The young girl listens intently to the guest speaker, even
as a boy sits behind her and pulls her ponytail.
She turns to make a face at the boy and then adjusts the beaded
band holding the ponytail in place.
If her father found out a boy touched it, the girl could get
in big trouble. As long as she is wearing the blue and yellow headpiece, boys
and men are not supposed to touch her.
The young girl listens intently to the guest speaker, even
as a boy sits behind her and pulls her ponytail.
She turns to make a face at the boy and then adjusts the beaded
band holding the ponytail in place.
If her father found out a boy touched it, the girl could get
in big trouble. As long as she is wearing the blue and yellow headpiece, boys
and men are not supposed to touch her.
The ponytail – known as “umchwasho” (oom-chw-ah-show)
– looks like a large tassel connected to a strand of beads. It announces
to all persons that the girl is a virgin. The band requires girls to abstain
from sex or even from kissing someone from the opposite sex.
The age-old Swazi custom is back with hopes it will help eradicate
the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Southern Baptist missionary Mary Wood says she hopes
the umchwasho works as a reminder to save sex for marriage, but she also warns
this symbol alone will not stamp out the deadly virus.
Wood should know.
The Southern Baptist missions workers spends her days promoting
Gods way of preventing HIV/AIDS in schools, hospitals and churches.
The retired Houston nurse left her home in Texas after hearing
how AIDS was wiping out an entire generation of Africans. What she found in
Swaziland was not exactly what she expected. In the news, AIDS in Africa is
shown as emaciated people wasting away in the hospital.
“Its kind of strange that you dont see people
like that here,” Wood says. “So many have HIV, and you dont
even know it.”
One does not see it in the streets or homes – but all
the United Nations reports say HIV is here. Indeed, this small kingdom has so
much of it that Swaziland is ranked second among all African countries for HIV
infection.
Nicknamed the “slimming disease” because of the vast
weight loss it inevitably causes, AIDS might be better named the “hidden
disease” in Swaziland.
Everyone knows HIV is there. Street vendors talk on and on
about the problem, but no one seems personally to know someone with the disease.
They say, “Everyone here is healthy looking.”
Looks can be deceiving, though.
“Most people think if youre HIV-positive, you must
be skinny and look like a walking ghost,” one youth says. “But thats
not true. I have had HIV for two years and I look just like my peers.”
Statistics show that almost 43 percent of those between the
ages of 20 and 29 are already HIV-positive. More than 25 percent of youth under
the age of 20 also test positive for HIV.
AIDS is a problem on the rise.
While one cannot see the drastic physical changes at first
glance in this small country of 900,000 people, a person plainly can see the
social and economic problems related to the disease.
What one can see are orphans, widows and families struggling
to survive and grandparents who are raising 10 or more grandchildren orphaned
by the dreaded disease. One also can see the international sign for AIDS Awareness
– a red ribbon – in the beaded artwork in the marketplace. The
red ribbon is even a permanent fixture on the cover of the national magazine.
Everyone is aware of the problem, but no one deals with it
or even recognizes it.
“No one ever admits to it if they do know they have AIDS
or HIV,” Wood says. “But mainly, most people just dont know,
because they wont get tested.”
Government prevention campaigns tout the ABCs all over town.
The signs exhort its citizens to “Abstain, Be Faithful and Condomize.”
However, most have never heard of the biblical ABCs Wood teaches. She teaches,
“Abstain, Be faithful to your marriage partner and follow Christ.”
Most health agencies never bring in the love of Jesus Christ
as a way of prevention. However, Wood insists that is the only way AIDS will
be beat.
God is the only way to have enough willpower to remain pure
until marriage and during marriage, she insists. And just doing this is breaking
cultural customs.
“They say 100 percent of girls have sex before marriage
just to prove that they are fertile. It is also an accepted practice here for
boys to experiment sexually,” Wood says. “Its also accepted
practice for men to have mistresses.”
To help change those attitudes, Wood spends a lot of her time
visiting schools – especially high schools and middle schools – in
hopes that the leaders of tomorrow will be the ones to break the silence.
As a question-and-answer period begins at one school, youth
ask if white people get HIV or not. The students sit silently, hearing every
word Wood says.
It is during these sessions where the massive burden of AIDS
on this country is seen best. Every student in the room has a personal story
about how AIDS has affected their own family. The stories are commonplace, but
they are almost never talked about, except in rare cases like Wood visiting.
When one student ventures to ask if it is true that a person
can get rid of AIDS by sleeping with a virgin, all ears perk up to hear the
answer. Just the previous week, news reports spoke of a father with AIDS having
sex with his infant daughter because the local witch doctor told him to do so.
Child abuse like that is common.
“Thats a good question,” Wood answers. “It
is a lie. If you are HIV-positive and you give it to another person, you are
killing that person. Once you have HIV, you cant get rid of it.”
She explains to the students again and again how an HIV virus
is so small that millions of them can sit on the head of a pin – and thousands
can seep through the smallest holes in condoms. Most are surprised when she
tells them AIDS cannot be 100 percent prevented by using condoms.
“If I wanted to be rich, I would have stayed in America
and invested in a condom company,” she tells a group of middle-schoolers.
“But I care for you and dont want you to get sick. Thats why
Im here to talk to you about HIV and answer any of your questions.
“Id like to see you change the fate of your country.
With the strength of Jesus Christ, you have the power to do it.” (BP)
(To learn more about evangelism and church planting in Swaziland, visit the
Web site at www.imb.org/resources/yourguide/yg-s.htm)