Church, SIDA, And the 2nd of july

Last weekend I went to a Methodist chruch in the town. It was a small cinder block building and about fifty people sitting sholder to sholder on a few benches. There was no preacher or anything just a girl in the front of the church that called off songs for everyone to sing. That lasted about an hour. The next hour was filled up with individuals getting up and singing and if anyone liked their singing then they gave the person a few coins. The singer would then deposit all the coins in the collection tray. Then at the end, everyone kinda formed a conga line to the collection tray and gave more money. I had thought that over two hours of church was quite a lot (but im no expert). Then I found out that some of my colegues were taken to an apcolistic church. They arrived a 9 in the morning had a lunch brreak at noon and then went back to church until 5 in the afternoon.

During this past week we have been focusing on the AIDS epidemic in mozambique (11.5% of the population is HIV positive). Part of everything we learned has been very depressing because the problem is so big and there is no easy way to counter it. The idea of using a condom just is not taking hold and in addition to that, infadelity is not just common its expected. However. about 50% of people that get HIV in Mozambique get it from a faithful spouce that had contracted the virus from a previous partner. The good news has come from all the advances in anti retro viral drugs and an effort to make sure people that are HIV positive get a good diet and good nutrition. There are people that have been living with HIV for over 10 years in Mozambique by simply kepeing up with their meds and having a good diet and their immune systems are still doing well.

yesterday we had a 4th of july party on the 2nd it was really great to hang out with all my coleagues informaly and eat some hamburgers and cake.