Danny Park is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Biopsychology, Cognition & Neuroscience (BCN). He also served as a Peer Academic Success Specialist (PASS) in the residence halls and an Academic Success Partner (ASP) through the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI). Danny intends to eventually pursue a Masters in Student Affairs and Higher Education Administration. In his dispatch he discusses his experiences teaching in Vulindlela, the area with the highest HIV rate in the world.
“Humbled and hopeful”
CAPRISA (the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa) engages with HIV/AIDS daily on a front-line basis. According to Jared, a site coordinator, it would be hard to find a higher HIV/AIDS prevalence region anywhere else in the world. We were able to co-coordinate, teach, and interact with the dedicated people of Caprisa because of our POA liaison Zakiyah Sayyed.
During our initial reactions, many of us struggled with communicating with the community members. The hegemony of English was present and strong as ever and it was obvious that it was pressing hard on them; thus, a lot of us had to put ourselves second and be uncomfortable with being in the margins.
Despite transgressions of language barriers, it was time for the community members at Caprisa to perform the Module back to us. Just like LoveLife and Charles Hugo, their performance in Zulu was marvelous. The people of Vulindlela brandished their mother tongue fiercely and entered their natural element. As a result of this, a new interactive section of the Module was born: during Syndrome, audience members “attack” the body to demonstrate a collection of diseases killing the AIDS victim rather than AIDS itself. To me, this new interactive section of the Module demonstrated that the community members owned the material; the material did not own them. In order to innovate, one must first achieve mastery.
One of the students from my group, Tankiso aka Tinkie, then performed the FACTS section; she was on fire. In the “C” section, she added that Conversation was additionally important for staying faithful to oneself. Whether that means negotiating condom usage or discussing the types of protection one would use with their partner, Tinkie infused a core value of feminism into her Module: choice.
After our performance line-up, the people at Caprisa joined in with us and formed a circle as we all sang We Are the World in solidarity. We ate in communion, laughed, and exchanged contact information. For the last time, the POA 2015 cohort departed from the site humbled and hopeful.
