Tuesday, November 08, 2005

No fear!

In fact most of the guys I got to know in Botswana worried very little about catching HIV. Now I'm not talking about illiterate guys who knew nothing about the virus or saw it as some form of curse. I'm talking about educated guys who knew exactly how the virus is transmitted but still had little or no fear of it. I'm talking of Batswana friends of mine, Zimbabwean friends, Zambian friends and friends from the UK and Irealnd.

Before I lived in Botswana I assumed that anyone who knew anything about HIV/AIDS would avoid unprotected sex. Of course they would. Afterall it's a potentially fatal virus. It kills you and people want to avoid death at all costs. Certainly that is the attitude I had when I went to live in Botswana. That attitude was to change the longer I lived in Botswana. I didn't actually indulge in risky behaviour myself but I began to understand the mindset of those who did. Some of their stories I will tell in forthcoming posts...

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