Keri archive | Ravished Hearts | Getting Word Out About AIDS in Africa

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The Trailer

After taking a week to decompress and a week of straight work, check out the trailer and new site www.wazifilm.com. Next up, the 10 minute piece.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Trip Home-Part 1

For those who haven’t heard, Breezy has had an accident, so she and I flew home early so she could have surgery. All our versions of the story are a bit different, but here is mine.

We decided to go to Machame for 2 days, which is located right along a beautiful river. We were warned that there are many dangerous water buffalo around the area and we should take extra precaution. As we were hiking down to the river, Breezy decided she wanted to wander off the trail. As she did so, a water buffalo ran out of the bushes nearby. She freaked out and started running back toward us, when all the sudden, she slipped on the mud.

We all ran toward her, Ryan, being the first on the scene tried to calm her down and continued to tell her “it’s going to be okay.” Josh and I were next and both kinda froze when we saw her ankle at a 90 degree angle. Calmly, Megan reached her and casually popped her ankle back into place.

I ran to get help and found two amazingly nice people nearby with a car. Ryan, Josh, and Alex took turns crawling on all fours with Breezy on their backs as Megan held her leg in place.

3 hours later, we arrived at the hospital in Moshi. The doctors told us she broke her fibula and ankle and she needs surgery within the next 5 days. She and I caught the first flight we could back to the States.

She went into surgery today and is doing very well considering all that she has been through.

Hamna Shida.

Popularity: 40% [?]

pikta

Popularity: 34% [?]

Community

I love the sense of community here. Rather than an independent, individualistic society we are used to, it is everyone out for everyone. They make it a point to know everyone and what is going on in their lives.

It’s considered rude if you don’t greet people. Sometimes it takes us an extra hour to get somewhere. A quick “Habari” or “Shikamuu” will do, but more times than not it’s the extended greeting.

“Hello, how are you? I’m fine thanks. We are going to visit a friend. Where are you going? Thank you for inviting us to your house, but we can’t right now. Yes, maybe another day. Thank you for feeling sorry for me that I have to walk with a bag on my back. I’m sorry that you have to walk up the mountain with a huge thing of bananas on your head. My mother is good, how is yours? My father is good as well, and yours? Yes, I will tell them you said hello. Thank you, safari njema.” All this while holding your hand.

I can only imagine if you greeted someone to this extent in the States. “Dude let go of my hand, I was going in for a handshake, why are you still holding it? I’m fine, you don’t even know my mom, so why are you asking about her?”

I’m constantly surprised by the generosity and sincerity of the people. Serving others is an honor, not a chore. Imagine if you made less than a dollar a day, on a good day, could barley afford to support yourself, let alone your 3 kids, mother and father, would you give all that you have to a complete stranger? Would you be honored to serve them? It’s the strong sense of community that holds everything together.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Patience

One thing I think we’ve all learned since we’ve arrived is patience. As photographers, filmmakers, artists, and journalists in a foreign country, patience is hard to comprehend. I think all of us have been anxious about this project from the day we booked our tickets. With new sights, sounds, smells, faces, taste, color, and culture surrounding us, everywhere we turn is a picture. But, I often find myself kicking myself for not being able to make a picture. Kids running away, people hiding their faces, yelling at us, or rejecting us. Our patience has been tested, but I’m confident that once people start seeing us around all the time, our patience will pay off.

Popularity: 32% [?]

HIV/AIDS Numbers

With all the research I’ve been doing, I’ve realized that numbers have consumed my mind.

33 million, 76%, 1.7 million, 2.1 million, 22.5 million, 3 out of 4, 90% , $123 million, $7-10 billion, $15 billion.

It’s easy to simply concentrate on these numbers because they are so overwhelming and alarming. But, more importantly we need to look past the simple facts and figures and delve into the real issue.

I recently came across this quote from the book The Little Prince;

Grown-ups are like that…When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him….If you were to say to the grown-ups: “I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof,” they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: “I saw a house that cost $20,000.” Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is!”

Popularity: 42% [?]

To Keep In Mind

I’m reading this book The Invisible Cure, and here are a couple a points that she makes that I think we need to keep in mind.-AIDS is a social problem as much as it is a medical one in Africa.

-In Africa, sex crosses social boundaries more frequently than in the West. It occurs between rich and poor, urban and rural, old and young, and this sexual mixing gave rise to an “epidemiological pump” that drove the virus through the population.”

-Such behavior is normative in many African societies, concurrent or simultaneous sexual partnerships.

-Those most likely to spread the virus are often at an early stage of infection and are not in need of treatment. In many cases, their infections may not even be detectable by HIV tests. Because Africa’s health-care infrastructure is in such a dire state, treatment programs are expensive and difficult to administer, even when the drugs themselves are practically free.

-The most successful AIDS project tended to be conceived and run by Africans themselves or by aid workers with long experience in Africa. By people who really knew the culture.

-Supposed faithful men and women are also at high risk, not from their own behavior, but from the behavior of their partners.

-Because so much HIV transmission in Africa occurs in long-term relationships in which there is a degree of intimacy and trust, condoms are seldom used, and this makes the epidemic even more difficult to control.

-Women in transactional relationships may be more vulnerable to HIV because they are more likely han other women to tolerate an unfaithful partner and also to seek out additional concurrent sexual relationship themselves.

Popularity: 29% [?]