Most Important Post Ever -- MUST READ

This blog post is probably the most dear to me, and I will not have written much of it. Instead of writing my own blog account of this amazing opportunity for the youth I serve and how you can help, I have copied Cameron's very moving and personal description and posted it below. Remember as you read it that my feelings about this program are the same, my desires and hopes are the same, and that all of the volunteers listed below are working together (completely outside of normal working hours) to make this happen. Thank you for all of your help, love, and support! Merry Christmas. - Darryn / Auntie Zodwa

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Many of you have heard me rant about Teen Club. If you haven’t, then I have failed you: either as a friend or as a frenemy. Teen Club is a support group for HIV positive kids and teens; a support group that I have had the luck to be able to work with for the last two years here in Swaziland.


In my two and a half years in Peace Corps service, I have had nadirs and peaks in dealing with this world; I have had traumas and blessings. Working with Teen Club has been the richest and most satisfying work that I have ever done... that I probably will ever do... and it is with that in mind that I write to you today.


Nothing has changed either me or the content of my character as Teen Club has. I am forever indebted to them, all 1000 or more of them, for the way in which they have affected my life. They took a ragged, broken part of me and made it whole. They showed me that it doesn’t matter than I am goofy or weird, or that I like science too much; they showed me that as long as I act like an idiot, that I can make someone smile. They made me remember that as we walk through our bland adult lives, that the colours and the tastes and the loves and the hopes of the days jejune that we had once still exist around us. They showed me more about myself and the world than I ever thought I would know. They made me see the brilliance of the human condition, the spirit that embodies hope, and the reasons I really have to live and love and learn and lose and long and every other thing that makes life great. They have done for me more than any other.

These kids have changed my life. Now it is my turn to change theirs.


On July 22nd, 2012 the 19th annual International AIDS Conference will take place in the District of Columbia, in the good old United Stated of America. For the last five months, I have had the pleasure of working with Darryn Crocker, Allie Bailey Hughey, Kimberly Johnson, and Rachel Piper to pave the way for some of our teens to take part in this conference.



These teens are the future of Swaziland. I owe it to them to help give them what I can; to help build a brighter future for them.


As of last week, Baylor Texas Children’s Hospital [the organization that Baylor Clinic gets its funding through] put up a comment tab on their donation site. It was then that we began raising money to bring some of our bright, smart, outspoken teens to Washington D.C. to contribute in an international dialogue on what the future of HIV treatment, care and support will and should look like. As of last week we started making our dream a reality.


I stayed for them. I stayed because I believe in them. I stayed because I will make sure that they get to tell their stories at the XIX International AIDS Conference.


I want you to do two things right now: Step one, look at the picture above. I owe the kids, at least enough to ask you for five bucks to help them get to this conference. Step two, tell two people about this. It isn’t crazy to dream of being able to bring our kids to America. Even if it was, I would think it otherwise. This is doable. With your help – with the help of your families and co-workers and nephews and former room-mates – I can show some of these kids the Washington monument on my birthday, July 22nd, 2012, and know that I can die happy.

How to donate:

1. Go to this page (or swazilandteenclub.wordpress.com, which will link you there)

2. Click on “donate now”

3. Enter your donation information.

4. Click on the drop-down bar and select SWAZILAND TEEN CLUB. In the comments section you MUST write “AIDS CONFERENCE”. If you do not write that, your donation will go to other Teen Club activities. That is still nice, but it won’t help us get our kids to D.C.

5. Feel absurdly satisfied with your life as a whole. You are amazing. People love you. Hell, I think you are the coolest person I know. Go outside. You feel that sun on your face? Bet it feels pretty good. That’s good-karma sun right there. Need some coffee? No worries, hit that Starbuck’s down the street. When you roll into that drive-thru and throw 8 bucks at a cashier for two kinds of chocolaty drink, you are going to feel like a boss.



If you are a visual learner... then here you go!


From here you make it look like this.


Then like this. Do it like the pretty pictures say to.



This is all I want for Christmas. This is all I want for Hanukkah. This is all I want for my birthday next year (he said, begrudgingly, knowing he wouldn’t have a job in 2012 when he returns to America) and for Valentine’s Day and for Labour Day and for Secretary’s Day (that one seems a bit dated to me... is it still called Secretary's Day?) Don’t send me more packages. Don’t send me sweets. Just take that money and put it into this fund.


Do this for me and I promise that when I welcome these kids at the causeway next summer, that you will feel better than you have ever felt in your entire life.



Thank you kindly and happy holidays,


Cameron Price

Surviving Christmas

December 14th, 2011
8:36pm

I barely survived Christmas and it is only December 14th.

