still alive

This first day of June was my first back in the field after a three day hiatus from the planet, recharging after a fever of a hundred and seven: Sarah saved my life once again (...for those of you unfamiliar with the 'lobster incident'...) by immersing me in a bath of normal body temperature. Still the hacking cough, but the pain has melted away immensely with the day filled with shooting all of the pretty things we never seem to have time for...both patients resting today. One event that I'm sorry to have missed was a dance rehearsal on Sunday, where the women sing songs in Zulu about contemporary social problems, including a great one about opportunistic infections that can attack with HIV, but Sarah captured a beautiful recording. And also the following pictures of me setting up a shot, and minutes later getting swarmed by curious children, some of which were former students of Vusi, also pictured.

It's looking bright so far for both of the patients we are following, who have just begun adherence training at their respective clinics. Sarah alone was permitted to sit in on the sessions, and was pleased to see that condom use was demonstrated. Those of you in the U.S. might have spotted Gerry, her daddy, recently
on the PBS show Frontline that was about the history of AIDS; the woman who produced that show is also on our advisory board. He's something of a superstar in these parts, which has been really nice to hear about from all sorts of people. We love our parents so much and are terribly proud of them, something that stings more when we meet an orphan. The HBCs have taken us in as their daughters, and call us 'the young brides'. Vusi almost began negotiating our price in cattle with an old man who lived beside a mountain where we were filming. I'd be curious to know who's worth more cows; they're 5000 rand each ($833). Then we could know who to sell if the camera breaks...