In conclusion…

So im going to warn you that this may seem melodramatic, so forgive me, but I wanted to use this post to try to sum up the trip and talk about where the documentary is going from here etc.

Im going to start by saying that the chasm that lies between the developed nations and those that i visited in Africa is enormous. There is a deep and profound disconnect that exists, where there should be truth and understanding. Through the media people in the ‘west’ have a view of africa as somehow unhuman and inferior. The reality is that i think people want to dissociate themselves from the issues because contronting them is too difficult. You even see it in Africa; in Joburg people live in their multi-million dollar homes and drive their bentley’s 15 minutes away families are dying one by one of a disease thats treatable with ARVs and they feel no moral obligation to help.

The kinds of things that people have gone through, are going through or will have to go through are more than i can fathom. While i was in africa, the billboards promoting abstinence and aids awareness, the free HIV testing facilities in train stations, the stories that i heard in interviews with kids that had been orphaned by aids; none of it really sunk in. But now, after having left its slowly creeping forward. The reality of the situation becomes real because I have a stark comparison in front of me wherever i look. The scary thing is that no matter what I write, what stories I tell, or what arguments I make, you wont get it. I dont even get it yet, but im beginning to.

What frightens me is that i know how i feel right now but will i mask it in a month? will i try to fiorget about the kid who at 22 had been looking after his 5 siblings for the past 6 years after his parents died of aids? Will i think of the two girls who had to bury their mother outside the fron door of their hut because they didnt have the money for a burial, while i eat a meal that costs the same amount as thier school fees for a year? I dont know. I think that there is a balance that will emerge, but right now i dont know how its going to work.

In regards to my documentary, Ive realised that the issues that i was going to touch on are bigger than i could have imagined and i need to rethink the whle thing. -more on that later.

Id like to end on a high note though. I met a woman in swaziland who works for SOS childrens villages. We were walkiong back toward the village after having visited a family whos hut the organisation had replaced with a two room bulding for the 5 member family. I asked her how difficult it was keeping people motivated and positive when you have 70,000+ aids orpans in a country with only 1.2 million people. What she said was that, “HIV/AIDS has given Swazi’s the the oppotunity to come together, for them to confront the problems and work to solve them as a collective unit.”

Hearing that statement from someone in a country where 45% of the population is HIV+ was shocking to me. If she and the people in her community can be optimistic and dilligent in fighting these issues, why cant I, or anyone else?