Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Testimony
Last night, I got to participate in an amazing kelompok diskusi - the first I attended where we had someone with HIV come and give testimony. It had a powerful effect on people - to see that someone "like them" could be infected, and be healthy if they get on the antiretrovirals. A very interesting evening. The person giving testimony even pulled out the pills to show people what they were like, and talked about the importance of getting tested.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The AIDS support group
Had a nice day working in the office all day - mostly helping a couple people get in their proposals for the Asia/Pacific AIDS conference before the deadline tomorrow. These kinds of seemingly boring routines can be a gold mine for anthropologists, so it's still quite interesting to me.
Then tonight was something special - attending my first meeting of the AIDS support group. 12 people attending, all living with HIV. Some have an official AIDS diagnosis; a few are taking antiretrovirals, some not - mainly because due to the rationing of the free medications, you have to have a T4 cell count under 200 (which is quite low) to get access to them. Which is interesting in itself of course. I did an HIV 101 discussion and they were transfixed - their access to info is fairly limited. The GC staff know more but a refresher doesn't hurt them either.
I explained how reverse transcriptase and protease work in HIV replication - and how these are the two things that antiretrovirals work against. To explain protease I ran into the next room and came back with a pair of scissors, pretending to cut myself to show how T4 cells infected with HIV use protease to disassemble themselves to make new HIV unless there's a protease inhibitor. Folks wanted an explanation of resistance and don't ask me why, but what came to mind as an allegory was shooting rabbits in your yard and if you don't kill them all, the ones who don't get shot are probably the smarter ones so their baby rabbits will be smarter and harder to kill. They got it, so I guess it worked!
It was very interesting to see what kinds of questions they asked. Some had to do with injecting heroin, which is sadly really on the rise here and a major engine behind the explosive growth of HIV infections. Others had to do with things they'd read in the newspaper or had been told by quack doctors about "cures" for HIV/AIDS. Very frustrating. I talked about the difference between such false hopes and true hopes - like the potential for effective integrase inhibitors or CD4 blockers that could even represent a cure someday in the future. That was helpful to people.
They are very brave - they know that they have some serious issues to face with their HIV infection, but they are also committed to taking steps to protect their health. Though it's frustrating to see how many of them smoke still - smoking is such a problem here.
Then tonight was something special - attending my first meeting of the AIDS support group. 12 people attending, all living with HIV. Some have an official AIDS diagnosis; a few are taking antiretrovirals, some not - mainly because due to the rationing of the free medications, you have to have a T4 cell count under 200 (which is quite low) to get access to them. Which is interesting in itself of course. I did an HIV 101 discussion and they were transfixed - their access to info is fairly limited. The GC staff know more but a refresher doesn't hurt them either.
I explained how reverse transcriptase and protease work in HIV replication - and how these are the two things that antiretrovirals work against. To explain protease I ran into the next room and came back with a pair of scissors, pretending to cut myself to show how T4 cells infected with HIV use protease to disassemble themselves to make new HIV unless there's a protease inhibitor. Folks wanted an explanation of resistance and don't ask me why, but what came to mind as an allegory was shooting rabbits in your yard and if you don't kill them all, the ones who don't get shot are probably the smarter ones so their baby rabbits will be smarter and harder to kill. They got it, so I guess it worked!
It was very interesting to see what kinds of questions they asked. Some had to do with injecting heroin, which is sadly really on the rise here and a major engine behind the explosive growth of HIV infections. Others had to do with things they'd read in the newspaper or had been told by quack doctors about "cures" for HIV/AIDS. Very frustrating. I talked about the difference between such false hopes and true hopes - like the potential for effective integrase inhibitors or CD4 blockers that could even represent a cure someday in the future. That was helpful to people.
They are very brave - they know that they have some serious issues to face with their HIV infection, but they are also committed to taking steps to protect their health. Though it's frustrating to see how many of them smoke still - smoking is such a problem here.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Worst Movie Ever...
