This past weekend, Molo had another Voluntary Counseling Testing (VCT)
awareness campaign in Atlantis. Unfortunately this one was not as well attended
as the one we had the previous week in Delft. It was a reminder to me about the
stigma that still exists around going for testing. Even one of my co-workers
who went to get tested to help encourage others at the event remarked how even
though she knew that she was not HIV positive that she was still anxious to go
into the tent and get tested and see what her results would be. Being tested
for any illness or disease is scary, but I’m so proud of Molo for wanting to
take on the challenge of encouraging folks to get tested and know what their
status is so that they can know how to take care of their bodies. The children
really enjoyed the event though, especially the performance of the magic man!
Last week we also went to go see Kanala, which is a musical that focuses
on the forced removal of Black and Coloured people from District 6… or at least
so I thought it would be. Upon reflection, I see that perhaps the musical was
only meant to focus on how amazingly eclectic and diverse that District 6 was
before the apartheid government broke it apart. However, I felt like the
musical should have done more to highlight the pain and despair regarding what
being ripped from their homes must have done for those who were affected. They
honestly spent about 10 minutes of the whole play with surface reflection on
that and then went back to singing and dancing to 50s and 60s hits. To me their
overlooking of that perspective felt disrespectful to the reverberations of
what District 6 was, had become and now represents post-apartheid. So, I didn’t
really enjoy it to say the least.
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