HIV/AIDS Weekend

This weekend was the HIV/AIDS weekend. We had a couple speakers on AIDS and then we went to visit a tradional healer. That was a little crazy because the lady stated that she talked to spirits and they showed her how to heal the people that came to see her. A couple people said they were really scared of her and that they could feel the spiritual warfare...I thought she was just a crazy, old confused lady. The lady confessed to being a Christian, but believed that the spirits she talked to were on the same level as Jesus. I don't agree w/ her, but it was an interesting experience to have. They danced and sang for us and ended up pulling a couple of us up with them to dance. It was so much fun!

The next day we visited an organization that takes in a couple familes that have AIDS and helps them by providing housing and food. All of the families we met didn't have dads because they had all died from AIDS. One of the familes was headed by a 16 year old girl that took care of her four younger sisters because both of her parents had died. Another one of the familes had a girl that was born with no shoulder bones. She couldn't use or even barely move her arms, so she did everything with her feet. When she was born her father told her mother that she must either kill the girl or he would divorce her. When the mother refused, the father kicked her out and sent the little girl and her older sister to live with their grandpa. The grandpa would sit the little girl out on the road hoping that she would be hit by a car, but the older sister would hide without the grandpa knowing and save her sister each time a car came. The mother eventually came back and got her girls when she found out what was happening and that was when she came to get help from this organization. A lot of the people in the camp had malaria because the HIV deteriorates their immune system so much that they can't fight the virus. We ate with them and played with them and it was a lot of fun, but really sad.

We learned a lot about Anti-Retro Virals (ARV's) that can prolong a persons life indefinately who has HIV/AIDS. The thing is that they are so expensive that many Ugandans can't afford them. We in the United States have insurance and other ways of getting these meds. Until recently the United States was suplementing the costs of these ARV for the Ugandans, but only if they would buy them from U.S. manufacturers. The thing with that is that the ARV are cheaper from other countries, so by doing the Ugandans a favor we were actually making them pay more. I believe this has been resolved as of recently, but it just seems so unfair. In the words of Bono, why should where we live affect whether we live? It shouldn't! Why should people in America get the medicine they need for AIDS, but people in Africa are left to suffer and die? If we are all made in the image of God, shouldn't we all get the same treatment...why does the fact that these people are from Africa make any difference? They are still children of God...and they should be treated as such.