With Glowing Hearts...

Day Four:

Canada Day!! All the missionaries make fun of us for being Canadian, they're all from the states. We all just finished playing Volley-Ball. There was team Canada, Team South Africa and Team USA. I served the winning point, thank you very much!

Today, our first aid worker at the base, Katie, took us out to Makuna to an HIV/AIDS clinic. We spent some time in the clinic, and it was awful to see all the people who are going there to be treated for HIV/AIDS, but they're so fortunate that there are many people who've given this clinic the antibiotics and drugs they need to treat these people. We took the only doctor in a hundred mile radius out with us to go to unreached villages in need of help. His name was Dr. Moiwa and we went to a village called Situlobe where he gave a speach in Tonga (one of the native languages) to a group of 29 villagers. We all gathered under a large tree to get out of the heat, during the speech he talked about how high the risk of getting HIV/AIDS was and he strongly encouraged everyone to be tested. Only 4/29 people who had attended the meeting were tested. Dr. Moiwa told us that people are afraid to be tested because they know what the outcome is.

As we were helping people get ready to be tested this woman came up to me and introduced herself. (Mabo-Kaboti. Which means Morning, how are you.) I told this woman my name was Emily and she looked at me with glazed eyes and a wide smile and answered with her name, Emily. I was surprised by the coincidence because a lot of their names are difficult to understand and very different from ours. I sat with Emily for awhile and she told me about her life and the struggles she's had. She told me God sent me to her and He wanted us to meet. She told me about her parents who had died when she was young, and she became and orphan. She talked about her husband who had died and 3 of their 8 kids who had died as well, and the one who has gone missing. As she spoke she never mentioned how they had died so later I asked Dr. Moiwa and he said they most likely had all died from HIV/AIDS. After I was done speaking to Emily she walked off, she was gone for about half an hour before she came back to me and said, "I was walking to my village but it's too far away. I was going to go get you a goat as a gift, but I have a chicken here I want you to have." At first I laughed and told her it was not necessary and I didn't need a gift from her. She explained that it was a miracle we met and she wanted to give something to me. I loved talking to her and she was so giving, I will forever remember her. She kept her chickens and goat and I gained a new friend.

It was an incredible experience today and I'm so thankful I was able to go along and take part in the speech and testings. Dr. Moiwa will be receiving the results in 3-4 days.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has exacerbated food insecurity levels and contributed to a decline in socioeconomic activity. According to UNAIDS , Zambia 's national HIV prevalence rate is 17 percent.