JUNE AF RI C A ZIMBABWE
A DIVINE APPOINTMENT IN MBERENGWA
T
his wasn’t Kris Repp’s first medical outreach with Jewish Voice. The 15-hour flight like the one from New York to Johannesburg was nothing new...neither was the four-hour flight to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, or the bus ride over bumpy, rough roads to Mberengwa. She’d been on van rides like this before, down bumpy dirt roads out into rural parts of Zimbabwe where we made our camp. No running water. Bucket showers. Bucket toilets. As our nursing station director, she was very familiar with how it all worked. She’d seen it all before....or at least that’s what she thought. On the fifth day of our medical outreach in Mberengwa, Kris wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Off in the distance, a group of five men were approaching our clinic, and they seemed to be carrying something. As they came closer, it became clear. They were each holding part of a pink blanket, carrying a man too sick to even walk. Kris rushed over and grabbed part of the blanket to help bring the man to the clinic. The patient was
34-year-old Matthias, and he was stricken with late stages of AIDSrelated illness. Unfortunately, he’s one of many in Zimbabwe. Sadly, people suffering from the effects of HIV and AIDS are found all across the country, and the Mberengwa district is no exception. The first cases of AIDS in Zimbabwe were discovered in the mid-1980s. Today, the country is experiencing an HIV epidemic with nearly one out of every four adults (age 1549) infected. Each day, more than 550 adults and children in Zimbabwe become infected with HIV. The total number living with HIV and AIDS is estimated between 1.5 million and 2.0 million people.* Over a million Zimbabwean children have lost one or both parents to complications of AIDS. HIV infection rates in Zimbabwe continue to be among the highest in the world. Matthias was in very bad shape. He was emaciated,
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