I know my status- do you?

Today was the long-awaited “HIV/AIDS Extravaganza,” a community-wide fair-style production to sensitize people (especially youth) in Lugaziabout HIV. Several of our volunteers have been working on this for over a month, partnering with the local Youth Outreach Mission (a local NGO made up of some of the finest youth and college students in Lugazi who want to build and serve within their community). The day began with a parade through town led by a band playing from the back of a truck with loudspeakers, and followed by literally hundreds of children and youth who were to perform throughout the day.

The performers were excellent and were key to getting a lot of youth there, along with their parents and teachers. Over 15 primary and secondary schools performed traditional dance, music, and song. One local high school (Metta Secondary School) made an original dance with traditional dance moves about how HIV is spread- quite an interesting dance once you knew the context! There were a couple of local hip-hop groups that were ridiculously talented- they would have made MJ proud.

Several volunteers on our team learned a traditional dance together with local youth who are part of the Youth Outreach Mission. We each wore the traditional cloth wrap-around and a long-haired fir strap around our hips to accentuate the shakeage. The crowd went wild seeing mzungus trying to dance like Africans.

Ali Archer and I choreographed a modern dance called “Coming Up.”Before the dance Alexis said a monologue that went something like this“I will not fear. I will accept what I feel. I will not be astatistic. I will protect my body. I will overcome HIV.”. A few of us did a dance with a group of HIV positive women to the High School Musical song “We’re all in this together” referring to the fact that HIV is a problem for the entire community, and people must work together- both those positive and negative- to battle the problem.Cheesy, but they loved it!

The new mayor of Lugazi (Ozuma- campaign name was “Obama”- how could you lose with that genius campaign scheme in Africa?!) came and gave a speech about HIV and then lip-synced a popular song. The director for the Ugandan Human Rights Commission also spoke, along with a very prominent and renowned preacher.

To cap off the experience, the latter part of the day I got to help organize the booth that was running free HIV/AIDS testing. I couldn’t sit by and just watch the action take place, so I got HIV tested! I’m negative. Obviously, it wasn’t a stressful situation for me as I had my friends take a picture as I got pricked, etc. But the real sobering part came when we had only one hour to get everyone out of the rented space and there was a huge line of people waiting to hear their status. The public health nurse said “Melissa, do you know how to do HIV counseling?” Noooo. “Then you will learn.” I watched her do it a couple of times, and then began. The questions would go along these lines: “What do you think your status is going to be? What will you do if your results show you are negative? What will you do if you are positive? Who do you have in your life that you could tell your status to?” Then after telling them they were negative (I only had negatives), I would ask what they will do to remain negative. The answers and reactions were so interesting. Some were so nervous and let out a huge sigh of relief when they were found negative. Some seemed okay with the idea and possibility of being positive, and were comfortable in the fact that they could live meaningful lives.

Out of the about 150 people tested, 3 were found positive. A young15-year-old girl, a 23-year-old woman, and a woman who is currently breastfeeding (so her baby will get tested as well). Crazy that their whole life has just changed. I didn’t meet any of them, but they are now connected with the hospital to begin counseling and treatment. If our event elicited nothing else, at least 3 people now know their HIV status and can now go forward in getting treatment and prevent its spread to others. But luckily, I think that is just one of the many good effects that came as a result of this project.