For those
of you that have been following along for the duration of this blog, many of
the major events may begin to sound familiar. After all, we’ve officially
entered our second year as PCVs and have the benefits that come along with
having already played this game for one round. As such, I’ve been trying to
think about ways that this past Thanksgiving differed from the preceding one,
and hopefully I’ve found enough to keep this interesting.
Some
similarities first though: I was yet again impressed by the creativity and
determination of fellow Volunteers to create a celebration that was reminiscent
of home but that acknowledged the crazy lives we currently find ourselves
living. And although my postmates (and Thanksgiving hosts 2013) Cynthia and
Eric have since completed their services and left Cameroon, I celebrated
Thanksgiving 2014 (at least part 1) in their former home, hosted by their
successor, Lexi.
This year I
decided to attend a larger Peace Corps celebration in addition to the one at
Lexi’s house. The town of Bafang in the West region is home to three Volunteers
who live in adjacent houses, creating an ideal setup for a large gathering.
Armed with a pumpkin pie (made from local squash and a crushed biscuit crust!),
I set out early Saturday morning. Many PCVs are teachers at local schools, so
“Bafangsgiving” was scheduled over the weekend to accommodate their schedules.
There aren’t many meals that justify a six-hour trip (one way), but
Bafangsgiving was certainly worth it. It was a great to reconnect with friends
from stage, but it was equally fun to meet Volunteers from the newer stages that currently celebrating their
first Thanksgiving in country. All in all, a great way to celebrate a holiday
that could otherwise lend itself to homesickness.
` My trip
down to Bafangsgiving lined up perfectly with another obligation that I had in
the West region last weekend: an HIV testing campaign on World AIDS Day in
Dschang. Another Volunteer, Justin, put on the event and he asked for other
Volunteers to come to the event and help out. HIV/AIDS is a serious problem
here in Cameroon; somewhere between 1.5-2.5% of the population is currently
infected. Several factors lead to the prevalence of HIV here: fidelity between
partners is rather uncommon, condoms are subject to suspicion, and the power in
relationships tends to be imbalanced. While passing out fliers before the
event, I struck up a conversation with a moto boy who stopped to take one. He
proudly told me that he had already been tested for HIV, so he already knew his
status. But when I asked him if he had been sexually active since his last
test, he looked at me in surprise. “But of course!” I encouraged him to come
back when testing began.
The main
event of the campaign was free HIV testing, which included pre and post-test
counseling. And although the testing was the main draw, PCVs and Cameroonian
Volunteers capitalized on the captive audience to discuss related issues such
as proper condom etiquette (both male and female!) and malaria/HIV co-infection.
Justin received funding for this event, so there were hundreds (if not
thousands) of condoms given away as well.
Thankfully,
the vast majority of HIV tests came back “unresponsive” (negative). As I tried
to communicate to that moto boy at the beginning of the morning however, a
negative result is hardly a free pass. Not only can someone’s status change
with one sexual encounter, the tests we administered have a six-month window
period before they can effectively detect the infection. So we weren’t really
telling people if they had HIV at the moment, we were telling them if they had
HIV as of six months ago. That’s a pretty scary thought, especially if the
information is used as a justification for unsafe behavior.
But at the
end of the day, I felt like some good work had been done. I was proud of Justin
for all of the hard work he had done, proud of the high turnout, and optimistic
that many of the residents of Dschang were well aware of the existence of HIV,
and hopefully steps they can take to avoid contracting it. But the most
impressive part of the entire day in my opinion was the enthusiastic team of
Cameroonians that Justin had found to help him put the event together. PCVs
were outnumbered by Cameroonians by at least a factor of two, and they all
seemed quite willing to spend a day in the service of their community. I’ve had
a hard time finding motivated work counterparts over the course of the last
year, and the sheer number of committed individuals that Justin brought
together was truly impressive.
And a final
plug: on World AIDS Day I find it impossible not to think of a place that I’m
continually astounded by and a collection of people that I aspire to be like.
Camp AmeriKids has been serving the children of the HIV community in the New
York region for the past 20 years now and has done some simply extraordinary
things. It’s a place and community worth getting to know, and I would encourage
you to check out their website at the very least. Maybe I’ll see some of you
there in Summer 2016?
