An interview with one HIV positive woman

An HIV positive lives her life positively!!!
Today I went to the HIV/AIDS clinic in the Matahre slum. I had a quite encouraging and inspiring conversation with a HIV positive patient. She has four children, fortunatelly, who are all HIV negative. The time when she realized she was pregenat, she was tested HIV positive. She is from a very poor family so she was forced to pracice prostitution when she was quite young. And then, she decided to join Kanua hospital, a well-organized NGO which I’ve visited before, where she learned how to take care herself and other patients. That’s why she doesn’t get AIDS and she can be productive to raise four children.
Now she stays in Matahre, renting a house with her family. I can’t believe that she has to pay the rental 1500 NT per month. At the daytime, her husband and she run a small restaurant at home; when the dawn comes, she will remove the facilities of restaurant and lay the matress for her children to sleep.
For the HIV positive patients, sex is always a problem between the couples. At the beginning, her husband refused to use condom at the beginning. Therefore, her husband always slept outside; what’s worse, they even met only once a month. In order to save her marriage, she tried to pursuade her husband using condoms. She succeeded!!! She used the knowledge she learned from the hospital and made her life happy. At the end of the interview, I asked her ‘Are you happy with your life now?’ ‘I am very happy even though sometimes I have hard time paying rent and tuition.’ Now, she uses her spare time working for the school of the hospital. She goes there to see if the school children (most of them are vulnerable or HIV positive) take the medicine and have food.
I am so happy that she can stand up from the bleak time and be able to help others as well.

Poverty and the lack of capital to start the business is always the problem in the slum. No matter where I go, the doctor, the diretor of school and students all ask the money from us, which make me feel very sad. They tend to rely on other’s help and donation. Nobody in the slum is entrepreneurial. They know there will be always somebody coming to help them, so they just keep waiting for foreign donation or volunteers, most of whom come and go, just staying in few months. There are so many needs but supplies are limited. Everyone in the slum needs money. The government won’t put more to develop the slum; even though they did spare some capital, which isNow I am teaching business in the slum, but I will think about teaching them how to lead a life aggressively first. Maybe the 7 habits could be a good idea!!!

Weekly journal, 24,July

今天我去參觀一個在貧民窟裡的愛滋病非營利組織醫院。凡是要加入的人必須付一百塊台幣，對於很多人一百塊台幣是一個重擔(多數人的月薪只有 2500台幣)，所以他們可以選擇在經濟能力允許情況下再付錢。加入會員後，他們會被分配到各小組去，組員會在著新會員接受訓練。他們每天都有活動，而每天會有兩個義工(會員)到醫院煮飯給病患吃:
週一是會員大會，他們坐在一起討論關於組織的事情。
週二會有銀行的人到組織去上課教他們個人理財，多數的人都有銀行貸款，所以這堂課對於很多人是相當實用。
週三會員會一起到組織去煮飯然後給社區愛滋病患，還有愛滋病諮詢。之後他們會有issue-based discussion，在週三前他們會決定一個和愛滋病相關的議題，在週三午後，他們會坐在一起討論其議題。
週四會有youth group到社區表演舞蹈或是表演和愛滋相關的話劇給社區居民觀賞。
週五愛滋病患會聚集在一起，彼此分享生活心得彼此鼓勵互相成長。
週六會有顧問團到社區去關心社區愛滋兒童。
週日則是禮拜天。
目前現任的director她當初之所以接觸這個組織是因為她姊姊，她姊姊是愛滋病患，但是因為經濟能力匱乏，醫院告知她到這個非營利組織去接受醫療，所以她剛開始週末時會到組織去做義工，一直到五、六年後，她成為了director。這個非營利組織(社區醫院)給了沒有經濟能力的人一絲希望。就如我說的，大醫院根本就不屑照顧窮人，視之如敝屣，只有這種非營利組織，可以收容貧窮病患。他們也會到病患家庭去做醫療、健診、還有幫病人清洗身體，在這個組織裡，非愛滋病患及愛滋病患是一起工作的。愛滋病患在這邊可以得到照顧、非愛滋病患能夠扶持愛滋病患，這個醫院也提供暫時的住所給愛滋病患，如果幸運的話，病患可以被送到大醫院去。在這個組織裡，不只是醫療，我看到的更是大家彼此互相鼓勵、然後學習以及成長，她成功地結合了不同的功能，讓所以有不論是愛滋病患或是非愛滋病患的人都非常滿意、而且願意為這個組織做更多的付出，這也就是為什麼他們在肯亞可以有3000個會員、多個分院的成功秘訣!!

午后我到一個市集去尋寶，我初次拜訪那個市集時，還真是被攤販的密集度嚇一大跳，待我拍個照上傳給大家瞧瞧。他們最主要賣裝飾品如首飾、包包、畫等紀念品，顧客為當地人還有外國觀光客。殺價及攬客是最精采的片段了。
他們會請你摸請你拿你想買的東西讓你覺得你好像非買不可因東西已經在你手裡了。他們會非常積極的攬客說歡迎光臨、問你叫什麼名字、跟你握手、說:你好阿我的朋友、說你很漂亮讚美你之類的話，如果你站再攤販前多於一秒，攤販就會滔滔不絕說”我會給你個好價”一直問你問題或是說話，他們的絕招就是讓你去接觸商品、然後報給你一個好價。
不過好價永遠是我心目中而不是商人的好價，今天我看到一副耳環攤販開價150我說太貴了我只有剩下50，他回說100，我說抱歉我真要回家了然後掉頭就走，(我是真的要走了)，後來他追上說好，50，哈，成交!這時候我真的感受到需求彈性的威力，這樣我們在殺價時可以比較有空間，反正價錢不滿意大不了不買，我們的彈性大，這樣和攤販好談價錢，別顯現出一副非買不可狀。(或許是因為我還有八個禮拜所以我真的不急著買，但其他光觀客可能只會拜訪一次)然後還有商人問我”你說你沒錢我想問你是從哪裡來?中國還是日本?我說中國(我懶的跟商人解釋台灣中國之區別，跟商人抬槓還滿浪費時間成本的)他說，那簡單，你回家跟家人要錢然後帶來，你就有錢了，哈哈我大笑說”會會當然會，下禮拜見”。這位商人叔叔您可說的真對阿。下禮拜我打算帶一些台灣帶去的飾品到市集去進行交易，看我可以換到什麼，敬請期待。J
在我回家的途中，我在想今天真是奇妙，中午我還在學校教這些當地的父母怎麼賺錢，傍晚我就在市集當奧客狂殺價了……