AIDS testing

Oh man, I have my lappy back! It feels rather weird to be typing with all ten fingers. I really do think my pace has slowed because I'm so used to thumb typing.

So since Tuesday, Eric and I have been driving around with Ruth and her family visiting a bunch of the kids his program sponsors. Many of the kids are AIDS orphans who live with their grandparents. There are just so many sad and desperate situations.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were giving mattresses and blankets and shoes to barefoot kids who sleep on the ground or on a pile of rags. Today though, we visited an all girls orphanage full of the cheeriest faces I've seen so far in Kenya. They sang us welcoming songs and gave high fives! Many of them were top in their class. They all lined up and introduced themselves with an adorable little curtsey. The reverend who runs the home gave us a bit more information about them. My favourites were a girl in grade 5 who has never not been first in her class. Even though she's not the oldest, she was the clear leader, and she wants to be the president one day. There's another fifth grader that had always been last in her class. Her parents both died of AIDS and she recently moved into the home, and now she's sixth in the class. In grade 4, there is a girl who is always first, but then another girl from the home beat her one time by four points, and she cried so much that she couldn't even eat dinner. Compare that to the girls in my school who don't even care if they pass or fail! Another girl who is top in her class wants to be an engineer. She is the first girl I've ever met in Kenya that wants to be an engineer. Also, Baraka's sister lived there. She was just as adorable as him, with that sort of concerned furrow in her brown. Baraka's countenance is more like, "oh no, something terrible is going to happen" but his sister, who wore a little red bandana tied around her neck, is more like, "what you're doing is dangerous, but if you dare me to, I'll join you."

Over lunch it was mentioned that later that day, Elijah and Jessica were coming in to conduct AIDS testing. Eric asked what would happen if some of the kids were positive. Well, they would have to leave. Kenya is really advanced in terms of lots of AIDS prevention, awareness, and testing policies. But... they think that the virus is contagious. Like that the kid would transmit it to the rest of the kids in the home, so for the safety of the rest of them, they need to kick the HIV positive kid out.

Look, over the past two months and especially over the last few days, I've seen lots of sad things. You know, where on the car ride back you kind of have to sit quietly and look out the window for a bit. No water, no food, no parents, abusive parents, AIDS left and right...but nothing was as SAD as thinking that president girl, or engineer girl, or Baraka's sister, or any of the others might get turned out tonight. I mean, so many bad things have happened in their lives already. Children's homes don't take kids unless all other options won't work out, so either every aunt, uncle, grandparent, and parent has died, or they were abusive. That's what's already happened to these girls. Yet they're still singing songs, and caring for the youngest in the home, and getting top marks, and making big plans for successful futures. Then they get a positive HIV test result. And then they're back out on the street?

I cried a lot. I couldn't even wait until we were back in the car. I put on my sunglasses and tried to discretely keep wiping my runny nose, but I'm pretty sure it was obvious. I was going to present them with new shoes and say something about girl power and especially let engineer girl know that I believe in her, or whatever, but I really couldn't. Eric took over, and gave engineer girl a speech that I really think will have a permanent impact. I should have added my encouragement but I was pretty busy trying not to just collapse on the ground and sob for hours.

As we left, Elijah and Jessica arrived to conduct the tests. I think I'll see if I can find out if any of the girls were positive. Here's the thing though, if they're going to kick out the positive status kids, can't they test them before they let them move in? It's just so overwhelmingly sad.

 

Update: all the girls came back negative. That's less sad. But still, somewhere there's an engineer or president girl who might come back positive, you know?