To be blind is bad, but worse is to have eyes and not see.
Helen Keller

Although all power is out in Tengeru, the Internet cafe has a generator, so I have access!! I just finished typing a blog, but unfortunately, the computer shut down when I was about to post... so here I go again. As I am writing I have many many children looking over my shoulder, amazed at my typing speed.

I wanted to tell you all about an experience I had yesterday. We were brought as a group for a tour of St. Lucia which is an orphanage/hospice house that has been built by a former volunteer. What a learning experience. We were introduced to the numerous women living there who are in the transition phase between HIV/AIDS. The walls of St. Lucia also house 14 orphans - also all HIV positive. Upon entering the room of infants, they all reached up to be held. This is an experience that will stay with me forever. With only 2 staff members taking care of all the women and orphans, there simply isn't enough time to give the children the love and attention they need. The most difficult to see was what I thought was an infant girl, who turned out to be 4 years of age. Due to extreme malnutrition, she is not growing as she should. I thought she was a baby, and couldn't understand why she was talking so well. How sad this was.

Zik - our program leader told about the reasons why HIV is so prelevant in this community. Apparently due to tribal tradition, childbirth is done naturally, and although the details are quite graphic, I'll just say that childbirth and circumcisions are not sanitary. The disease spreads rapidly as 50% of the population still use these primitive ways.

Before leaving, one of the women staying at St. Lucia told us her story about how she tested positive for HIV and was abandoned by her husband. He took her children as well. She was now staying at St. Lucia (where she woke up one morning after passing out due to illness). Unfortunately, although the one small hospital and many NGOs are doing everything they can to do HIV education and prevention, the disease continues to spread, and the negative stigma that accompanies a positive test result lives on. Progress is being made, but at a very slow rate. Usually at the later stages of HIV, during the transition to AIDS (below 200 white blood cells count), ARVs are free to all hospital patients, should they be available. Money is a major obstacle. Usually tuberculosis is the most common opportunistic disease that ends up taking over their bodies.

This was a very difficult experience, but I am so glad to have been exposed to this reality. I don't have any pictures to post. I just couldn't bring myselft to take them. Pictures of St. Lucia are burned in my memory forever.
Thanks again everyone for your e-mails. Jackie - the coffee here puts Timmy's to shame:)