World AIDS Day

Since December 1^st was World AIDS day, I decided that my counterpart and I should have a discussion with the community about what AIDS is and how to prevent it. There are so many myths here about HIV and AIDS (that it only comes from Cote d’Ivoire, that only prostitutes can have AIDS, that white people have a cure, etc.) so I thought that dispelling those myths would be a good start.

We picked a Friday market day, which are always super busy since it’s also the day when people don’t go out to work in the fields. We were set up by 9am but since we’re dealing with West African International Time (WAIT), I only had a few women from the women’s association there with me on time. We hung tight and since there were balafons playing, we just had a great time dancing and started to draw a crowd. Of course, the nosortia (white person) always draws a crowd, but especially when she’s dancing. On this day I also had jabi, the patterned black dye on my feet, which my neighbor Alimatou has been working on every night for the past 3 nights. I kept getting compliments from the village women “kofa, deh!” which translates roughly as “pretty, ay!”

We drew a pretty big crowd, about 50 people at one point- young and old, women and men. My counterpart read off the phrases in Gouin and then the chief of the village repeated them in Jula. Then I would pick someone in the crowd who would say whether it was true or false and why. If they were correct, I’d give them either hard soap and or Chinese green tea (both very popular here) and condoms which the young men in the crowd were especially happy about.

After the true or false portion, we discussed what HIV/AIDS is, how you can prevent getting HIV, how you can find out whether or not you’re HIV positive, etc. My counterpart, who works at the health center, explained the difference between a treatment and a cure and really stressed fidelity and regular HIV testing as a means of prevention. I also think we helped to remove some of the stigma of HIV being a disease for only promiscuous women, since it only takes one time with one person, even if it’s with your husband, to become HIV positive.

Afterwards, we all danced to the balafons, even the women carrying babies on their backs! I think they were a little surprised that I could hold my own with the other women dancing to the beat of the balafons. Later when I was buying my vegetables at the market the women kept coming up to me and saying “toubabmuso be se ka donkay, deh!” which is basically the Jula equivalent of “white girl can dance, ay!”

The chief keeps saying that I am his new wife despite my repeated refusals and my reminders that he already has several wives. Nevertheless, I haven’t quite learned to say no to the chief yet since I feel like he is my adopted Bill Cosby-esque grandpa in village so when he asked I ended up dancing with him at the front of the circle. 

All in all, I think it was a pretty good day!

Peace,

Marlow