Amy.Gress

June 25, 2012 - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe     Incredible Rock Formations in Matopos       Jodi has left us and returned home. We will miss her, as she is kind, affable, knowledgeable, loving, and sweet. She also has so many talents! If she had stayed here all summer, she would not have run out of things she could teach and share with others. I do hope she will return one day soon, but this time, with Ed.       straw used for roofing         This morning I meet with folks from Forgotten Voices (an NGO from PA who also work here, but in a different [...]

Today is gorgeous. It is just me and the young ones - Aiden and Juju. Morgan is out with friends for a sleepover and Eric and Jodi are at another training. I have cleaned, washed clothes, fed four kids, played with the same kids, made potato salad for a bar-b-q we've been invited to tonight, caught up on some emails, and overall, had a busy morning. One thing that makes today gorgeous is that face that we have two little friends over - Jonathan is four and Anesu is eight. They belong to my friends Sugu and KC (I can't pronounce his given name) and their parents had something to [...]

June 21 - Mayezane, Zimbabwe From Eric Weaver     Jodi Teaching with Q     Today Jodi, Q and I went to a workshop in Mayezane, Zimbabwe. Mayezane is located about 2 ½ hours outside of Bulawayo. A third of the trip was on paved roads but the remaining 2/3 was on sandy dirt roads through a very arid area looking much like Nevada or southern Texas. (It totally amazes me how Q was able to find this place.) We arrived at a small school house where about 200 kids attend school, some of them walking up to 10 km to get there. This community, like many others in [...]

Around the turn of the century, a wave of activism combined with the generic production of AIDS-combating drugs significantly lowered the price of first-line treatment for HIV. Now, because the price of a standard antiretroviral (ARV) regimen hovers around $160 per person per year, the majority of AIDS victims around the world have access to this baseline version of ARV. This is an amazing reduction from the $10,000-15,000 range of the late 1990s. However, even the lowered price is prohibitively expensive for many developing countries, and unfortunately, international trade law still prevents a straightforward price reduction of ALL types of ARV. Second-line ARV drugs, developed after the less sophisticated first-line [...]

tran June 19, 2012 – Masvingo, Zimbabwe         Juju's lemon eyes       The morning starts at 5:30am, getting ready for a new adventure to give out sixty goats to children and their guardians. We pluck the kids out of bed while it is still dark and join Ncube, who is driving us. Boiled eggs, peanut butter sandwiches and water accompany us for the long trip ahead. Eric, Ncube and I are in charge of delivering, vaccinating and tagging the goats and I can’t wait. We arrive at a dusty, dry, forlorn, tiny grouping of houses and hear signing in the distance. Up ahead just a [...]

June 16, 2012 - Matopos, Zimbabwe Today is sunny and we are planning on having a fabulous day at the Matopos National Park. With John driving the big LandRover, the rest of us pile into the back of the truck and take off with a picnic lunch packed. We are dressed warmly because there are no windows on the truck and while it is sunny, the breeze is still chilly at this time of the morning. About an hour into the drive, we stop to allow Aiden, Eric and AJ to sit in the top of truck. Aiden is so excited!! His eyes are shining like little olives and he [...]

June 14, 2012 – Bulawayo, Zimbabwe After a breakfast of rice and a fried egg, Jodi, Morgan, Juju and I head out to distribute fifty-six goats to beneficiaries approximately three hours away. Q takes us in a pick-up truck and what starts out as a ride on an asphalt road ends up on a narrow dirt road with small villages suddenly appearing on the side of the road. Q tells us that we should be able to spot a giraffe and that keeps us looking out the windows. While no giraffe materializes, we do see a group of baboons on the side of road and we go wild with excitement, [...]

One of the coolest success stories in the 25-year history of HIV/AIDS is the dramatic price drop of baseline antiretroviral drugs (ARV therapy, or ART) since the turn of the 21st century. These drugs are pivotal in the fight against AIDS, granting a healthy and productive life to HIV patients who adhere faithfully to a strict therapy regimen. And these drugs’ new affordability on the international market has allowed a 16-fold increase in the number of poor-country citizens receiving ARV drugs from 2003 to 2010 alone. At the end of 2010, 6.6 million people in the developing world were benefiting from them. 47% of the world’s citizens had access to [...]

I want to thank our friends at Ahnu for providing me with the absolute best boots ever. I have worn them to the top of Kilimanjaro, through the streets of Harrisburg, PA and everywhere in between. Here they are, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, looking dirtier than usual. I am resting my feet on the truck window, as we wait for help on our 11th breakdown of the trip. Ahnu has been a generous supporter of our work, giving us certificates for Kilimanjaro climbers and winners in our recent 5k. I believe we host the 5k with the absolute best prizes, thanks to sposnors like Ahnu! I've also uploaded [...]

June 12, 2012 – Johannesburg, South Africa – Bulawayo, Zimbabwe I spy them from the top of the tall escalator. I am on the third floor and they are in a terminal on the ground floor. I see her first, tall and elegant, fifteen years old, my niece Morgan. She is laughing at something one of the small ones said or did. I scan a bit and see Juju and Aiden playing in front of her, acting funny to see her laugh again. Eric is on the right of them, Jodi on the left of her. My heart beat picks up and I feel it change pace. I start walking [...]