Coming Face to Face with AIDS – a letter home

They say you can’t really understand the situation in Africa until you have experienced it firsthand. If you haven’t had that privilege I hope your hearts can catch the vision I've picked up.

I spent the last 17 days in Swaziland, the country with the highest AIDS rate in the world: UNAIDS just said it is almost 40%. My team and I worked with Shiselweni Reformed Home Based Care workers, going from house to house visiting their clients and doing whatever we could to help – sweeping floors; carrying water (in 20 litre containers on our heads – yes, you should have seen me try to do that one); doing exercises with clients who were recovering limb movement, helping wash them; or just praying and singing songs with them. Two of my friends even got to 'wash' a floor with cow dung.

I met Ibrahim who had been lying on his mat on the ground for ten years since falling into a ditch. We worked on his exercises with him. His hands were clamped closed and really difficult even to open. Moving his knees and ankles was extremely painful for him.

I visited magogoes (grannies) who were left with eight or more grandchildren to look after, since the whole middle-aged population in their families was wiped out by AIDS.

I arrived in one house after a long walk one day where the mother had died of AIDS the day before. We just cried with them and prayed for the four orphans who were left behind. We were at the point where we had nothing to give, except to ask God to help where we couldn’t.

We went to house after house where people told us they were starving. They had anti-retro virals (ARVs are AIDS medication) but they literally didn't have a crumb of food in their houses to take it with. If you take ARVs without food you get stomach ulcers.

It was really a struggle for our team – we had plenty of food at our camp – yet to avoid disagreements in the community we were not allowed to give it directly to the people, but we were able to give it through the care workers at the end of the outreach.

We walked around 15km with the care workers who amazed us. They were such beautiful women who walk so far to visit their clients even when they had no pain killers or food or anything to give them.

One day the local leader, Elizabeth, gave her last bar of soap to wash a woman, which was really sacrificial when you realise how little she herself has. All the work she does is voluntary and unpaid. Often they were walking on empty stomachs with their babies on their backs.

There is drought in Swaziland, but the first thing these women did for us when we arrived was to bring us 15 containers of water. There has been no rain in Swaziland in 2008. The water tank was completely empty. On the last day when our tents fell down in a huge sandstorm, we climbed into the tank, ate lunch and played card games in it for two hours—a strange experience.

We went to the Reed Dance, an annual event where the teenage girls in the country dance topless before the king and he chooses a new wife. The king sends his soldiers out to look for the most beautiful girl to become his wife. He currently has thirteen, all of whom, not surprisingly, are stunning.

On the way back we picked up a hitchhiker who told us about his family. He said he had three wives and 16 kids. Polygamy is legal and fairly common.

It was amusing for me, and slightly frustrating at first, to realise that what they say about African time is true. A conversation between one of the women and me one day went like this: ‘What time are we meeting tomorrow?’ ‘Very early.’ ‘How many people will be there?’ ‘Too many.’ One Sunday in church, I sat down quietly at the back and the pastor came and said to me in all seriousness, ‘So are you ready to share the word of God?’ I politely said no and passed him on to somebody else to do it. Maybe next time.

Love to you all

Nokthula (my Siswati name meaning 'the one who loves peace')

Rachel

OM’s role in the Church is to mobilise people to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with every generation in every nation. OM pioneers and leads initiatives to redeem lives, rebuild communities and restore hope in over 110 countries.