what he did for his summer vacation

My friend, AY, is working at an AIDS treatment program in South Africa this summer and i wanted to share his recent experience - so well written and very touching. it's a pretty amazing, life-changing experience...

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I have been running around like a crazy man, and absolutely having the time of my life. Because my organization is a start-up and short on staff, they have sent me all over this beautiful, beautiful country. It’s like a vacation every week! The natural wonder here is totally out of control. You can hardly turn a corner without running into an unbelievable expanse of mountains, or breathtaking views into tree-covered valleys, or the sun setting over pastoral hills. At night: a sky full of stars.

Okay where to begin. First, I never thought I’d say this, but “work has been incredible.” The founders of my organization are pioneering a new, community-based approach to healthcare. Our organization doesn’t rely on big, shiny hospitals to provide AIDS treatment for our patients. Hospitals, (particularly shiny ones), are in very short supply in Africa. Rather, we organize poor communities to provide medical care for themselves. We go to a community and 1) find the best community doctors, who usually operate one-room practices out of a shopping mall, and we give them the tools and training to treat AIDS. 2) We supplement the doctors by training and organizing a network of community support leaders, who provide the patient follow-up and support that is critical for AIDS patients. We basically organize poor communities to look after themselves, and these communities are able to mobilize a stunning array of resources. I believe that this concept is the future of healthcare in Africa.

The most gratifying part of my experience has involved actually implementing this healthcare model, and getting ground-level experience with these communities. It has been a great opportunity to learn about the lives of AIDS patients, poor people in general, community leaders, local politicians, and community doctors. The highlight was definitely last weekend, at one of my main sites. We held a “patient enrollment,” a three day education and enrollment session for patients starting in our AIDS treatment program. We were expecting about 50 people. But *200* people showed up. It was utter, utter chaos. There were people milling around everywhere, we had nurses drawing dozens of vials of blood, we ran out of three different kinds of forms, babies crying, and we had to scrounge up more than a hundred additional meals! But when the dust finally settled, my coworker and I had educated and enrolled 140 patients onto AIDS treatment over three days.

I simply cannot describe the emotion I felt. The life expectancy of these patients is less than 12 months, and I saw in front of me an ocean of people, choosing to live. Each one special. There is this amazing little boy I have gotten to know, Mbuso, who has these horrible open sores on his face. Yet he is strong like a tree. Standing on a chair, he spoke in front of his community members about the importance of taking his medicine every day so that he could live, all in his tiny tiny voice, and … I felt so alive to be able to witness him. It was an amazing feeling.

Thankfully, I haven’t had to digest this all alone. I have had a great South African friend to share these experiences with, Zanele (pronounced Zanelay) - we have been a two-person team, traveling together for the last two months. This amazing human being is absolutely full of life. Zanele is the fourth and last sister in her family, and her name means “enough girls.” She is a fiery lesbian African woman who lost her partner to AIDS in March, and is on a personal mission to end this disease. I doubt anything will stop her - she lives in the Johannesburg townships, and was once shot in the chest, while arguing with three armed men who wanted to steal her car. Amazing. Personally, if anyone ever tried to steal my car, I’d hand over the keys before they could finish asking. I’d also take off my shirt, in case they wanted it too.

Zanele educates our patients before they begin treatment, and can tug at the heart of a crowd of people like you wouldn’t believe. She has amazing charisma, and wields emotion with great skill. She is absolutely tireless, and keeps patients on the edges of their seats, listening and participating and laughing, even at the end of seven hours of training. Zanele has this fire within her that doesn’t feed off of any fuel I know of - rather, her fire grows stronger with every person she passes it on to. She is a born educator and leader.

When Zanele talks about her partner Daisy, who passed away from AIDS, it is readily apparent that most people don’t experience this kind of bond with someone in their entire life. For me, Zanele’s story serves as an important reminder. With all the death here, it has become easy to forget the moral value of life - instead of creating a sense of emergency, one becomes used to it. Zanele counters this, and is a daily reminder to me about the value of life - both in her partner’s death, and in her own bright aliveness. We have been through a lot of very emotional things together, much more than I was expecting, and she has taught me a lot about myself.