Spent the day today helping prepare abstracts and scholarship applications for GC staff hoping to attend the International Conference on HIV/AIDS in the Asia/Pacific this August - it's so complicated and must all be in English, I don't know how most organizations do it. Then tonight went to the mall for dinner and a movie, accompanied by Tiara, a waria friend and staff at GC. Had some nice Indonesian food. Then turned out the movie we'd wanted to see (some Indonesian horror flick) was sold out, so we saw "Badai Pasti Berlalu" (The Storm Will Pass), a romantic flick. It was incredibly cheesy and boring - people were making hilarious comments during the second half of the thing. In the final scene Tiara leaned over and whispered "I think this is the worst film I've ever seen," and I couldn't stop giggling. So a bad film, but a fun evening anyway.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Beach meetings
I had a wonderful time at the strategic planning meeting. We stayed at Tanjung Bunga, a resort beach just 5 miles or so from the GC office. The office rented two beach houses.
We were just 20 feet or so from the beach - beautiful sunsets with all of the little islands out in the Makassar Strait, and lots of ships too.
The beach wasn't the cleanest in the world but it was fine, the water was bathtub warm and very calm (the strait is a pretty protected waterway, nothing like for instance the beaches in south Bali, which face right out to the Indian Ocean).
Saturday night was particularly beautiful. We spent the day doing some really interesting planning for the future of the organization and also to pick a new director (Akbar is going to become more of a chair of the board of directors kind of thing, still coming to the office every day but freer to do more lobbying and training work). Here I am leading a session on HIV updates:
And here I am taking notes in a breakout group working on ideas to improve medical and social care for gay men and warias with AIDS:
Lots of productive discussions--it was a great opportunity to be involved, particularly since I'm one of 4 people currently on their advisory board!
All throughout the 3 days we've eaten wonderful food - lots of fresh fish - looked by a lesbian friend of GC who is an amazing cook.
After the evening session where we picked the new director for GC (Azis, who's been with the organization since 1993 and is an old friend), we went outside to find the quarter moon above the ocean and beautiful white reflections on the waves, with tall pale white thunderclouds too. Distant flashes of lightning every so often, and stars above - it's nice to see the Southern Cross again, and Orion right overhead and the Big Dipper upside down on the northern horizion. A nice cool breeze and the squid-hunting fishing boats out on the water with their strong lights they use to attract the squid looked like a little village out at sea. Saturday night so lots of kids from town on the beach hanging out, playing guitar or chatting. Several of us thought we'd sleep out on one of the bamboo huts, so we just lay there for a long time talking and watching the waves. By about 1am though the beautiful sea breeze was getting stronger and the lightning more frequent - rain was clearly on its way, so we went inside - a good decision because it started pouring rain about 30 minutes later, quite a din on the tin roof of the beach house as I fell asleep thinking of my loved ones eating a sunny breakfast on the other side of the world.
We were just 20 feet or so from the beach - beautiful sunsets with all of the little islands out in the Makassar Strait, and lots of ships too.
The beach wasn't the cleanest in the world but it was fine, the water was bathtub warm and very calm (the strait is a pretty protected waterway, nothing like for instance the beaches in south Bali, which face right out to the Indian Ocean).
Saturday night was particularly beautiful. We spent the day doing some really interesting planning for the future of the organization and also to pick a new director (Akbar is going to become more of a chair of the board of directors kind of thing, still coming to the office every day but freer to do more lobbying and training work). Here I am leading a session on HIV updates:
And here I am taking notes in a breakout group working on ideas to improve medical and social care for gay men and warias with AIDS:
Lots of productive discussions--it was a great opportunity to be involved, particularly since I'm one of 4 people currently on their advisory board!
All throughout the 3 days we've eaten wonderful food - lots of fresh fish - looked by a lesbian friend of GC who is an amazing cook.
After the evening session where we picked the new director for GC (Azis, who's been with the organization since 1993 and is an old friend), we went outside to find the quarter moon above the ocean and beautiful white reflections on the waves, with tall pale white thunderclouds too. Distant flashes of lightning every so often, and stars above - it's nice to see the Southern Cross again, and Orion right overhead and the Big Dipper upside down on the northern horizion. A nice cool breeze and the squid-hunting fishing boats out on the water with their strong lights they use to attract the squid looked like a little village out at sea. Saturday night so lots of kids from town on the beach hanging out, playing guitar or chatting. Several of us thought we'd sleep out on one of the bamboo huts, so we just lay there for a long time talking and watching the waves. By about 1am though the beautiful sea breeze was getting stronger and the lightning more frequent - rain was clearly on its way, so we went inside - a good decision because it started pouring rain about 30 minutes later, quite a din on the tin roof of the beach house as I fell asleep thinking of my loved ones eating a sunny breakfast on the other side of the world.
