World AIDS Day

Posted by Jenny Rae Armstrong in Mystical Meanderings of a Love-Struck Soul

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I lived in Africa in the mid-eighties, when AIDS was moving into the public consciousness. It seemed remote at the time--an American disease hitting drug addicts, deviants, and the occasional really unlucky kid who had gotten a bad blood transfusion. Still, it became the uber-cootie of the six-plex I lived in; the boys would tag us, yell "you've got AIDS!" then run off shrieking like the Grim Reaper was on their tail, as whatever girl had been "infected"took off after them, bent on giving it back.

*shudder* Out of the mouths of babes.

A couple years ago my first grade teacher, Barb Anderson, retired and moved to South Africa to snuggle AIDS babies. She volunteers at the Lambano Sanctuary, which provides homes for children whose lives have been affected by AIDS, through the loss of a caretaker, or struggling with the disease themselves.

http://www.lambano.org.za/default.htm

Drop by their website, and consider making a year-end donation. 'Tis the season, and today's the day.