6:35pm     Muhuru Bay Health Center, Tagache.  I had first seen this center in the dark when taking a boy from our compound here.  It’s better in the daytime!  It’s a government funded health center with many other sponsors such as Faces.  I sat in on a health talk about family planning.  About 25 people were there listening to a nurse talk about condom use, birth control, abstinence, etc.  Here I was welcomed with smiling faces of the staff and shook hands with many patients (I think they were hoping I was a real doctor or something).  I sat in the most important room, the HIV/AIDS room.  I worked next to the HIV/AIDS pharmacist/counselor/tester.  He translated everything for me when talking with the patients; I was able to ask questions and learned a lot about the different meds and how to do the testing.  Two young ladies came in to get tested, both were pregnant.  He did a short counseling session about if the tests were positive and what can be done for the baby.  They were both tested right in front of me, they didn’t look nervous, but I sure was.  We waited as 10 minutes passed and they came back in one by one, negative tests (very rare).  But he told them they needed to come back in 3 months to be sure. 

A woman came in who had not taken her medications for the past 2 months because she was unable to get transportation to a clinic and now the other hospital she was getting treatment from will not treat her anymore because she missed her last appointment.  Another lady came in and she had moved away from an abusive family situation and didn’t have any past records from previous clinics.  They gave her new meds and told her to come back every 2 weeks.  I got asked for my opinion on every situation we came across, like “Do you think we should treat this woman?” “What meds should we give her and how many?”  The man I worked with was not a nurse or doctor, just knew how to dispense drugs and test for HIV. 

I flipped through the record books that we record in after each HIV test.  Positive, positive, positive, negative, positive.  I think many people who get tested just expect to get a positive test because it is so widespread.  I was told that many people find out they are positive and disappear, commit suicide usually.  Treatment is free from this clinic because it’s gov’t funded, but just getting to the clinic every 2 weeks can be a immense challenge.  And one of the most important things about HIV treatment is adherence to the medications, which was one of their biggest issues. 

One worker didn’t even believe that HIV transmission could be prevented.  I think it’s because of what he sees everyday and us “whites” come in and tell them how easy it is just to use condoms and be safe around blood, etc. but that’s not what they see, it’s just talk to them.  Education is so important.