It takes BALLS!
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 08/Aug/2010 11:11, 34 days ago
Tennis in BamendaWhat do tennis and HIV have in common? Almost nothing except for the fact that I found out recently that the guys at my tennis club knew surprisingly little about HIV and AIDS and more specifically safe sex practices. It came up one day when we were discussing children, since one of the coaches has a little girl who is 2 years old. Gina is currently being raised by her dad, a tennis coach. Her mom abandoned her daughter and her husband once the little girl was born. I have learned that the daughter was an“accident”, her parents didn’t plan on having her but her dad certainly is smitten with his perfect little princess now that she is here. I am not surprised, she is the best behaved little ever I have ever met.  She is content to sit for hours on end watching people play tennis and only asks for attention when she is hungry. The other coaches at the tennis club admire and pity the father, they admire his ability to care and raise a daughter, but pity him for having to be in that situation at such a young age (he is 22). They are adamant that they will not have unplanned children.Gina and her DadThey are SO adamant in fact that they proudly tell me that they use not one but two condoms to protect themselves against getting their girls pregnant and to protect themselves from HIV. Using two condoms, or“double bagging” as it is called in most HIV and AIDS articles, only mythically increases the protection. In fact, in reality using two condoms can increase the risk of the condom breaking due to the friction between the layers of latex. I pass this knowledge along to them during our conversation and they are truly dumbfounded. They had no idea that what they were doing to provide extra protection actually was putting them at more risk. They make mental notes not to double bag in the future.The tennis guysUnplanned children seem not to be in the future of my tennis coach friends’ future, but what about HIV and AIDS. I ask them what their views are about HIV. Even though these guys are young and progressive I can tell there is still a lot of discomfort and stigma discussing this topic. They tell me that they have never and will never sleep with anyone with HIV. I ask themhow they would know? They answer with one word “testing”. Great! They know that testing can be carried out, now the big questions: have their partners been tested, have they been tested? The answer is avoided. The bottom line is that many of them haven’t been tested. They know the testing isavailable but many of them assume they are not positive but don’t want to know if they are. They fear that knowing will have irreparable impacts on their psychological wellbeing and their social standing. They are unaware of the support that is available if they are positive which is a shame because a lot of local NGOs, IDF included, provide great social and psychological support to people who find out they are HIV positive.I hope my discussion with my tennis friends has helped increase their knowledge and awareness about HIV and AIDS and that they will share this information amongst their other friends so that slowly but surely the population becomes more educated and aware not only about safe sex practices but also about the support available for people living with HIV and AIDS.