Abstinence Only

Everyday I see things worth blogging about but when it comes time to sit down and write, I find myself resisting. It is daunting to try and wrap my head around whatever it is, let alone to assign words to the thoughts I am still trying to process. Not to mention, the conditions for writing aren't ideal. Right now, I can hear the twins screaming outside my window and a fly is buzzing around my head. But for you my friends, I'll try...


My jaw dropped as I watched the news coverage of the Pope's visit to Angola and his resulting comment, "condoms are aggravating the spread of HIV." I understand the Pope is not a simple man and that was not a simple statement, but taken out of context, it was damaging and my heart sunk. I watched to see if NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Corps --funny coincidence) would play more or his speech or perhaps explain it, but the next footage was of the resulting outraged Frenchmen and other rallies calling for the Pope to resign. I was eating dinner with my family at the time, but just sat there speechless, wondering how that one sentence would effect my work over the next two year and more importantly, the future of Africa and the fight against the pandemic.

Today, a presenter from Christ Church international came into training to introduce the faith based approach that some of us may choose to work with. Though I personally don't believe an abstinence only policy would be completely affective, I conscientiously reminded myself to keep an open mind. I put down my notebook (or rather doodle pad) and listened carefully. The organizations director, an American missionary, went through the program for us as if we were the Nam school children for whom the lesson is intended. I'm not sure she completely understood her audience, health volunteer dealing with HIV, because during her talk she laughed and said things like, "and some people think that condoms are actually going to help the problem, but they're not even effective are they?" Someone from the back spoke up, "they are actually 99% effective when used correctly."
"Well who's going to teach these children how to use condoms?!"
"We will," I said (perhaps in a more confrontational tone that I had intended).
"Good luck with that," she said somewhat sarcastically and continued her presentation.

Our training group 29 is a very diverse group so by the end of the session, tempers were flaring even from our Christian PCT's and many were feeling personally affronted.

Our trainers sensed this and brought us together for a meeting after the woman had left. Initially, many people were saying they could never teach this or even support it because using scripture would conflict with their personal beliefs. The jury was still out for me and the conversation that followed made not only this issue, but my purpose here much clearer.

Benna, a Namibian father of two boys, described watching the same news coverage as I had a few nights earlier, but what stood out to him was not the Pope's words but the protesters calling for him to resign. He said, "all of these people from the outside are telling us what we should not hear, but we are the Africans so isn't it our choice to decide the best way to eradicate HIV?" It's true, since the implementation of programs like Christ Church and the "Choose to Wait Campaign" that is all over Namibia, the number of HIV has fallen. The abstinence approach does make an impact. This is not to say they deserve all of the credit, after all condoms in Namibia are government issued for free and are ubiquitous. But at the end of the day 90% of Nambians (this is just totally base on my observations) would call themselves Christians and using scripture really resonates amongst a large population of the youth. Many of our trainers spoke up and said that they hoped their own children would go through this program at their school. Though the idea of teaching abstinence may make some uneasy, it should no more be eliminated than the use of condoms. It is going to take effort from all sides by as many means as possible to eradicate this virus.

It reminder for all of us that we are not here to push our own personal agendas, but rather to work with the culture and efforts that are already in place. We can't possibly know the best way to make an impact in our community until we actually live amongst them and get to know what their values are, and for many of them religion is a big one. After all, that's why we're here for two years, so that we might learn the needs of the community first hand and then rather than replacing their ideas we add what we can. My friend Shawn, closed the meeting with four words, "it's not about you."