As a reward for completing the book "Breezes of Confirmation" (the first in a series of books for junior youth that focus on service and developing capabilities), I promised of my tuesday night group that we would have an outing. They were very happy for this since they are on school holidays and dying of boredom at home. However when I went to pick them up, one of the girls had been given her baby cousin to look after and the other girl in the group didn't want to come if her friend wasn't coming. Since this was the only afternoon I could take off to do the outing, I was forced to drive off with only the four boys in the group.
I was feeling quite skeptical as to how this afternoon would go... Three hours with 4 pre-teen boys. Well, surprisingly enough, it was quite fun. We began our afternoon of "no girls allowed" at the dock. The dove into the water and judging by how happy they were, I have a strong feeling this was one of the first times they had left their neighborhood all vacation. Of course, it wouldn't have been a complete outing without an injury and Rodrigue provided the opportunity for me to practice my first aid skills in a country with one of the highest AIDS rates in the world when he cut himself climbing back onto the dock - I couldn't do anything...I have nevet felt so helpless in my life. This is something we have been warned about over and over again, but it took a few seconds for me to stop myself from going to clean up the cut. I had to tell him to wash it off himself and put a band-aid on himself...I just sat there and watched, knowing what a risk I would take simply from the desire to help him, a young child; feeling angry at the world and the people in it who could possibly be responsible for inflicting an early death on this wonderful intelligent boy.
It's moments like those that make the reality of AIDS come slamming into your face like a truck on a highway...and it hurts almost as much too. If you think I'm being paranoid or over-dramatic...I'm not...the level of sexuality and infidelity here is frightening (forgive the lack of statistics...officially the rate is low because so few of the cases are reported or known...hence the continuation of the spread...however, French Guiana has the highest percentage of people living with HIV in all the French departments).
We walked back to the house so that I could properly clean up Rodrigue's foot and put a good band-aid on. Then they went back outside to play some more on the beach, with Rodrigue relunctantly sitting down next to me since he couldn't go abck in the water. He passed the time by telling me about soccer and his latest accomplishments at school. I was very happy to listen and I think he enjoyed having someone to tell them to.
When the three other boys were tired out from back flips and races, we sat on the grass and played cards, broke open some coconuts, then ventured over to old abandoned ship and explored it. After a race back to the house, which I of course pathetically lost, despite having the longest legs, they relunctantly got back in the car, and each took turns changing gears...all the way home!
In posting the little afternoon episode, I'm not making negative implications about the people here. On the contrary, they are wonderful, welcoming, and very lively. It was more to draw attention to something real and dangerous, but preventable. Something that is affecting a lot of innocent children, many of whom I have been teaching all year. The stigma that surrounds people who are HIV positive is disgusting, because none of us have a right to judge another, and none of us can ever know what those people have gone through in their lives, and what they are going through but especially...discriminating against people and ignoring a problem does nothing to solve it, plain and simply. So here's an expression of hope that people can stop focusing on the consequences; crying over the statistics; feeling sorry for others...and maybe start addressing...and I mean really ADDRESSING...some of the causes.
