Shadowing Brent Keener

Kabo did his shadowing in Maitengwe in the NE on the Zimbabwe boarder. It is a small village with 7000 people but it’s so spread out that it looks like a about 500. Brent, the guy we shadowed is a great guy with tons of tips to make us better volunteers. He does community capacity building (ccb) at the village clinic. James the other volunteer and I went to work with Brent to see what a CCB does. ARV(anti-retro virus) day every Thursday had a line at the door of the clinic of those taking the government supplied ARV’s if they were infected to the point of AIDS. You can’t get ARV’s unless your CD4 count is so low( <200) that you are considered infected with AIDS. Many in the line were new mothers or pregnant mothers who were infected. There were also patients picking up there TB drugs that they had to get in the back of the clinic and swallow them in front of a clinic worker. 80% of those infected with TB also have HIV due to the fact that you are at risk of opportunistic infections when you have HIV.
After that we went on some house visits to pregnant mothers with HIV/AIDS and talk to them about formula feeding vs. breast feeding, making formula, and AZT (a drug for babies born with the infection). Most times the pregnant mothers are happy to listen to the important information. Most days they see 2-4 infected mothers. Each is at a different stage in the PMTCT (pregnant mother to child transfer) program. If we can give them the right information and they adhere to it, the new born will stay uninfected.
Then we walked to a local bar when many men were drinking shake-shake (sorghum beer that looks like vomit). Amy our interpreter/program coordinator does the talking. She starts with STI’s (sexually transmitted infections) and moves into condom use. She almost broke out the wooden penis to do the condom demonstration but the crowd was more interested in talking about how condoms are the cause of HIV or back pain. It was a great experience and great out-reach, males are hard to get the word out to in general. It’s good to meet them at their level. They all spoke Kalunga (a tribal language) so I just smiled and nodded most to the time. This is the kind of work that Katie will be doing (CCB) once we get our placement. This just skims the surface of the overall epidemic with HIV/AIDS.
Side note: I tried the shake shake-later that day, it tastes like a beer that has sat out all night with the texture of a skim milk. Katie and I both tested novice-low on our first LPI (language proficiency test) which put us in a slow group. More than half of the 60 PCV's tested novice-low so I don't feel as stupid. I love fat-cakes; fist size balls of dough that have been deep fried. Yum It is getting cold at night, morning, and evening. Katie wore her down jacket yesterday to sokolo=school.
I’ll have Katie add here shadow experience when we next get to a computer.