You had Black Friday with crazed mobs going for the last (insert whatever was popular this year – ibook thing - I don’t know. I’m in Africa). Well, I had almost 500 people descend upon one school yard and me looking for festive frolics and frivolity. Did you ever stop to think how that ibook felt? Something along the lines of, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”.

This last weekend we had the Teen Club Christmas/Party. It was epic, and most certainly the biggest event that I have ever put together. All of the teens from the 5 different sites (1 new site is being run by MSF/Doctors Without Borders) got together at the Nazarene High School in Manzini for an end of the year bash. Planning for this massive shin dig has been in the works for a couple of months already. I was feeling pretty cocky about my mad organizational skills about two weeks out from the big day. Food had been ordered. Buses were hired. Donations were secured. Right on schedule. Then I was called into the Executive Director’s office…

We had been given an opportunity of a lifetime: the entire Christmas party would be paid for and then some by UNFPA!! All I would have to do is change almost everything that had been finalized and start from scratch by writing an entirely new budget (9 days til X-mas). Then losing all control of the decisions and especially the speed at which those decisions were made (5 days ‘til X-mas). Then having to create more educational activities around specific health topics required by our funding source (3 days til X-mas). Receiving supplies to do all of the above mentioned items (15 hours ‘til X-mas). Losing my mind, if you are under the assumption I had one to begin with, (28 minutes to X-mas). Then we just smiled and jumped in! T - ZERO minutes to X-mas happened at 7am this past Saturday when we arrived at the site … kids started arriving shortly after.

I ran around like a mad woman wearing green and red. I could tell you all about the snafus and obstacles that cropped up every few minutes, like the power outlet not working for the inflatable bouncy castle (that showed up 3 hours late) or the two classrooms that didn’t seem to have corresponding keys on the ring. I could tell you about the Santa that couldn’t make it or the transport money that was in E200 notes instead of E5 coins, but that is just seeing the yucky admin side of the day. Instead, I’d like to show you what my kids saw.

They got to the Nazarene High School and found a large tent in the parking lot blasting Christmas tunes. Inside were registration tables and a morning snack. Games were being played in a grassy area behind the new makeshift parking lot. At 10am everyone was gathered to listen to Auntie Zodwa (me) and my awesome friend and translator, Wandile, for beginning announcements. The teens couldn’t go to the carnival array of activities yet. They first had to pick up their new drawstring backpacks and ruler/pencil sets that said, “I’m the World’s Greatest”. Which, of course, they are.

Then it was off to the games! They had to make very tough decisions…”Should I get my face painted first or take a picture with Santa?” or “Would it be best to make this awesome Christmas craft or go play medication adherence jump rope?”. Yes, the educational games were still fun AND gave out candy! We had old favorites like Delaying Sexual Debut Limbo, HIV Knowledge Memory Game, Med Adherence Jump Rope, and Finding Support Fall Circle. When the kids had a moment in between the fun learning games they got to put on a fashion show, dance, play soccer, get a glass of juice, make a Christmas card, pose with Santa, jump on a colorful castle of air, get a candy cane painted on a cheek (flags and soccer teams came out later), or relax and talk with friends from camp that have been attending a different Teen Club site. At 12pm-ish everyone finished up gluing the last bulb on the construction paper Christmas tree or remembering where the correct answer card was to that HIV question and filed into the lecture hall. The MSF/Doctors Without Borders expert client drama group performed a skit about preventing mother to child transmission (PMTCT in acronym speak). Then Auntie Zodwa gave out the graduation certificates to our >19 year olds, new policy announcements for 2012, and appreciation to the Teen Leaders, adult volunteers, and everyone that made 2011 Teen Club possible. The Teen Club anthem, “World’s Greatest”, being performed by ~400 kids and ~60 volunteers was the most moving experience of my extension year so far. Amazing.

Everyone got hot food, cold drink, and a cookie before grabbing a baggy with exactly double the amount of transport money needed for them to make the return trip to their homestead which could have been located in anyone of the four regions of Swaziland. Armed with a neon colored backpack declaring their awesomeness, fun memories, health information, and holiday joy, they got back on the bus or public transport vehicle that brought them to the site just 5 hours before.

Sadly, I am still not allowed to post pictures on this blog of our Teen Club shenanigans. Thus you MUST go to swazilandteenclub.wordpress.com to see all of the wonders I described above. Below is the best representation of how I was feeling during the day, and why I need the vacation Cam and I are planning to Victory Falls for next week!


Taken at around 9am Saturday morning.