St. Lucia

Thursday 8/9 we visited St. Lucia Nursing Home to learn about the HIV/AIDS situation in the area and to meet the residents there. We have 3 volunteers working there. There are many factors contributing to the AIDS crisis in this area that essentially stem from poverty and lack of education and awareness. Aside from the commonly known ways of spreading the disease, there are also additional ways here like male and female circumcision done in groups and without sterile environments. Although female circumcision has been outlawed, it is still commonly practiced, such as by the Maasai. One of Kesuma’s goals is to educate the women on the dangers of the practice. I believe in the late 90’s the first case of an arrest for female circumcision occurred when a young girl reported her grandmother and the grandmother’s friend having forcibly performed the operation on her. The grandmother and the friend were sentenced to jail time. At St. Lucia there are currently about 15 children and 2 adult women. The boys sleep in one room sharing 3 beds and the girls in another sharing 2 beds. There is a boy of about 3 years old named Joaquim who sleeps in a small crib and who looks to be more like 20-24 months old. For 2 years he could only sit, but they are building his strength and he can sometimes stand holding on to the side of the crib. He is a gorgeous chubby little guy, and I couldn’t leave the room without trying to get a smile out of him. Tickling his feet did the trick, and the resulting giggles were well worth the effort. The kids were a playful and happy bunch, and we played catch around the room with a couple stuffed animals they had. The littler ones liked to hold hands and just touch us. As we were standing in the boys’ room being introduced to each of them, one guy about 10 years old was sitting on a bed behind us and chose the conservative 70-year-old grandmother in our group as his target to tease. He would poke her in the back of the head and then quickly retreat. He was thoroughly entertained by this. Another guy named James who I’d estimate at around 13 or 14 years old is the resident rapper and performed one of his songs for us. Although it was in Swahili and we could only catch occasional words, his delivery was impressive. We later learned from Zik, a favorite CCS staff-member who brought us to St. Lucia, that James has written 15 songs with powerful words that focus on the situation in which he and others have found themselves. There have been attempts to have him recorded to try to get exposure for him, but I believe they fell short when a piece of equipment – I believe just a CD player – was not available. Of the 2 women, one could not speak and was not coherent, and the other was a 31-year-old named Hadija. She was the 2nd wife in a Muslim marriage and she does not know who infected whom in the relationship. There was jealousy between her and the first wife and she finally decided to leave the situation and came to Arusha, a few hours from her home and family, to live with her sister. The sister could not be found and so she found a job working for a woman who is paid to prepare meals for people. When she began to feel ill, the woman would not lend her money for the hospital. She ultimately dmake her way to the hospital but as she could not pay and there was not enough food for her there, the hospital took her to St. Lucia. She has two children, and her family does not know her whereabouts. She hopes to go back home when she is stronger. It was a sad and difficult visit that I struggled with, but Adija and all of the kids loved having us as visitors. The kids running around laughing and playing by the time we left made it completely worthwhile, although the nurses who we left with a bunch of wound-up kids probably had some mixed feelings about it.