Four possible topics:
Lunch with a child soldier from Sudan. Working out with Mr. Kenya. Hardcore/punkrock shows in Nairobi. A pleasent visit with an hiv positive sex worker and her children.
I'm thinking I should write about these things before I leave. But sometimes, memories are best kept repressed I think. Especially those that shock each time they emerge.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A story in progress
A man was walking up a landbridge to reach the post office. Below him, Nairobi's traffic jammed tight. In his pocket, the yellow slip said that a package from South America awaited him. The stairs he was climbing were crowded, and he stood out.
Eventually, he began to cross the bridge. First thing he took note of was a woman and a child in the distance. Ragged, at least as far as he could tell, and holding a hand, palm up, for all who passed by.
Closer was a young child in jeans, looking down, not really paying attention to anything. "Damnit", the man thought angrily, "That Child is going to ask me for money. They always ask me for money".
He got closer, and looked at the child. A girl, no older than six. Looking down at a puddle. The puddle was growing, and he choked on air as he realized that the girl was wetting herself. Paying no one attention, but just watching the stream pour down her leg and out her jeans, a smile on her face.
He couldn't take his eyes off of the little girl, and tripped over himself. Stumbling forward, tears started welling in the man's eyes.
He walked past the girl, he walked past the women with the baby and didn't look back. He had a package to pick up.
Eventually, he began to cross the bridge. First thing he took note of was a woman and a child in the distance. Ragged, at least as far as he could tell, and holding a hand, palm up, for all who passed by.
Closer was a young child in jeans, looking down, not really paying attention to anything. "Damnit", the man thought angrily, "That Child is going to ask me for money. They always ask me for money".
He got closer, and looked at the child. A girl, no older than six. Looking down at a puddle. The puddle was growing, and he choked on air as he realized that the girl was wetting herself. Paying no one attention, but just watching the stream pour down her leg and out her jeans, a smile on her face.
He couldn't take his eyes off of the little girl, and tripped over himself. Stumbling forward, tears started welling in the man's eyes.
He walked past the girl, he walked past the women with the baby and didn't look back. He had a package to pick up.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Conversation
"Henry, are your parents still alive?"
"Oh yes, they are, both living and working back up in Jersey. What about your parents?"
"They're gone."
"I'm sorry"
"Yea, so am I".
"Oh yes, they are, both living and working back up in Jersey. What about your parents?"
"They're gone."
"I'm sorry"
"Yea, so am I".
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Circumcised boys.
**A photo that I took is going to be used for a poster campaign around Nairobi. A couple of folks asked me about the story behind the picture. Well, here ya go Mom. Click to see it at full resolution**
We'd been on the road for about six hours. Actually, I wouldn't call it a road. The last time our wheels hit tarmac was about four hours prior. We'd gone from dusty dirt road to rocky bumpy hilly road in the last two hours. The last time a soul had been seen was five hours ago.
We were driving out to the furthest reaches of Pokot territory, near the Ugandan border. My coworkers were laughing. We were stuck on a crater pocked hill, not being able to move quickly. Five young men in brown and an old man in 1980s era American camouflage stepped out of the bush. Bows were drawn with arrows pointing at us, and we soon were surrounded. I didn't know it at the time, but we were being robbed.
Thinking on it now, a few weeks after the fact, it was obvious that these boys could have killed us and robbed us for everything we had. My coworkers didn't seem perturbed. Neither did I, actually, I was in a bit of a daze. Gettin shaken by bumps and holes in the road for several hours had left me in a numb, giddy delusional state. Imagine being on a low impact roller coaster for about six hours, and you'll have an idea of how I felt.
The old man approached my driver Andrew, and they spoke in low tones. The boys peered through the windows, and glanced around, eyes seemingly looking for something. My coworkers continued their conversations, though one, who spokePokot , engaged the boys. Laughter, and more words. Andrew shook the old man's hand, and Andrew looked back at me and told me I could take some photos if I wanted. And then the boys began to sing.
