AIDS

HIV/AIDS has been on my mid a lot recently. I apologize now if some of my comments seem harsh and slightly unorganized but I had to get them out of my head. Know that my words are not necessarily directed towards you...

There's only us

There's only this

Forget regret

Or life is yours to miss

No other road

No other way

No day but today

-"Another Day" from Rent

Last night I went to go and see Rent at the Fox. It was an incredible show and I'm glad that I finally got to see a live performance. Hearing several of my favorite songs ("Another Day", "La Vie Boheme" and "Goodbye Love") in person definitely gave me chills. Watching the show definitely got me thinking a lot, particularly about AIDS, since in the show several of the main characters are infected with the disease. The AIDS epidemic has certainly come a long way from the early 1990s when the image of AIDS was confined to urban cities such as New York and medical opinion declared that the only four at-risk groups for HIV/AIDS were the 4 H's: Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin-users, and Haitians. Now AIDS has become one of the biggest global health crises of the millenium that affects everyone. AIDS has recently become a very personal issue in my life as I'm about to join the Peace Corps where half of my job title involves dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Togo (Community Health & AIDS Prevention).

I don't have a lot of experience dealing with AIDS. I don't have AIDS. I've never been close to someone with AIDS. I don't have a somber story about someone I knew who died of AIDS (and this worries me because I don't know how I am going to deal with death from AIDS). The first time I met someone with AIDS (or atleast who I KNEW had AIDS) was a few summers ago when I attended an AIDS 101 workshop put together by AIDAtlanta. My main exposure to AIDS has been from a global public health standpoint, as opposed to a personal human connection. Unfortunately right now, when I see AIDS, I see statistics, not human faces; this is definitely something I want to change. When it comes to my interest in global health, I don't want to see diseases as just public health challenges; I want to put a face to these global health diseases to better understand what I am fighting for: humanity.

Something that really grinds my gears is that there is a HUGE misconception among my friends that everyone in Africa has AIDS! This frustrates me to no end. I don't know whether people are serious or just playing dumb but I have had people come up to me and say "Be careful! If you go to Africa, you will catch AIDS". Even if they are just trying to be funny, by them mocking the situation, it only devalues the seriousness of the issue. And the AIDS crisis is serious! It may not seem serious to us in the so called "first" world where AIDS drugs are fairly accessible as are treatment centers and sources for support. Yet in Africa, people infected with HIV/AIDS have to deal with not just the lack of financial resources to treat themselves but also they lack the social support systems they need to cope with the disease. AIDS in the US tends to be a choice: not using a condom, sharing needles, and other risky behaviour. AIDS in Africa tends NOT to be a choice, particularly for women.

Unlike some of the other African countries, Togo is blessed to have a fairly low prevalance rate of AIDS (4.1% as compared to 0.6% in the USA); therefore, much of my work in Togo will deal with many of the social aspects of AIDS as opposed to straight prevention and education. There are still misconceptions on how AIDS is transmitted; additionally, due to the heave influence of animism and sorcery, many still believe AIDS to be a punishment in the magical sense. AIDS is a highly stigmatized disease and I hope that my work through the Peace Corps will help me break through some of these stereotypes and false images against PLWHAs (People living with HIV/AIDS).

Another issue that frustrates me regarding the disease is that in today's media, AIDS is "sexy". Everyone wants to work with AIDS. Everyone wants to donate to AIDS campaigns. And as important as it is, focusing solely on AIDS will not improve the situation much more unless we take a holistic approach to fighting the disease by realizing that AIDS is a co-morbid disease. You don't die from AIDS, at least not specifically; you die from pnemonia, tuberculosis, malaria, even the common cold. AIDS weakens your immune system to the point that any disease that comes along can kill you. You have to treat AIDS, but you also have to treat the other diseases. There are also so many issues tied to HIV/AIDS (access to drugs, abstinance-only funding, denial) that this is why its so important to look at it as a large-scale global health problem, not just a medical issue.

Okay before this turns into an uglier rant I think I'll stop and leave you with the aforementioned points to ponder...

ciao,

-Nikhil

you say goodbye and i say hello

Hello, Hello...

Life is a continuous series of hellos and goodbyes. My first hellos were to my parents. My first goodbyes were to the doctors and nurses in the ICU of my hospital (I was 5 weeks pre-mature). Future hellos included my younger brother, relatives, friends and most recently my co-workers. Future goodbyes included cousins, my paternal grandmother and most recently, Georgia Tech. Last night I said my first goodbye before Togo.

