HIV/AIDS Conference in St. Lucia

I'm sure my dedicated readers are calling the Peace Corps headquarters making sure I am still alive, and thank you for that, because I am. There hasn't been much to update on around here lately that is worth an entire posting for the universe to see, so I apologize for my idleness. But I am BACK!

Last week I got the opportunity to once again travel to St. Lucia. That's three free trips to St. Lucia on tax payers dollars if anyone is asking. haha. I promise its justified and every dollar spent was worth it for the development of the Caribbean. This trip I was participating in a PEPFAR funded HIV/AIDS conference. In case some people aren't familiar with development works friendly acronyms, PEPFAR stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The conference was a two day event put on for Peace Corps Volunteers and their island counterparts. Unique to this conference was the structure, which included the performing arts group ASHE out of Jamaica. ASHE uses the progressive and relevant style of edutainment. Edutainment has existed for centuries, but just recently has been given a title and description, in which use of entertainment attracts and maintains an audience, while incorporating deliberate educational content or messages.

Throughout the conference the ASHE group included dance, music, drama and role play to convey a number of messages to us about our work in HIV/AIDS. There are a few important things that we took from the conference that I think should be shared with ya'll:

• In order to help the people we are committed to helping, we must first look within ourselves. Identifying and helping fix the baggage we carry with us will allow us to give ourselves completely to the work we do.
• Separate facts from stories. When dealing with tough situations that often involve hearsay, try to separate the facts from the stories. 
• Clean the dirty water and replace it with fresh water. Throughout everyone's lifetime we collect dirt or sand. These are experiences that shape us and our reactions to situations. If there is a problem in your life, look at the dirty water, see how you can best clean that water (though it can never really be pure) and continuing adding clean, fresh water. 

One of the most interesting points that I observed (and responded to) was the link and effect religion has on the battle against HIV/AIDS. I can't count the number of times I heard local counterparts say that we needed to turn to God for this, that and the other. Instead of facing reality and how the disease is contracted, I saw the Bible used as a crutch more than I would like to. I openly respect the view points of others and appreciated when people voice their opinions, but in order to fight the disease we much take a balanced and realistic approach.

These people are the local counterparts who we must work with to combat the epidemic, and the conference helped bring out the need for an honest collaboration between the two parties, regardless of religious background. I appreciated seeing our counterparts (well not mine because she didn't make it) show how religion really plays a role in the fight and that we must take that into consideration when designing programs and projects.

Overall, the conference was awesome. Great food, amazing presenters, sunny St. Lucia and people willing to stand up and fight the epidemic!