Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009 - (Page 8)

Witness to a P a n d e by Emmy Wong A lthough the trip was almost three years ago, I can still remember my excitement upon touching down at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, Kenya, at midnight. I vividly recall Uganda’s landscapes lush with fragrant banana and tea plantations and abundant exotic wildlife. Most of all, I remember the people I met in treatment centers and homes for children orphaned by AIDS. Over several weeks, my family and I had eagerly prepared for this journey by obtaining immunizations, yards of mosquito netting, what seemed like liters of DEET, and a generous supply of bottled water and antimalarial drugs. But we could never have truly prepared for what we were about to encounter: a country in the stranglehold of HIV and AIDS, where death lurked around every corner. Getting There My journey to Africa started in a parked car in 2005. While my mom and I waited for my school’s opening bell to sound, I was captivated by an article in the Boston Globe about a young girl from sub-Saharan Africa who had just lost both parents to AIDS. She was from a close-knit family like my own. When her mother died, she became head of the household at the age of 11. As I looked at her photograph, it occurred to me that although she was African and I am Chinese-American, we looked alike. I was compelled to learn how I could help her and the millions of other kids like her, orphaned by AIDS. I started reading everything I could about this pandemic. One night when I was surfing the internet for information about AIDS orphans, I came across a student essay contest on the topic of compassion and AIDS. The prizes, ranging from $250 to $1,000, caught my eye. If I won, I could donate the money to helping AIDS orphans. I decided to give it a try. A couple months later, the CEO of the contest’s sponsoring charity, Oakseed Ministries International, e-mailed me with news that I had won the $1,000 first prize—and the grand prize: a trip for two to Africa for 10 days. I could hardly believe it. I was going to Africa! The Journey We asked the sponsor to allow us to pay for two additional family members so all four in my family could take this journey of a lifetime. We took a five-hour flight to London from Boston and then an eight-hour flight on a jumbo jet to Nairobi, Kenya. The following day, we took a bumpy ride on a tiny plane to Entebbe, Uganda, a suburb on the outskirts of Kampala, which sits on the shores of Lake Victoria. We had just touched down when my mother, making small talk, asked the man who would drive us to our hotel about the population of Nairobi, Kenya. “With thousands of people dying every day from AIDS,” was the stark reply, “we don’t even know; it changes each day.” His words hung heavy in the thick, breathless night air, like a curtain dividing where we had come from and where we were going. My family and I stared at each other incredulously. This was the reason we had come, to understand the scope of destruction and to witness firsthand both the heartache and compassion that appeared in its wake. Over the next ten days, with the help of our guide, Christine Baralemwa, we visited five overcrowded HIV/ AIDS treatment centers both in the city and in the rural area of Dundu, about 30 kilometers outside the city. My eyes were opened wide to the basic needs of families living in a poor country, as well as the additional stressors and needs of those struggling to survive with AIDS. The Faces of Tragedy On our first day, we visited the Mildmay Center in Kampala, where there was a waiting room filled with people of all ages, but mostly mothers with small children. Everyone looked tired and sick; many of those waiting were crying. A boy my age wearing rags for clothing waited to see the doctor. He was dying before my eyes. Emmy, her sister, and her mother pose with their host family. imagine January/February 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009

Imagine Magazine - John Hopkins - January/February 2009
Contents
Letters
Big Problems
In My Own Words
Witness to a Pandemic
An Ounce of Prevention
Of Math and Measles
Predicting the Next Pandemic
Medicine, Medicine Everywhere
Food Matters
Looking for a Challenge? Try Summer College!
CTY: The Real Deal
Hot Topic
Selected Opportunities & Resources
Off the Shelf
Word Wise
Middle Ground
One Step Ahead
Exploring Career Options
Planning Ahead for College
Students Review
Creative Minds Imagine
Sudoku
Knossos Games

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2009