Crazy job

Have you ever found yourself realizing how strange life is? Yesterday that happened as I'm sitting next to a police chief on the back of a stage that feels like it's going to fall over and shaking violently as some of our performers finished a play about STIs and was asked to give a speech.

I spent Sunday evening in Chennai doing a very brief field visit. And in some ways this was a very typical visit, saw street theatre performances promoting condoms and STI treatment and went to meeting of community members who volunteer their time and money to help us spread awareness. I always do those things. But in other ways this was not a typical visit. The two new additions to my department, Ragini and Dawood, wanted to see how I do field visits and what kind of feedback I give, and what I look for. My friend Alison is a journalist for a newspaper here and was also in town for another story but wanted to do a story on HIV so came along as well. So usually I travel with just the state staff and this time I had an entourage (in my own head anyways). The first meeting was with the community members and my role is always to just say thank you. So I handed out certificates. Then gave a speech and received a shiny, gold garland. We then saw a play about STIs and got another shiny, gold garland. And then a play on condoms. Yup, we got shiny, gold garlands.

This brings us to the end of the night and my realization that my life is not normal. We went to a "mini mega event" where we go to a community, set up a stage and do a few hours of plays and discussions. This one was paid for by the local police station and another NGO so when I got there Alison and I were immediately escorted on stage to sit next to the police commissioners. Our performers finished up a play and the audience was almost all young kids who then answered trivia questions about STIs and chanted about how good our STI clinics are! The pict is a kid holding a referral card for our STI clinics! Not really the group we're trying to reach but I asked the men later how they felt about their wives and children seeing this and they were totally fine and said they thought everyone should know this. This time we were given garlands and a present (some fake flowers in a glass box as I found out later since you can't open a gift in front of the givers). And like always I was asked to give a speech for which I was unprepared to a group of people who didn't speak english. The police chief said I "spoke very well" so the translator must have made some stuff up. It then started pouring - you know the really wonderful rains that just make it impossible to do anything but laugh? - so I'm running out of this village with little girls who want to practice their english by asking what I eat.

It's wonderful to be involved in this work. But I forget how weird it is sometimes so have a random foreign man indicate how long he needs his condom to be or pantomime with his finger that one should be erect before putting on a condom. But I think it was the treatment I receive that struck Alison - she kept saying, "you have such a bizarre job".

The final picture is of the typical family on a motorcycle. This one came to our show.