Fall is upon us

Ya all that means is at night it actually becomes comfortable enough to sleep. During the day can still become pretty hot. I really do not have much to talk about since my last post. Things have been slow, putting together my project proposal and continuing to visit churches, get to know more of the community and hanging around the hospital on testing days to speak with people during consultations. I am in Mocuba right now, finishing up my proposal and then sending it to Peace Corps to be reviewed by the PEPFAR people. The money we receive for projects is through the President's AIDS initiative (US Pres). The total cost is at about probably $1,400. That covers materials to give health presentations and new bikes for some, or new bike parts for others. I was actually worried it was going to cost a great deal more than that but I was able to out-wit the volunteers into making them think I would only get bike parts, which caused them to admit they had a broken down bike at home. This saved a lot of money and I didn't mind attempting to ask for 34 new bikes, but it is much more difficult than 9. I also did not want to the rest of the project to be put at risk of denial due to the bike aspect of it. But the volunteers definitely deserve everything they will be getting.
Last week at the catholic church in Parreie, I made a long awaited transition in terms of Portuguese ability. I spoke for 30 minutes (including time for translation by the volunteer into Lomwe) about our services at the hospital for HIV, our program in the schools, our desire to help the volunteers become legalized and most importantly for the first time, explained all the methods of transmission and the best living options to stay healthy. I know what your thinking, "it took you 5 months to tell them what you were trained for for 10 weeks!" Yes I admit, it did take longer than I wanted, but I always spoke about transmission and other ways of contracting the virus, but this time I put it in an overall explanation of the disease, and separating a discussion b/w the women and men in the church (it is easy b/c they are already segragated, Oh how a certain party longs for those days in the states). I spoke to everyone as a hole, but when I spoke about the most dangerous method of transmission, sexual relations, I explained to the mothers of the church that they have a responsibility to teach their daughters that in our world today, they have a right to say no, tell a man to wear a condom, and marry a man who will engage in a monogamous relationship with her. For the men, I told them it is their responsibility to teach their sons that the safest way to never become infected is to promote the idea that one woman is the best and healthiest way to live. Of course, I explained this can all be helped by the reduction of casual sexual relations at a young age and waiting to have sex until they want a baby. I am guessing not many people have talked to them about those topics, especially in the church. I believe the more we have of that in Africa, the better off we they will be. It seemed to go over just fine, we ate lunch with the community leaders after and they presented me with oranges, eggs and sugarcane.
I have found what I hope will be my Graduate Field Report. It is the HIV/AIDS Response Project by the World Bank. It began in 2003 and will end in December of 2008, totaling about 64 million. The purpose was to help the Government of Mozambique implement their Multi-Sectoral Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS on the administrative level. Though it is difficult to evaluate the outcomes of qualitative information, they have plenty of performance indicators which I believe they will judge the effective with through using many other NGO's, notably those giving treatment and tests through the PEPFAR program.
One other quick observation. By spending more time with the community members and with patients afflicted with the disease I have been noticing a cultural pattern within my community and from questioning others volunteers. First, just to set up the pattern, life in the city and the bush are incredibly different, especially for women. They dress differently, are a little confidant, educated, wealthy and know and understand their rights, whether or not those are respected by the males in society. But the young ladies in the bush are many years behind in the push for an egalitarian society. Any many of them have never been to a city due to lack of resources to reach a destination outside Mugulama. The young ladies in Mugulama who test positive, b/w the ages of 18 and 30, are unable or speak very portuguese. This obviously tells us that at around the ages of 13-15, they no longer attend school and they are either given away by their fathers or are impregnated through casual sex, usually not by through their choice, though most of the time, they just do house work up until the age of 15 or 16 because most girls wont become pregnant until after 16. But at these ages, no more school and they never leave their village, thus their ability is restricted to Lomwe, and to the pleasure of the men, they are restricted to the community. The men, on the other hand, usually speak good Portuguese, which not only tells us their increased amount of educational training, but more importantly for the evolution of HIV and in the rural areas, the fact that many young men have the ability to travel to bigger cities, which requires them to speak portuguese daily, due to the mixture of multiple local languages. The best way to communicate is Portuguese. The men engage in casual sex in urban areas where the rates of infection are extremely higher, especially in the prostitution profession and then return to the mato and pass the virus to their wives. I would contend that this is extremely normal. Also, these husbands, many times are the first ones to die, indicating the length of time the virus has been in their body without any proper treatment, though there is no set date for deterioration of the body once somebody has acquired the sickness, but many of these men engage in a lifestyle which puts their immune system at an disadvantage to fighting off opportunistic infections. Most notably, drinking and smoking. These young ladies will come to my house, usually accompanied by a man who can speak Portuguese, and begin to tell me their story about how her husband died in the last week, she is sick now and he had been traveling the country, probably having sex with other women.
That is about it for now, I will be in Mocuba on the internet until Monday, so if you want to ask me anything email me by sunday night and I can answer you. Take care
Bryan