Need for a Cure

My adventure for the day, took me back to Maputo’s Central Hospital. Today’s trip was not to the malnourishment unit, but to a building that is for blood tests and AIDS patients. Baby Luis, one of the AIDS babies at the baby house, had an appointment for more blood test.

As we walked across the now familiar hospital campus, we approached a building that I had not been into yet. We climbed the stairs, with Baby Luis in my arms, and arrived at a double door with a guard posted checking paperwork of all who entered. We quickly showed the guard Luis’ appointment papers, and he handed us a small piece of paper with the number 101 handwritten in blue pen on it. We walked past a front desk where I quickly showed the nurse behind the desk our number and she directed us silently with a point of a finger toward a hallway.

As I walked on with Baby Luis’ head resting on my shoulder, I entered a hallway that was full of people standing shoulder to shoulder. I worked my way down the hall bumping into many people, some very young faces, many old faces, men, women, children, and newborn infants, as I tried to make my way to the waiting area. As I approached the end of the hallway, I realized that the waiting area had spilt out into the hall way because the hospital was already so busy at 8:45 in the morning. The number that was handed to us when entering through the double doors was our number in line to wait for a blood test.

I stood there with two-year-old Baby Luis resting against my chest, and watched many people come out of multiple hospital rooms. It wasn’t that the hospital didn’t have enough doctors on staff, because I would guess that there were at least 12 doctors calling in people one after another into the little room where they took two small vials of blood from each visitor’s body. There were just so many people in that small room, and it is like that all day long at this hospital on every day that the hospitals doors are open.

I have always heard about the “AIDS Epidemic” and seen people with t-shirts supporting Race for a Cure and things of that nature, but until today I was unable to really comprehend the numbers and statistics that we, as Americans, throw around so nonchalantly. Today, I witnessed the face of AIDS, and they were all beautiful. Every single person in that long hallway and waiting room was beautiful in their own unique way, and they will all eventually die of a disease that does not yet have a cure. The little boy in my arms, that I have grown to love over that last 43 days, will eventually pass away from this disease that we, as a society, have not figured out how to conquer.

My experience, of simply waiting in that hospital waiting room and having a chance to work with the children at the baby house, has drastically changed my outlook on people who are living with AIDS. I realize the urgency of the need for a cure for this disease that will eventually take the lives of many of the people that I have had the chance to meet this summer.