unlimited global alchemy

I am an Artist

I was very sick in 2001 and was diagnosed with tuberculosis and later tested for HIV which I was found to be infected with it.

I lost the colour of my skin that made me proud and beautiful to be me, I went from being yellowish light skinned to being a grey and pale, it was horrible and I felt that my body did not belong to me it was like someone else came just for a short while and was going to live soon and will be my old self again.

Journey to health was an important decision for me, I had to think of only of myself and not let anyone sayings get in the way of getting myself back. By choosing to take my meds was the very first step. Fortunately I was in an environment where people were talking freely about being diagnosed with HIV and made jokes about how ill they were and how people will gossip around and just a few months you will see them at the clinic seeking help and wonderful, kind and supporting doctors from medecins frontiers (MSF) that gave me confidence and this thought crossed my mind that if you are not going to assist me to get better why should I then bother myself about what you say about me.

One of the people who gave me strength and confidence was a guy now who has passed on, he was a TAC activist he was telling his story in a local newspaper in Khayelitsha of how the ARVs saved him.

When I started my ARVs in 2002 February, within a week I could feel my body healing, recovering from the sores that I had and I wanted to help it to recover by walking from my house to the clinic rather than taking a taxi, it was a healing walking every week when I go for my check ups I would do that, and thinking positively that I am going to be well again helped me a lot. There was a rope that I used as a tool for my morning exercises when I am not going to the clinic, my sisters were encouraging me because they would exercises with me, my mother prepared me nothing but vegetables and had lots of fruit to eat, I thank God that He blessed me wit such a loving and caring family, I would have not done it if they were not there for me.

I later joined a support group where we did memory books with Jonathan Morgan from the University of Cape Town, telling our stories in a form of drawings and painting, it was exciting, I enjoyed it because it gave me space to tell how I felt about being HIV positive and being sick ,we later were invited as this group to participate in a body mapping project which also another way of telling your story even deeper and understanding of your body and HIV, it was good be around people who had the same illness with me and not afraid to tell my story.

Working with Rachel has given an opportunity to express myself as an artist, that I can now call myself an artist and working with the group again and learning new stories we are giving another space to share our lives with each other, my hopes is for us to continue to share more stories.

(Nondumiso Hlwele)
 

Posted by Rachel Gadsden, 12:11pm 04/11/11