They began to sing, and swing. Their heads were covered by a mask with long brown strands of knotted rope reaching to the chest. The eleven note melody repeated, to the point of the song becoming a jolting yet smooth sound. Imagine , boys swinging their heads, with the long rope strands from their masks swishing side to side with hypnotic force. In their hands were bells, which the boys slammed into their legs to keep a jingling beat. Singing a song that to my ears didn't sound African. It sounded like something else entirely, something Other, something I had never heard before nor could call "normal". An Ancient song, a song that started long before those boys began singing, and would continue long after they, and I, were gone.
When I stepped out of the car, our Pokot speaker told us who these boys were. Recently circumcised Pokot, banished from their villages for two months as they healed, and the old man was their handler. They were all different ages, and the voices stretched from a beautiful alto to a deep bass. They hadn't eaten anything except scavenged bits of dead animal, for nearly three weeks, drinking from a cattle watering hole only at night when no one else would be able to see them.
The singing stopped. Andrew handed the old man a loaf of bread, a large bottle of water, and fifty shillings. I climbed back in the car, and we took off. Looking back, I saw the boys tear off into the bush, each with a piece of bread in his hand.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The following is a conversation a good friend and I had over facebook about the Pope and the HIV/AIDS. I thought that the three readers of my blog might find it interesting and might like to comment. IIt all begins with the Pope, and his recent controversial statements about condoms and condom usage in AIDS wrecked sub Saharan Africa.
First, three points I made:
Three Things: 1, AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is already at pandemic levels. 2, Condoms and condom use education, is pervasive in East Africa (and in West Africa, never been there, but spoken to many who work with AIDS there). I've been out in the furthest, most isolated bush land I thought possible, and I've seen image manuals on how to use condoms. Condoms are everywhere. 3, the highest (and fastest growing) rates of HIV infection in East Africa is amongst married couples.
His Response:
Henry, the third point you have raised should be deeply demoralizing to the Catholic Church since if it is accurate it challenges a central myth of many social-conservative opponents of sex education--that sex within wedlock is not just moral, but *safe*. You know as well as I do that this discourse always carried with it the implication that sexually-transmitted disease was just the wages of sin.
I think it is a fallacy to defend the Pope's claim that "the distribution of condoms...even aggravates the problems” with these empirical findings--though they are definitely important and eye-opening on their own. These sources don't really support the Pope's claim: While he raises the surprising issue of compensatory risk-taking among occasional condom-users, researchers also points out that rates of transmission of HIV "in some high-risk populations" have been reduced as a result of condom distribution. This is significant, profoundly important, and a finding in the reverse of what the Pope has claimed. (The finding is not, of course, contrary to what most people whom have received sex education would expect.)
All of this is impertinent anyway, since the Pope's objection to condoms pertains to his belief that sexual activity outside of wedlock is immoral by definition, and that any means of birth control aside from the confining and unreliable "rhythm method" defies God's will. ("Humanae Vitae," 1968) These moral beliefs are unfalsifiable--actually, they tell us more about the believer than anything else--and thus quantitative evidence regarding whether and when condom distribution has reduced rates of HIV infection isn't the Pope's primary concern. The fact that many at-risk people in Africa use condoms only occasionally and thus may be at heightened risk for HIV infection strongly suggests the importance of the interaction of condom distribution with *sex education*. How does Benedict XVI feel about that?
And my response, written in a rush. I know my argument has holes in it, but this is the first time I've ever collected my thoughts on this topic in one place:
You're arguing the Pope is flat out wrong in saying "the distribution of condoms...even aggravates the problems" . I agree with you. What I'm criticizing is the pervasive cult of the condom that people in the west like to push on Africans. Like most things that the West pushes on Africa, it isn't entirely successful, and yes, in fact, can make things worse because by concentrating all your funding on condoms and condom use education, you ignore other, more effective methods at preventing the spread of AIDS. Condoms are effective, yes, but they are not the be all and end all of AIDS prevention, like some tend to seem to believe. Do we want AIDS rates to go down? Do we want this pandemic to end? Empower the women, empower the family, don't spend all your attention on condoms. The Pope is wrong, yes, but the opposite, that the spread and constant pushing of condoms amongst the poor benighted folks of Africa is the way forward and the solution to the crisis, is equally wrong. This is well attested to by African AIDS workers on the ground, and westerners who decide to stop thinking the West knows best.
