Leo Huzuni.

This will be brief. Yesterday we took one of our students, Abdul, to the doctor. While we were at school he began to complain about a headache. When I went to him I felt his head and it was boiling hot. We ended up taking Abdul home to his uncle and then to Majengo clinic. Abdul’s mother died when he was 1 (six years ago) due to AIDS. He has been living with his uncle and other cousins since then. He lives in a small apartment area in one room and he often misses school due to illness. We took him to the clinic along with his uncle and Octavio. Here we ended up standing in many lines and waiting for around 2 hours (which is actually considered a short wait0 until things were settled. It turned out that Abdul had never been tested for HIV or brought to the doctor. He was tested and was also given things in order to check for TB and upper respiratory problems.

It ended up that he is positive for HIV and needed to return to the clinic the next day with spit samples for the lab to assess. Although I knew he was positive before, to hear the results while this tiny little boy was sitting next to me holding my hand was overwhelming. I cried when we heard, and we also heard the doctor yell at the uncle about Abdul’s distended tummy and lack of proper care. She told him that Abdul is very malnourished, he is sick continually and he is losing a chance at living a healthy life despite his HIV/AIDS diagnosis.

It is amazing how fragile life is, how things change and move so quickly and while we can walk around having lives that are relatively calm, there are so many people who are living fragile, inconsistent lives. The fact that my student has to live with an incurable illness and worries about food and warmth at night is heartbreaking. Anyway, it was a sad day. It was interesting to be face to face with AIDS in Africa. I hope that we can continue to instill hope and light into his life while we are here. Remember that beauty and love feed off of each other and live a life full of love.