sensitize all of the students before our VCT event, one of our master coaches, Godfrey, encouraged Rachel and I to use our "Malawian" names when introducing ourselves to the students. This may not sound like much but I cannot tell you the reaction of the kids when we pretend that we have Malawian names. All of the kids freak out and start screaming and jumping out of their seats -- "there is no way you can have that name"! Keep in mind these reactions are all in good fun, they just love the idea that we would have Malawian names because it’s completely unheard of for them. The way I see it now is that Rachel and I are complete comic entertainment for all students and teachers in Malawi. We’re there to lighten the mood and make everyone laugh, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

The next couple of days are going to be pretty hectic and busy, but in a good way. Rachel and I are going to be running around like crazy people making sure everything is in place for the VCT and every afternoon from here until Saturday we’re going to be running practices with the kids to help get them excited for the big tournament. Without us they wouldn’t be able to practice because they don’t have soccer balls or anyone else around to organize them.

On top of all that my parents are coming to visit this Friday! I’m really excited because they’re going to witness one of our tournaments first hand. I haven’t told them the plans yet because I wanted to surprise them, but I’m pretty confident that they’re going to be completely overwhelmed. One second they’re walking off a 3 day flight that completely rocks your internal clock, and the next second they’re walking around a field with about 1000 crazy Malawians kids running and screaming. Should be pretty funny and entertaining, can’t wait!