Spreading the news

Oh gosh! It's been a while since I documented anything. Well, it's a good time to write because I am very proud of some of the work I've done lately.

First of all, I went to a training on Abstience and Being Faithful as it relates to HIV/AIDS. A nurse's aid who also works at the health center accompained me. It was a pretty good training; however, there were a lot of Americans in our group, so we didn't get as much Guyanase prespective as I would have liked. As a result of the training, Meshana and I are required (collectively) to train 20 more trainers. My goal is to train the youth in a group that I'm a part of called Guyana Youth Ambassadors Foundation (GYAF). In turn, I hope that they will hold youth workshops on abstinence and being faithful. This will be a secondary project that will take up some more of my time.

Also, recently, the PCVs received a lot of great material (posters and brochures) on HIV/AIDS. The messages that are being conveyed include:

1. "Knowing is Better" and "Blind trust" - encouraging people to get tested
2. "You can't go wrong with just one" - promoting faithfulness (particularly in marriage)
3. "Don't dis me" - acknowledging that HIV/AIDS can happen to anyone; therefore, we shouldn't discriminate
4. "Protect you and your precious one" - prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT)
5. "Don't be Exposed" - promoting condom use

Because I had all this material I decided to go around to the different business and ask permission to hang up posters on Monday. I went around explaining that I was from the health center and that we wanted to put up posters about HIV/AIDS. I explained the different messages and gave them a choice of which poster they would like to hang in their establishment.

Consequently, I had a few in-depth conversations. One of my longer exchanges was with guy who works at an auto repair shop. He asked me how long you can live with HIV. He commented on how a lot of people would rather not know using the excuse of "we're all goin to die anyway." I explained that it varies from person to person but that some people live years and years without knowing they have HIV. And, that if you know your status you can live a lot longer because you can get treatment and stay healthy. Also, I mentioned that knowing your status helps you protect the ones you love. You could have the virus and give it to your significant other without knowing it. I also explained the difference between HIV and AIDS. We too often mix them up, and they don't mean the same thing.

He also asked me about a pretty radical scenario. "What if you're in a restaurant and someone cuts their hand and their blood gets into your drink and you drink it. Can you get HIV?" I then explained how not only does a contaminated fluid need to be present but that fluid needs some way of entering your body. HIV can not be passed through the stomach because the acids kill the virus. I did mention if you had a cut in your mouth and blood were to get in there, then there would be a possibility of contracting the virus.

And, after our at-length conversation, he gave me a juice box to drink :)

At the end of the day, I felt really, really good. Most of the shop keepers were very receptive, and I felt great bringing new information/ clearing up any misconceptions to people. My goal is visit every business (whether big or small) in Parika to hang up posters.

Tuesday, my PC supervisor came for a site visit, and one of her objectives was to see me in action. I decided to give a talk on HIV because Parika is now a Voluntary Testing and Councelling (VCT) site and offers free and confidential HIV testing. In addition to promoting our new service, I explained the difference between HIV and AIDS and why knowing your status is better. I thought it went pretty well, but I didn't know how well until today. This morining the cousellor said that because of my talk two clients went to get tested! How exciting is that!?! Man, two feel good days in a row?--let's hope I keep it up.