I know it seems wierd to be so poignant about saying goodbye, particularly since saying goodbye is an action I am very familiar with. Whenever I left England for Saudia Arabia or India for the US, I said goodbyes to many people. However for me, saying goodbye today takes on many different meanings. Not only am I saying goodbye to friends and family with whom I have shared several fond memories from college or high shool, but saying goodbye today is really me saying goodbye to a life of "knowns". I know Atlanta. I know Georgia Tech. I know my family and friends. I don't know Togo. Saying goodbye today is me realizing that my life is never going to be the same.

I am getting ready to embark on a journey of unknowns and what do people do when they are outside their comfort zone? They cling to the familiar. Yet Togo will be unlike anything I have ever experienced. I try to rationalize to myself that being in Togo can't be very different from being in Bhogavi, the village where my father grew up in rural Karnataka. After all, I survived Bhogavi, so I can certainly survive Togo. However, deep inside I know that Togo will NOT be like India. Even in my dad's village, regardless of the conditions, I was only there for no more than a few weeks before I returned to a sheltered life of computers and running water in Bangalore. Whereas now I am about to move to a foreign country for two years! Big difference.

Another reason why saying goodbye to my family and friends is so poignant is that they are who I am closest to at this moment in time. When I say goodbye to them, I don't know if I will ever say hello to them again. We are all moving in so many different directions, medical school, graduate school, jobs all over the country, that it's difficult to forsee where we all will be in three years when I return. Some of my friends will be married. Some of them will even have kids! I hope we all keep in touch but time changes the relationships we form with people; some will grow weaker, but some also will grow stronger. I am saying goodbye to you now in hopes that someday I will say hello again.

Anyways, last night I said my first goodbye to Corrie. It was wonderful to spend time with her and see her after so long. We pretty much spent the evening catching up and reminiscing about school, greek life, spring break and my 21st birthday over our favorite calamari at The Globe. It was a bittersweet evening but I knew it had to come. I will miss Corrie terribly but hopefully we will say hello again in the future. I can't believe I pretty much only have 3 1/2 weeks left to say goodbye to people. Starting May 16th I am out of the country (to say goodbye to Michelle in Costa Rica) and after that its time for me to spend some quality time with my family before I depart. So yea, I know that although I will have many more goodbyes to say in the upcoming weeks, I will also have a plethura of hellos to say as well. Hello to my fellow Peace Corps volunteers. Hello to the Peace Corps staff. Hello Togo.

6 weeks! eek!

the countdown list

Hey!

I really enjoy making lists. I find a great sense of accomplishment when I look at lists that I've made and see that I have most everything crossed off. Below however is a very different type of list; it's a list of plans that I have made before I leave for Togo. A sort of "countdown to Togo" list. Basically, this is what I have going on in my life until I leave in June in case you are curious...

April 10th - musicinspireshealth.org presents Ben Qweller
April 11th - Pi Rho Gamma Beer Olympics 2008
April 12th - Minutha's birthday picnic @ Piedmont Park
April 15th - Greek Sing
April 17th - Delta Sig / Alpha Gamm Disney Roller Skating mixer
April 25th - Bon Voyage party @ Amore/CosmoLava

April 27th - Rent!
May 5th - My 23rd Birthday! / Cinco de Mayo
May 15th - Last day of work!
May 16th - Costa Rica!!!
May 25th - Sonia's Graduation
June 3rd - PC Orientation
June 6th - PC Togo

By the way, these are all my "hard" plans till June; my "soft" plans also include learning French, packing up my apt and moving back to Alpharetta, and of course shopping and packing for Togo. Eek! I have a lot going on. These next 8 weeks are going to be crazy...

cool commercials

Hey!

Just to try some new formatting stuff on this blog, I thought I'd try and post some videos. Here are some cool commercials you probably have never seen before (thanks YouTube)...

"Life is calling. How far will you go?"



Peace Corps commercial narrated by Matthew McConaughey



Peace Corps commercial describing the HIV/AIDS pandemic

So what are you waiting for? Fill out an application already :) LOL!

april update

Nilyenia!

Nilyenia = hello in Ewe, one of the local languages of Togo

So my blogging mood has been wierd lately. I go through periods where I want to post everyday because something new and exciting has happened; other times I go through periods where I don't really want to post because it almost takes too much effort. My mood this past week has been the latter and I apologize. I will make it a point though to post at least once a month (pending reliable access to the internet) when I get to Togo so you have that to look forward too.

Updates...

GRE: My GRE went well last weekend. I'm not too excited with my score but I am okay with it enough to not retake it. It was just surprisingly lopsided towards math which is wierd because I studied for verbal for at least 2 weeks and that score went down; I studied for math for like 2 hours and my score went up. Maybe there is an inverse relationship with your score and how much time you spend studying? that would certainly create a ruckus with Princeton Review lol...Anyways, I feel like my score is still competitive for a good public health program so I should be okay and atleast the exam is over and it's one less thing I have to worry about while I'm in Africa.

