I said a prayer when I submitted my blogs and video for this “Born HIV Free” contest. I prayed thanks, because I had already felt awakened to the true desires of my heart. I believe my purpose in life is to make a positive impact on people every day in a special way. There is one thing I am certain of and that is that I have a job to do in this world and that’s to utilize my talents for greater causes. Right now, I want to give myself over and help my environment thrive, to do the work to cultivate beauty and peace globally.
So I continued to pray throughout the process. I also prayed that God would send whoever needed this trip to South Africa. I prayed because I knew I needed to experience this journey firsthand and I needed to be able to witness this for myself as I continue to reach out globally to raise awareness in preventing HIV transmission from mother to newborn child. Well, here I am along with 6 other beautiful souls from all over the world: Marcela-our fearless leader from Switzerland, Melissa from France, Kathryn from Canada, Linus from Germany, Katherine from Germany and Bruno from Spain. There is a reason 7 people from all over the world came together and are sharing our experiences with all of you and we are grateful for the opportunity.
I am here on my first night in Lesotho, South Africa. This is surreal. Who would have thought that I would be looking out my window down on South African soil? I can’t help but watch my fear and uncertainty carefully. I feel them melting away. A great friend recently told me it was just the fear of the unknown and stepping outside of my comfort zone. He was most definitely right. Everyone around me is so encouraging. As I prayed for understanding and healing I can with absolute certainty say I already feel work being done on my soul.
And so tomorrow it begins. My journey into the small villages, into the clinics and into the homes of women willing to share their everyday reality. These indigenous people are poverished, diseased and lacking medicine to maintain their treatments. Why? In the United States, it is easy to be lukewarm, to be complacent. We aren’t scraping for food and shelter, we generally and comparatively have more access to healthcare and education; it’s difficult to imagine a life outside of comfort. Our babies are not born 400,000 per year infected like they are here. Those statistics are staggering. Why is it so difficult to get ARV treatment which costs $1.00 per day to these children? Why are so many children given away to orphanages when their families are a few miles away? Why are so many babies infected when medicine and prevention are available? How can we preserve and enrich our wonderfully fortunate lives and beckon world to have the same? I have so many questions on my heart I need to ask these women and doctors.
I was asked to blog throughout the journey and share back via social networks. The only way for us to truly understand where the rest of the world stands is through observing and the subsequent transference of those experiences to those who have ears to hear. This is not just another blog, it’s a REAL WORLD reality show. I’d like to call it “HouseWives/Mothers of South Africa” so to speak but without the glamour, glitz or petty drama. You see, here you won’t see women wondering what type of clothes to wear to the party, here they are concerned with what outfit to bury their young child in. They are not concerned with plastic surgery. Here, they are concerned with natural childbirth which could infect a newborn child. And they are not concerned with buying breast implants. You see here, breast milk is a common factor in the transmission of HIV to newborns.
There is a quote I love and wanted to close out my blog with: "There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela
So come with me inside my journey of South Africa......
So I continued to pray throughout the process. I also prayed that God would send whoever needed this trip to South Africa. I prayed because I knew I needed to experience this journey firsthand and I needed to be able to witness this for myself as I continue to reach out globally to raise awareness in preventing HIV transmission from mother to newborn child. Well, here I am along with 6 other beautiful souls from all over the world: Marcela-our fearless leader from Switzerland, Melissa from France, Kathryn from Canada, Linus from Germany, Katherine from Germany and Bruno from Spain. There is a reason 7 people from all over the world came together and are sharing our experiences with all of you and we are grateful for the opportunity.
I am here on my first night in Lesotho, South Africa. This is surreal. Who would have thought that I would be looking out my window down on South African soil? I can’t help but watch my fear and uncertainty carefully. I feel them melting away. A great friend recently told me it was just the fear of the unknown and stepping outside of my comfort zone. He was most definitely right. Everyone around me is so encouraging. As I prayed for understanding and healing I can with absolute certainty say I already feel work being done on my soul.
And so tomorrow it begins. My journey into the small villages, into the clinics and into the homes of women willing to share their everyday reality. These indigenous people are poverished, diseased and lacking medicine to maintain their treatments. Why? In the United States, it is easy to be lukewarm, to be complacent. We aren’t scraping for food and shelter, we generally and comparatively have more access to healthcare and education; it’s difficult to imagine a life outside of comfort. Our babies are not born 400,000 per year infected like they are here. Those statistics are staggering. Why is it so difficult to get ARV treatment which costs $1.00 per day to these children? Why are so many children given away to orphanages when their families are a few miles away? Why are so many babies infected when medicine and prevention are available? How can we preserve and enrich our wonderfully fortunate lives and beckon world to have the same? I have so many questions on my heart I need to ask these women and doctors.
I was asked to blog throughout the journey and share back via social networks. The only way for us to truly understand where the rest of the world stands is through observing and the subsequent transference of those experiences to those who have ears to hear. This is not just another blog, it’s a REAL WORLD reality show. I’d like to call it “HouseWives/Mothers of South Africa” so to speak but without the glamour, glitz or petty drama. You see, here you won’t see women wondering what type of clothes to wear to the party, here they are concerned with what outfit to bury their young child in. They are not concerned with plastic surgery. Here, they are concerned with natural childbirth which could infect a newborn child. And they are not concerned with buying breast implants. You see here, breast milk is a common factor in the transmission of HIV to newborns.
There is a quote I love and wanted to close out my blog with: "There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela
So come with me inside my journey of South Africa......
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