Jamy, Dan and I sat down with a bunch of students today and talked about their perspectives on HIV/AIDS. I realized that I rarely talk about this with them, and that Jamy and Dan's presence really helps me ask the hard questions.
The problems they identified aren't surprises - using condoms is difficult because it's not a habit, women don't have the power to tell the men to use them, and men don't think to use them when they are dealing with a woman they see as "safe". And they hear fidelity pumped in all the time in church and through other means, but they see fidelity as something only married people can ever achieve as young people will always play around. And the fidelity that's preached to them is "one partner for life", because it's preached alongside abstinence until marriage. So it's just not a viable option.
But the activists still have hope; they still think that they can turn people around with enough help from superiors, money and more of what they're doing.
I just wish the church would stop f...ing things up.
Peace
John