Peace Corps Expo: So the Sunday after my GRE exam, I attended the Atlanta RPCV Expo at the LAA (Latin American Association). I wasn't quite sure what the event was going to be about. I assumed it was an orientation/informational type meeting, but it ended up being a pretty cool resource for any Atlanta area returned Peace Corps volunteers. I attended the event with a friend from cross-country in high school, Jessie, who applied to the Peace Corps a little after I did. Her nomination was also for health extension in June 2008, though her's was for Central/South America. It was great to catch up and hang out with her at the Expo. Coincidentally, we walked into a breakout session on connecting RPCVs to healthcare organizations in Atlanta where I ran into another friend from high school (from orchestra this time), Elizabeth! I hadn't spoken to Elizabeth since graduation so it was certainly a shock running into her. Apparently she was in the process of turning in her application. What a small world! Three Chattahoochee HS grads joining the Peace Corps! Anyways after the Expo, which ended up being pretty uneventful, Jessie, Elizabeth and I went to grab coffee and caught up. Apparently I was the PC "expert" in our small group so they had lots of questions. It was so great to see them both.

Shopping/Packing update: I bought Chacos!!! Unfortunately they will not be arriving on my doorstep until pretty much the week before I leave and this makes me super nervous. But that's what I get for buying directly from Chacos as opposed to a retailer. However the 50% discount for PCVs definitely makes the wait worth every penny. I bought a pair of shoes (Canyonland Low) which I'll be using for casual use, a pair of sandels with a back strap (Z/2) and a pair of sandels that are slip-on (Hipthong). I'm also bringing my nice running shoes specifically for when I go running. I'm still debating on whether or not to buy a pair of dress shoes for more formal occasions (like dinner with the Ambassador or my swearing-in ceremony); I mean I would feel kinda silly wearing my Z/2 chacos with a button-shirt, tie, and khakis. I was also planning on taking my uber comfortable GT flip-flops but I heard that flip-flips are pretty easy to find in country so if I need to remove something from my packing list, that might be the first to go.

I am also in search of good luggage. After following a long list of posts on the facebook and yahoo groups, I decided I'm going to go with a backpacking backpack to use for "long" trips, a rolling dufflebag to haul the rest of my stuff and my regular Jansport backpack for casual use. I also might buy like a mini gym bag for short 1 or 2 day trips to the city that i'll just fold and keep in my duffle. I wanted to invest in a good backpacking backpack because if my post-PC trip down eastern Africa actually comes together, I'll need a good backpack to survive. I went to Dicks and found a decent but heavy Kelty backpack. I also checked out REI and they had a HUGE assortment of stuff. I really liked the EagleCreek and Osprey backpacks. The Osprey was definitely more comfortable due to its streamlined design, but I think I preferred the EagleCreek bag because not only did it have more features, but I think it was a little bit cheaper. I'm still looking around but any advice would be much appreciated :)

Post PC: Like I mentioned above, I'm thinking about doing some backpacking down eastern Africa after I finish my PC service. My basic plan is to fly to Tanzania and climb Kilamanjaro. I also definitely wanted to check out the amazing beaches of Zanzibar and maybe throw in a safari or something. Then I was planning on backpacking my way down to South Africa before flying home. The trip down to South Africa will cover one of two routes: a) via Zambia and Victoria Falls or b) via Mozambique. In South Africa I was also hoping to try and sneak into Lesotho and Swaziland perhaps. I know this seems like a pretty random, yet awesome, trip so let me try to explain myself. If you notice on this blog, one of the links I have listed directs you to these amazing people. They basically inspired me to go on a similar trip but in eastern Africa where I was going to attempt to focus on my three interests: neglected tropical diseases, disease prevention in developing countries, and access to essential medicines. I thought I might try and hop around to different clinics and organizations and get a feel for health issues on the other side of the Africa continent. What's cool is that my friend Megan who will be serving in Lesotho wants to join me on this trip (with a background in clinical psychology she thought it would be interesting to study the psychological impact of HIV/AIDS on children orphaned by the disease) so I won't have to do it alone (and there was no way I was going to feel comfortable doing this alone). Actually, if you want to join us, let me know because we are totally serious about taking this trip if everything works out. Now just a point of information, this trip isn't set in stone (so we'll have to figure out details but this just means we are open to anything) but I really hope everything works out 'cause this would be the adventure of a lifetime! Again, if you have any advice, my ears are open...

Shipwreck: The party of the century, Shipwreck 2008, was this past weekend and it rocked! Pictures will be up on facebook soon. The rain was pretty frustrating but luckily it didn't damper the party atmosphere and it was great to see so many people I didn't know. Although it did make me feel REALLY old LOL!

Hmm, that's about it for now. until the next update...

Mia doga (mia doga = goodbye in Ewe),
-Nikhil