Sex is a right amongst traditional East African men, they take it when they want it and how they want it. I think the best way to describe sex here is that it's like a handshake, its just expected to happen, for a woman to offer herself up to a man.
I think you are mistaken in your argument that high rates of HIV infection amongst married couples is "deeply demoralizing to the Catholic Church since if it is accurate it challenges a central myth of many social-conservative opponents of sex education--that sex within wedlock is not just moral, but *safe*." The Church (which I am not a member of, I should mention) teaches that sex in monogamous marriages is correct and *safe*. The issue in Kenya and Uganda is that men cheat, like crazy. Women have been trained to think that what ever the man does, is ok and acceptable. This is a story I've seen played out in several villages. The men, who can't find jobs in their bush village, go to the cities. While there, they have sex with who ever. They get infected with HIV, go back to the villages, and have sex with their wives. The wife, and the child that will be born, now have HIV. In more traditional villages, any man can sleep with any other man's wife when ever he pleases. So, a man who stayed in the village while others went to the city now have sex with the recently infected wife of the city traveling man. He now has HIV. He goes back to his wife, has sex with her, and now she, and the resulting child will have HIV. In the cities, the situation is comparable.
Condom education is every where in East Africa. In fact, condom distribution and education in most instances go hand in hand. In the major cities in the countries I've traveled to, in the most isolated bush, evidence of condoms and educative material is evident. Africans know about condoms, they know how to use them. They just choose not to, for a variety of reasons.
What to do? Men know they should use condoms, but don't. I say the best option is to empower women. Get girls to schools and keep them there. Help find safe and secure (and close by) water supplies (its not unusual for women to walk 10k every day to fetch water). Help women set up economic initiatives that benefit them and give them a voice in the community. Educate them that they have a right to their sexual destiny.
The Pope is mistaken, yes, but issue is a hell of a lot more complicated than Condoms Good, Pope Bad. I think everybody reading this knows that already, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be stated again and again. The paradigm of "throw the savages condoms so they can wrap their willies" (as a Kenyan coworker of mine put it) needs to be broken if the battle against HIV/AIDS is to move forward.
And that's that. If you've read this far, please tell me what you think.
First, three points I made:
Three Things: 1, AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is already at pandemic levels. 2, Condoms and condom use education, is pervasive in East Africa (and in West Africa, never been there, but spoken to many who work with AIDS there). I've been out in the furthest, most isolated bush land I thought possible, and I've seen image manuals on how to use condoms. Condoms are everywhere. 3, the highest (and fastest growing) rates of HIV infection in East Africa is amongst married couples.
His Response:
Henry, the third point you have raised should be deeply demoralizing to the Catholic Church since if it is accurate it challenges a central myth of many social-conservative opponents of sex education--that sex within wedlock is not just moral, but *safe*. You know as well as I do that this discourse always carried with it the implication that sexually-transmitted disease was just the wages of sin.
I think it is a fallacy to defend the Pope's claim that "the distribution of condoms...even aggravates the problems” with these empirical findings--though they are definitely important and eye-opening on their own. These sources don't really support the Pope's claim: While he raises the surprising issue of compensatory risk-taking among occasional condom-users, researchers also points out that rates of transmission of HIV "in some high-risk populations" have been reduced as a result of condom distribution. This is significant, profoundly important, and a finding in the reverse of what the Pope has claimed. (The finding is not, of course, contrary to what most people whom have received sex education would expect.)
All of this is impertinent anyway, since the Pope's objection to condoms pertains to his belief that sexual activity outside of wedlock is immoral by definition, and that any means of birth control aside from the confining and unreliable "rhythm method" defies God's will. ("Humanae Vitae," 1968) These moral beliefs are unfalsifiable--actually, they tell us more about the believer than anything else--and thus quantitative evidence regarding whether and when condom distribution has reduced rates of HIV infection isn't the Pope's primary concern. The fact that many at-risk people in Africa use condoms only occasionally and thus may be at heightened risk for HIV infection strongly suggests the importance of the interaction of condom distribution with *sex education*. How does Benedict XVI feel about that?