At the Kafe Bibliotek
Friday morning, before heading off for the strategic planning meeting, I (and a waria friend from GC) went and spoke to a group of British and Indonesian university students about sexuality in Indonesia. The group is finishing up a 6-month exchange program (half in the UK, half in Indonesia) run through Global Exchange. The event was held at Kafe Bibliotek, which is a building out towards Hasanuddin University that's apparently owned by a Japanese guy living in town (connected to the consulate? need to learn more). It's got a nice little library and is open to all - you just pay for a drink and you can sit and read all you want, which is a pretty rare setup in Indonesia. Quite nice.
The discussion was great - the students asked great questions and we had a very lively and supportive discussion. My waria friend who came along really enjoyed herself and plans on going back there.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Karebosi
Today we did our 6th puskesmas visit. Perhaps the biggest so far, but only 3 people as usual to act as counselors, so it took almost 4 hours! GC will definitely add more counselors if this program gets extended.
It poured rain most of the time and we watched a couple kids playing in the rain from the veranda.
On the way home, I took a shot of this government sign to "avoid AIDS by being pious and informed," showing one woman helping another put on her prayer shawl (probably mother and daughter). Showed the picture to the 3 GC staff in the car with me - and the taxi driver - all were frustrated that the government was spending so much money on very vague public announcements that don't really say anything.
Tonight, I had yummy seafood near the beach with 3 friends from GC, and then we swung by Karebosi, the big park in the center of Makassar, about a quarter mile on a side (I wish Long Beach had that!). Saw some friends there and Andi (one of the folks with me, an old friend) and I pointed out the tree where gay men used to gather and hang out back in 1993.
Tomorrow morning I'm speaking to a group of university students about gay Indonesians, then in the afternoon I'm going to help Akbar try and get DSL for the office (yay!), and then around 4pm we're heading to the beach where GC is renting a couple little overnight stay buildings and the whole staff is spending Friday pm-Sunday am on a planning retreat. So it might be 2 or 3 days before I post again - I'll try to get some good photos from the beach! You can always send me a text message using your cell phone - send it to +61-81-399-712-782. For most phone plans in the US, the international calling code is 001 (but sometimes 011 or something else) - if 001 then you'd dial 00161-81-399-712-782.
It poured rain most of the time and we watched a couple kids playing in the rain from the veranda.
On the way home, I took a shot of this government sign to "avoid AIDS by being pious and informed," showing one woman helping another put on her prayer shawl (probably mother and daughter). Showed the picture to the 3 GC staff in the car with me - and the taxi driver - all were frustrated that the government was spending so much money on very vague public announcements that don't really say anything.
Tonight, I had yummy seafood near the beach with 3 friends from GC, and then we swung by Karebosi, the big park in the center of Makassar, about a quarter mile on a side (I wish Long Beach had that!). Saw some friends there and Andi (one of the folks with me, an old friend) and I pointed out the tree where gay men used to gather and hang out back in 1993.
Tomorrow morning I'm speaking to a group of university students about gay Indonesians, then in the afternoon I'm going to help Akbar try and get DSL for the office (yay!), and then around 4pm we're heading to the beach where GC is renting a couple little overnight stay buildings and the whole staff is spending Friday pm-Sunday am on a planning retreat. So it might be 2 or 3 days before I post again - I'll try to get some good photos from the beach! You can always send me a text message using your cell phone - send it to +61-81-399-712-782. For most phone plans in the US, the international calling code is 001 (but sometimes 011 or something else) - if 001 then you'd dial 00161-81-399-712-782.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Forced outside...
Did our 5th Puskesmas event today. The most successful yet - over 40 women got tested, but the facility provided was TINY! The room could barely fit 10 people. So we decided to do it outside, between two buildings. What a hoot!
It was a little on the hot side, but people took it all in good stride. Two observers from the Jakarta group that's behind this program (with the Global Fund) flew in and were very impressed. I may do some kind of report for them which they can use to try and get the program extended (just 3 more of these left to go in the pilot program).I saw this on the back of one woman's shirt - "Converse All-Star" mistranslated. You see these kinds of mistranslations all the time - hee hee!
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