Pictures for Sale Online

http://kathrynstein.smugmug.com/

Are you talking about it?

Here is part of an email I received from someone named Steve Banda:

I have read your blog with a smile though sad. It was really job well done and please keep it up.

Malawi needs people like you as you know the country is big, so you only took time-out in Central part of it, please try to come back as the doors are wide open for you.

I listened to your interview with DJ KMM or Paul Ncozana and one voice clip which reveals there's large number of people who don't know what HIV or AIDS is all about.....I'm concern we Malawians don't do enough to educate our own siblings of the epidemic...which for years has been a ruthless predator.

Thanks for choosing Malawi.


Lack of knowledge of this virus is definitely not unique to Malawi, but the radio clip and comments I've received do make me wonder, how comfortable do you - Radio Yako's listeners - feel about either asking or answering HIV/AIDS-related questions within your families and communities?

Please share!

Interview with Radio Yako

Welcome Radio Yako listeners, and thank you so much for visiting this blog. Today's interview was the first of several with Paul Ncozana, and I look forward to hearing your voices, either here or via email (stein.kathryn@gmail.com).

Thembi's death

Maybe you knew about this already, but I just found out this morning. Thembi Ngubane, the South African Radio Diarist who spoke so candidly and beautifully about her life with HIV/AIDS, died of drug resistant TB earlier this month. She died within a few days of diagnosis. Thembi was 24 years old, and such a powerful advocate.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105017959

I learned about her for the first time last fall, and was hooked. I emailed the link to friends, shared it on Facebook, and listened many times during this past year when I felt like I needed to hear her again.
http://www.radiodiaries.org/aidsdiary/index.html

TB is the number one killer of people with HIV. Here you can watch James Nachtwey's slideshow and take action in the fight against XDRTB:
http://xdrtb.org/

Here in North Carolina, there's a woman named Vimala Rajendran who opens her home to the community each Wednesday, cooking traditional Indian food for all who stop by. There's a donation jar, and the money often goes toward a cause, organization, or family. If you go, plan to stay, but bring tupperware because you'll want leftovers.

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A354663

I finally made it for the first time last night, and listen to this. When a friend introduced us and Vimala heard that I focused on child-headed households and HIV/AIDS in Malawi, she immediately suggested we organize an event to raise money for the people I met there. "We'll make African food - oh samosas! you ate samosas on every street corner, right? - and you can do a slideshow." Nsima with "relish" should definitely be on the menu. According to Malawians, anything else is just a snack.

Some of my favorite memories from this trip are those times when I handed my equipment over. A few people were hesitant to use my camera, but most loved it, as did their friends and neighbors. One teen in Mitundu immediately took off with it, a trail of kids behind him, and took great photos of village life that I would've been too shy to attempt. It was sweet how they wanted to show each picture once they learned how. Other times I'd stick the headphones on one kid and a mic or two in the hands of another during a recording. One time I spoke with two sisters in their 20s, orphaned and both, along with several other family members, infected with HIV. When we were done, I asked if they wanted listen to their interviews, something I rarely did, and had difficulty pressing stop about 25 minutes later.

Tisa

The interview I edited today was with a 14 year old who lives in the Mitundu area with her grandmother and three younger siblings. Her mother passed away suddenly (collapsed while washing clothes, died that same night) when she was ten and her father died of pneumonia (she remembers him crying out in pain one night, and that he died after two weeks in far away hospital). Tisa goes to school three days a week and does piecework (temporary fieldwork) the other two days so that her family will have enough to eat. She was 2nd in her class of 32 students last term. When her mother was alive, she would sometimes buy the children clothes. Her father always encouraged education. She said that she will be able to face life's challenges if she can finish school.

I asked about HIV education in her school. Weekly focus groups, coed, where students discuss an assigned topic and ask the teacher for help as needed. She said that both girls and boys feel comfortable asking anything in these sessions, and that she’s never asked a question because she knows everything about HIV. If she does have a question, is there someone with whom she can speak in private? Her voice changes. “No, there is nobody.” Listening back today, I wonder what message I sent by following up a bit but not providing any good suggestions.

She mentioned that she didn’t have a uniform or school shoes and that, for the third year in a row, she and her siblings don’t have a blanket. Nights can be near freezing during Malawi’s winter months. Tisa and her siblings sleep in a sack and their chitenge (cloth) and their grandmother in her jersey. She estimated that shoes would cost 800 kwacha, slightly over $5, and I knew that a blanket was 1500 kwacha, roughly $10. Her calm and respectful request for assistance was met by awkwardness on my part as I wondered, Is it right to promise money quickly, as if even this amount is no big deal? I can buy the blanket; should I pay for the shoes as well? If I give money to her, is it fair to others who have been interviewed? Is the fact that I’m even hesitating related to my social class? ... Arichie is delivering the blanket and shoes to her with the photos from her disposable camera. It’s not enough, I know.

Tisa took great photos, both with my camera and the disposable. Not only does she have a good eye, but she clearly put a lot of care and thought into each picture. Oh and she bravely resisted her friends’ pressure and only took a few pictures of them so she could focus on documenting her daily life. This girl is so inspiring.