And my response, written in a rush. I know my argument has holes in it, but this is the first time I've ever collected my thoughts on this topic in one place:
You're arguing the Pope is flat out wrong in saying "the distribution of condoms...even aggravates the problems" . I agree with you. What I'm criticizing is the pervasive cult of the condom that people in the west like to push on Africans. Like most things that the West pushes on Africa, it isn't entirely successful, and yes, in fact, can make things worse because by concentrating all your funding on condoms and condom use education, you ignore other, more effective methods at preventing the spread of AIDS. Condoms are effective, yes, but they are not the be all and end all of AIDS prevention, like some tend to seem to believe. Do we want AIDS rates to go down? Do we want this pandemic to end? Empower the women, empower the family, don't spend all your attention on condoms. The Pope is wrong, yes, but the opposite, that the spread and constant pushing of condoms amongst the poor benighted folks of Africa is the way forward and the solution to the crisis, is equally wrong. This is well attested to by African AIDS workers on the ground, and westerners who decide to stop thinking the West knows best.
Sex is a right amongst traditional East African men, they take it when they want it and how they want it. I think the best way to describe sex here is that it's like a handshake, its just expected to happen, for a woman to offer herself up to a man.
I think you are mistaken in your argument that high rates of HIV infection amongst married couples is "deeply demoralizing to the Catholic Church since if it is accurate it challenges a central myth of many social-conservative opponents of sex education--that sex within wedlock is not just moral, but *safe*." The Church (which I am not a member of, I should mention) teaches that sex in monogamous marriages is correct and *safe*. The issue in Kenya and Uganda is that men cheat, like crazy. Women have been trained to think that what ever the man does, is ok and acceptable. This is a story I've seen played out in several villages. The men, who can't find jobs in their bush village, go to the cities. While there, they have sex with who ever. They get infected with HIV, go back to the villages, and have sex with their wives. The wife, and the child that will be born, now have HIV. In more traditional villages, any man can sleep with any other man's wife when ever he pleases. So, a man who stayed in the village while others went to the city now have sex with the recently infected wife of the city traveling man. He now has HIV. He goes back to his wife, has sex with her, and now she, and the resulting child will have HIV. In the cities, the situation is comparable.
Condom education is every where in East Africa. In fact, condom distribution and education in most instances go hand in hand. In the major cities in the countries I've traveled to, in the most isolated bush, evidence of condoms and educative material is evident. Africans know about condoms, they know how to use them. They just choose not to, for a variety of reasons.
What to do? Men know they should use condoms, but don't. I say the best option is to empower women. Get girls to schools and keep them there. Help find safe and secure (and close by) water supplies (its not unusual for women to walk 10k every day to fetch water). Help women set up economic initiatives that benefit them and give them a voice in the community. Educate them that they have a right to their sexual destiny.
The Pope is mistaken, yes, but issue is a hell of a lot more complicated than Condoms Good, Pope Bad. I think everybody reading this knows that already, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be stated again and again. The paradigm of "throw the savages condoms so they can wrap their willies" (as a Kenyan coworker of mine put it) needs to be broken if the battle against HIV/AIDS is to move forward.
And that's that. If you've read this far, please tell me what you think.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Prayer
Hey ya to the three people who read this blog, I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask you to say a special prayer for me/keep me in your thoughts right now.
I've been accepted to two excellent different institutions for graduate school education. I have to decide which one I should go to, and this decision is prove quite difficult. So please, if you are so inclined, say a prayer/rosary/thought/anything for me.
Thank ya kindly.
I've been accepted to two excellent different institutions for graduate school education. I have to decide which one I should go to, and this decision is prove quite difficult. So please, if you are so inclined, say a prayer/rosary/thought/anything for me.
Thank ya kindly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
