Cultural Catch 22

One of my recent projects I started talking to my HAPCO counterparts about is a promotional campaign for people to get HIV tested.  That’s right, bringing my Communication degree skills to Dangila!  Let me explain some of the preliminary research I have been doing first...

At the health center in Dangila people with HIV can come get first-line ART medication for free.  This medication has only become available in Ethiopia a couple years ago, and it is changing HIV.  With the medication, HIV can be seen as a chronic illness, not the death sentence it used to be.  The problem is that in Ethiopia, there is still a huge stigma surrounding HIV and people don’t completely understand the drugs.  I have been reviewing some charts of ART patients in the health center and the problem seems to be that people aren’t starting ART soon enough, so it is not effective.  I realized that what I want to convey to the people of Dangila is that they need to be tested on a regular basis so that if they do have HIV, they can start ARTs at the appropriate stage to help prolong their life.

It was through all of this that I came up with the idea to have an advertising push for getting yourself tested.  Since it is free to be tested at the health center, it seems to me like an easy product to sell.  All they have to do is walk over there once every three months, get pricked by a needle, and wait 30 minutes for results.  I want people to realize that with ARTs available, there isn’t a death certificate attached to the disease; ART can extend your life, but you have to know that you have HIV in the early stages.

I got together with one of my good Ethiopian friends while HAPCO was in a meeting and we translated a sample flier into Amharic.  It wound up being so catchy; the translation was funny and engaging and I was very excited about printing them out and hanging them all over town! I presented the idea to my HAPCO supervisor after their meeting finished and ran into an unexpected wall.  The very religious people of Ethiopia don’t believe that medicine can extend your life, but rather only God can decide the number of days you will live.  So, basically, you can’t deliver the punch line of my flier; you can’t say ART extends your life.  This life-changing drug is available and you can pretty much only say “ART will relieve the pain of HIV,” which isn’t what it does.

 
I found myself caught in this loop of wanting to express to the Ethiopians the greatness of ART in order to reduce stigma around HIV, but not being able to convey how it can extend your life without insulting their religion and culture.  I just don’t get it.  I am religious and I agree that God has our days numbered before we were ever created.  I also believe that God created this world full of hidden wonders so that we can discover the world for ourselves.  One recent discovery, which I believe God allowed for and provided for, is ART.  It is the same concept as getting your infants vaccinated, which many Ethiopians do; you are using God-given medications to stop the diseases from killing you so that you can fulfill God’s purpose for your life!

 
But apparently all of that would be found insulting to their religion.  It doesn’t make sense to me, but I intend to figure out a way to communicate to the people how important it is to get tested without using the incentive of life-extending drugs.  Still working on it...

It’s 2002!

Happy New Year 2002!!  That’s right, Ethiopian calendar just saw the end of 2001, and I had the pleasure of helping ring in 2002... for the second time!  I spent part of the last week in Bahir Dar working on some PC projects with friends, but arrived back in Dangila on Saturday for the remainder of the festivities.  Friday was New Year’s Day, but since Orthodox Christians don’t eat meat on Wednesday or Fridays, much of the celebration was pushed to Saturday.  The odd thing about Ethiopian holidays is that most of them look the exact same.  I once again found myself sitting in the living room of various Ethiopians being fed qay wat (meat stew) with injera, refusing tela, the homemade alcohol, and downing far too many cups of coffee.  If I couldn’t read the computer-printed Amharic signs on the walls declaring what holiday it was, I probably wouldn’t be able to differentiate between them.  As opposed to in America where the Christmas tree, jack-o-lantern, or plastic eggs filled with candy indicate what holiday is being celebrated, in Ethiopia there is just a lot of eating meat and drinking coffee.  Apparently Hallmark hasn’t found this country yet.

The kids all make signs for the New Year though, which I helped out with in preparation for the holiday.  The signs read, “Enkutatash” which is a cultural way of saying, “Happy New Year” but it literally is welcoming in the flowers of the green season, as this is the time of year where everything is in blossom and rains are finally clearing.  I think the best part of the New Year is the fact that schools will be starting back next week! Not only do I enjoy working with some of the clubs in the schools, but that means the kids on the streets will have something to do besides knock on my door asking for candy.  I’m half joking-- I love walking with the kids in my neighborhood, even if their little hands are snot-covered, but I won’t mind them being in school for half the day either!

My Book Exchange

During my first month in Dangila I had my furniture made at a garage that I walk past on my way into town.  Just about everyday I would stop by to say “hi” and check on the progress of my furniture.  The workers there are all about my age and they have turned into great friends.  In fact, seven months later I still stop by several times a week to say “hi” and chat with my friends.  When my furniture was finished back in March and the donkey cart was charging me a ridiculous price to haul my furniture, the guys hauled the shelves to my home free of charge.  One particular friend, Andualem, speaks decent English, and as he delivered my last piece of furniture, he noticed my shelf stocked with books I have collected from friends and the PC library.  He asked if he could read one, and I hesitantly agreed to let him borrow a book.

This is Andualem.

I have to be careful in Dangila because, for all I know, word could spread and a dozen people may approach me tomorrow asking to borrow books.  Such epidemics have been known to spread especially with children and candy!  A couple weeks later no such requests had been made for books, and when I asked Andualem how the book was coming he said something about chapter 2.  I didn’t quite understand what he was saying, so I asked him to clarify, and realized he was saying that he read it twice!  I was so impressed and immediately offered to bring him a new book the next day.  Just about every month since then I have been trading books with Andualem as he finishes them.  He prefers nonfiction best, as I learned when I gave him the first “Harry Potter” book a while back.  After he handed it back to me and expressed to me that many of the words were confusing, I reread it from his view-point and realized that mail-carrying owls and the rest of the Hogwarts world contains vocabulary that a mediocre English speaker wouldn’t be able to decode.  I select Andualem’s books more carefully from now on,  but I am so impressed with his motivation to read and improve his English skills.  Something about this book program I have with him makes me happy knowing that I’m giving him an opportunity to improve his English.