HIV Outreach in Kyankwanzi

Today the plan was to meet a TB specialist at 10, and then work in the maternity wards all morning, have a late lunch, a couple more meetings, and do some work. Why do we try to plan our days out still?

After waiting around for the person we were meeting he told us that we had two spots in a van going to Kyankwanzi to do HIV outreach and testing for the day, and asked if we were not too busy to come. We of course dropped everything and climbed in the back of the Range Rover with the rest of the team. Kyankwanzi (chamn-kwanzi) is the next district north of Kiboga and until recently was all part of Kiboga as well. It only took us 20 minutes to get to the site, but it was pretty isolated down many dirt roads.

The goal of these outreach visits is to provide rapid HIV testing to people who live far away from a clinic or hospital that does testing, and to refer HIV+ people to places where they can receive medical care and anti-retroviral therapy. Local village health workers/volunteers let people know the team is coming the morning of the visit, and so people trickle in to be tested for the several hours the team is there. The number of people tested varies from 10-200, depending on the size and isolation of the village (today we tested 75 people).

As soon as we mzungus stepped out of the Land Rover the children of the village stopped what they were doing to stare at us. No smiles or waving and first, just slack-jawed staring and following us at a safe distance, hiding behind trees or buildings and peeping out at us. Where we set up camp for the day was right next to the school, and somehow the word spread that two white girls had arrived in town and soon almost all of the 100 kids at the primary school were pressed up against the windows to try and catch a glimpse of us.

We caused such a disruption that the children were allowed to ditch class to come and see the mzungus. All the kids were fascinated by us. Staring and standing in clumps they'd occasionally return a wave, but were too shy to approach. Several kids would try and push or drag friends closer (but still a safe 30m away) who would then freak out and run away to hide.

Eventually the kids crept closer and closer, and while they'd still scatter if we showed too much interest or tried to approach them, they would wave and smile back at us. Eventually the HIV Outreach workers told us to take pictures of them (since we weren't much help with the project anyways) and this is how we became friends with the kids. They LOVED having their pictures taken, and seeing their faces on the screen after the shot was taken and laughed out loud to see mzungus in the photos with them.

The outreach staff would continually shoo the kids back, and they finally suggested that we go introduce ourselves to the teachers, who were hanging out in the shade across the school yard. We went and met them and they were very excited to talk to us as well, and after they corralled the kids back into their classrooms they brought us in to meet the 6th graders. It was very sweet and we got to help the kids practice their English, though they were still very shy up close. After that we had a few hours of peace (except for the dozen or so kids that weren't in school and kept following us around).

The kids escaped from school again later and we had them pose for more pictures, practice their English, and learn how to high five. We suspected that the kids had been wanting to touch our skin the entire time we'd been there, so once we demonstrated high fives we gave all 80-100 kids multiple high fives, which turned into shaking hands, and became a mob scene in general. It was adorable and extremely fun. Shalina and I both have sore cheeks from smiling and waving at the kids all day!

The team was great and we were able to informally interview them for our health project, and we learned a lot from them and the local community today. I'm sure we'll be going out with them again, and they said they'd take us to a REALLY remote place next time!