Kelley and I went to the AIDS hospital today. It was quite an experience since we do not have much experience with AIDS and HIV patients in the US. Many of the patients arrive at the hospital in the later stages of AIDS and in critical condition. They are placed on anti-retrovirals that are now available to any HIV patient that requests them. The drugs frequently allow the patients to recover to a level that allows them to return to the community and to their former lives. We were introduced to most of the patients, and heard their stories from the social worker that knows them well. The stories are of such incredible hardship and yet the patients were friendly and happy to see us. To hear the stories of survival that are so commonplace here are heartbreaking and definitely giving us a new perspective on what we consider "hardship". Kelley and I gave lectures, with the help of an interpreter, to nurses that do not speak English that well. It's interesting because they use English in the hospital and learn in English.
