Saturdays Should Not Be For Funerals Anymore

     After reading Unity Dow's and Max Essex's Saturday is for Funerals I was shocked to learn about individual stories of people in Botswana who have suffered directly or indirectly from the HIV/AIDS disease. Botswana is a country in the south of Africa right above the country of South Africa. It is currently going through one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world having the national HIV prevalence rate among adults aged 15 to 49 being 24.1 percent, the highest in the world. In order to figure out how to stop this ongoing epidemic in Botswana, we must focus on the people of Botswana on the individual level, and determine how people live their lives in Botswana, and how their lifestyles cause the spread of the infection. These personal stories can be read in Saturday is for Funerals.

     Right off in the first chapter of the book, Unity Dow talks about how almost every Saturday there is a funeral in Botswana because of the number of family and friends that are passing away due to AIDS. This led me to ask the questions, if the people of Botswana are being reminded every Saturday about the consequences of HIV/AIDS, why is it still such a problem, and why are the people of Botswana not protecting themselves from it? The answers to my questions were quickly answered as I continued to read the rest of the book. There are tons of reasons why the HIV virus is so successful, and the book mentions some of the most important reasons.

     One of the many reasons why HIV is so successful is because the virus is sneaky. It hides itself inside the human genome without any signs of infection. HIV can also be passed down from the mother to the child during pregnancy, birth, or breast feeding. Treatment for HIV with Anti-Retroviral Drug (ARVs) can become useless at times because the virus can inherit resistance if an infected person stops taking the medication. Luckily, Botswana is one of the African countries that provide free ARVs to its people. However, one of the biggest reasons why the HIV virus is so successful is because it is feared by the people of Botswana. In the book, Unity Dow mention at multiple times about how it was not accepted for the people of Botswana to talk about the HIV virus. The people of Botswana are afraid to even mention the virus, and usually deny the fact they may have the virus. People will not go to get tested because "everyone will die anyway, so why should anyone know their status?"

     As I am writing this blog, on a Saturday, I wonder how my life would be like if I had to attend a funeral of a family member or friend every Saturday. As my Grandmother passed away a month ago, at the start of my involvement with HIV/AIDS and sustainable development in Botswana, I really understood what it was like to be at a funeral of a loved one, and how much it takes out of you. My family and I spent a whole week going to church, the funeral site, and the house of my Grandmother to remember and reflect on the life of my Grandmother. Roughly a hundred people attended to each event, ranging from family members and friends. It was a hard week, and the way the people of Botswana deal with the passing of a loved one is roughly the same way my family does. So I could relate to what the people of Botswana were going through, but not nearly to the scale at which they have it. It struck me to believe that the people of Botswana must be very worn out and broken down by the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is happening in Botswana. After all, how do you think you would feel going to a funeral every Saturday? Hopefully as we go to Botswana, we can learn the ways the people of Botswana deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic and bring back those ideas to our city of Detroit and make an impact on the HIV/AIDS issue here. Also, as we learn new ways of preventing the spread of HIV, who is to say my classmates and I will not go back to Botswana in the future to help out with this ongoing problem. Hopefully the day will come when Botswana will look back on the HIV/AIDS epidemic as only a problem in the past and look forward to reclaiming Saturdays so that Saturdays are not for funerals anymore.