woke up not so early this morning.
Was at a friends, farewell birthday dinner thingy.
he is going to mozambique to go deep sea diving.
Just like that...
So drank sum rose and ate a lot as in: went for thirds.
exposed to a lotta second hand smoke.
Anyway as the night progressed thsi waitress kept coming up to me, is everything okay? Is there anything else? So now i'm getting a bit uneasy and start wonderin if i have "I tip big" or "I like girls" or "aspiring waitress: train me" written sumwhere where only she can see.
My friends dad asks how I know the girl, i'm like I don't.
Eventually she asks for my number, and i mention it coz thsi is the second tym this is happening in like a month, happend when i was in CT as well.
I didn't know what to make of it. Maybe she was just a friendly person.but told her I didn't have a celly (prayin silently 4 ma brick not to ring) and that i was hardly eva home and so told her to gimme hers instead.
I'm such a liar but seriously just coz she was a girl didn't mean it was safe to.
Anyway, still yestaday, a bit earlier in the day:
I had to go to teh hospital in the location. To teh ante natal clinic where preganat mothers who are HIV positive go for counselling.
Its was draining. Absolutely depressing. We had to go test materials that we are developing for when they gotta give birth, it illustrates how to use ART's and nevirapine and when etc.
So we got our pretty mock ups. glossy pics and simplified text. Only one problem:No one can read properly. Not one of them.I'm talking people who are 24 years old and upwards. And it just doesn't bother them, would you like to learn we ask, no, they giggle and one says we are too old for that. So how are you going to get the information tahts in the leaflet? We'll ask sumone who goes to school to read it to us. we are failing the people jo. This is such critical information, understanding it will ensure that she safeguards her baby and it wil be born negative.
Local language materials are developed but the translator will tell you, there's no word for this or that in the dialect. We can't sya this or that because people just don't say these things. Its 2005 and people are dying od AIDS.
we take so much for granted. i can't imagine not being able to read, not being able to read a billboard, a newspaper headline, nott being able to understand what i'm looking at.
use of pictures helps a bit because we can sequence them and depict what should be happening. But they look at the pictures and will say, the woman is pregnant and she is wearing a pink dress, but what is happening in the picture? Can't U see the setting is a hospital and the she is receiving her nevirapine? ooh....yes, they say, thats true. But who has time to carry them through all of that on a busy day at the hospital, these are take home materials that they should be able to understand and refer to thru their pregancy. can you leave us copiess of the leaflets they say. Yes of course but what are they going to do with them?
its just sad really. and one doesn't know how to begin to stress the importance of sticking to the instructions on how use the stuff.
And how can sum1 be satisfied with not knowing how to read, how can they lack ambition so? But then Carl Rogers self actualization theory will tell you that these people are content because in their world, in their life, that is the way things are and that is best they can be. that it doesn't bother them and they get on without knowing how to read and its okay.
but..but..how.or maybe my of view of the world is distordted I dunno but we need formats that will work, like last century already coz people continue to die slow.
