A couple weeks left

There is more or less two more weeks left for me
here in the village. It really has been busy and at
least the people are taking advantage of my help
before it is too late.
In the picture you can see the djwara project and
it looks like it's not going to be finished before I
go. But I think that we will be able to build a hut
in the traditional style though. That is programmed
for next Saturday and with fingers crossed ...
Also in the picture you can see the dancing tree.
I guess I don't have to explain that the tree
doesn't dance but that is where the kids do their
practices and performances for the village.
I do have to say that when you are under that tree
it just feels like it has some special energy.

Also, with two weeks left there is still real life that
goes on. This morning we attended a burial for
a girl named Atalia. She was in one of my first
blog articles way back in May 2009. If you click
here it will bring to the page and in the photo with
the four girls in it, she is the one on the left in the
back.
HIV is never very far away here and she passed as
a result. During my time here I've worked side by
side with a few people at the clinic that have HIV
but it took over two and a half years to find out.
They are taking their ARVs and I never knew a
thing.
Well there are those that take it and those that
don't seem to understand, I guess. Atalia was
one that took ARVs then stopped for no particular
reason. Then she became pregnant and then
started taking them again as part of the PCMT
or prevention of mother to child transmission.
She had a miscarriage and then stopped taking
them again. Then after a while she got pregnant
again and the same thing happened.
About a month ago she comes into the clinic and
looks totally terrible and it was too late at that time.
She weighed about 100lbs when healthy but
weighed a little over 60 at the end.
Just wonder what was in her mind about the ARVs.
Did she really want to live with HIV or ... She had
all the info about it and ignorance wasn't a factor.

It is what happens out in villages. It does
kind of take the luster off the ending of my Peace
Corps tour. But it is the reality and she's not the
first to have passed as a result of HIV since I've
been here. It just seems that many of the people
just decide to stop taking the ARVs.
I am hoping that some of her friends have learned
something so that she didn't die without  leaving
something that could maybe save others.

Sometimes this is the reality of life in the Peace Corps.