Pick and Pay grocery store is celebrating their fourth
anniversary. Like many of our big department stores and malls, it was built in
the last 5 years. At the entrance to the store flaps an overhead banner
proclaiming “Happy 4th Birthday” and music reverberates through out the
store and into the parking lot from a live rock band ensconced in front of the
check out counters. It is Saturday and the aisles are crowded with shoppers. As
I make my way through the vegetable section, it sounds like they are singing
about HIV and STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). I listen attentively and
decide they are singing in a local language and it just sounds like HIV and
STI. Then all of a sudden, as I am selecting a chunk of cheddar cheese, I
distinctly hear “male circumcision” and I realize the chorus really is about
HIV and STIs. It is a prevention song. Drama, story, songs and dance are all
traditional methods of teaching in Zambia and are used to promote health
education messages.
Zambia is promoting male circumcision to decrease HIV
transmission. If men are circumcised, transmission of some bacterial sexual
infections is reduced. And transmission of HIV from women to men is reduced as
well. Now there’s something to sing about in a city where 1 in 4 adults is HIV
positive!
I have made it through the check out and one of the men
standing near the band at the exit offers me a pamphlet. The band starts again
and this time I recognize the song, “Blessed be your Name,” and I think about Zambia being a Christian nation and the lack of discomfort with things Christian
in the market place. The song seems appropriate, reminding listeners that
regardless of the circumstances of life, God is in control. I know it is hard to
fathom anything like this in an America grocery store, but it is a part of
every day life here.
I find it rather lovely to think people are being encouraged
to take charge of their health and that a praise song in the market place might
just give hope to someone who already has HIV/AIDS and may be filled with fear
and dread. “When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say…blessed be your
name…”
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| Terra and my favorite walk in Sunningdale |
