reality check
It's been a while since I've updated - partially because I decided that I needed my experiences to really be mine for a while and partially because I just couldn't bring myself to devote time to something I started to see as totally frivolous. (I've been having a hard time devoting time to anything at all actually - but that's not important.) Lots of things have happened since the beginning of this year - good things and bad things - I think I'm still growing but sometimes it's hard to tell.
Anyways, the real reason for this post:
I was flipping through the channels and I stumbled across the special documenting prince Harry's time volunteering in Africa. At first I thought it would be crap. I expected it to be typical - some ignorant kid exoticizing the problems of Africa's HIV positive and its orphans, but it isn't. I'm impressed with Harry - he seems much more normal and empathetic than I thought possible. So, I'm watching and watching and just 10 minutes ago they showed a segment with Harry going back to visit a girl who'd been raped by her mother's boyfriend. (Background: There is a widespread myth that if a man who has the HIV virus has sex with a young girl or a virgin he will be cured. There are so many people who believe this to be true that there's been an increase in young girls being summarily infected and impregnated - thus elevating the total number of HIV infected citizens.)
Sexual violence against women is no longer something hidden and ignored - so, rape is no longer totally shocking. However, HIV/AIDS epidemic has gotten to such unbelievable proportions than the unthinkable has happened. The young girl Harry was visiting was 10 months old.
A young girl was raped at 10 months old.
Can you even remember anything from when you were 10 months old?
This little girl was so damaged by the attack that her womb had to be removed.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine trying to explain that? And what adds insult to injury is that after the attack - her mother cut off her toes and abandoned her. As of the presentation - the mother's boyfriend had not been charged. I'm sure that he will be charged of something - but... that doesn't take away what he did.
The point of this post wasn't to bring anyone down or to praise Harry for doing volunteer work, it was to give you guys the kind or reality check I just got. We've all got problems. Horrible things happen everyday. Everyone's got a history - everyone's got some burden they carry - some kind of pain that's just so raw it seems like it'll never go away - but, thing of that little girl whose life has begun with the kind of tragedy that makes grown women fall apart, and reprioritze.
I always have some kind of soulsearching to do - this is just one more thing to remind me of how blessed I am.
I'm sorry if I was preachy - I just had a long cry and felt like people needed to hear that story.
Anyways, the real reason for this post:
I was flipping through the channels and I stumbled across the special documenting prince Harry's time volunteering in Africa. At first I thought it would be crap. I expected it to be typical - some ignorant kid exoticizing the problems of Africa's HIV positive and its orphans, but it isn't. I'm impressed with Harry - he seems much more normal and empathetic than I thought possible. So, I'm watching and watching and just 10 minutes ago they showed a segment with Harry going back to visit a girl who'd been raped by her mother's boyfriend. (Background: There is a widespread myth that if a man who has the HIV virus has sex with a young girl or a virgin he will be cured. There are so many people who believe this to be true that there's been an increase in young girls being summarily infected and impregnated - thus elevating the total number of HIV infected citizens.)
Sexual violence against women is no longer something hidden and ignored - so, rape is no longer totally shocking. However, HIV/AIDS epidemic has gotten to such unbelievable proportions than the unthinkable has happened. The young girl Harry was visiting was 10 months old.
A young girl was raped at 10 months old.
Can you even remember anything from when you were 10 months old?
This little girl was so damaged by the attack that her womb had to be removed.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine trying to explain that? And what adds insult to injury is that after the attack - her mother cut off her toes and abandoned her. As of the presentation - the mother's boyfriend had not been charged. I'm sure that he will be charged of something - but... that doesn't take away what he did.
The point of this post wasn't to bring anyone down or to praise Harry for doing volunteer work, it was to give you guys the kind or reality check I just got. We've all got problems. Horrible things happen everyday. Everyone's got a history - everyone's got some burden they carry - some kind of pain that's just so raw it seems like it'll never go away - but, thing of that little girl whose life has begun with the kind of tragedy that makes grown women fall apart, and reprioritze.
I always have some kind of soulsearching to do - this is just one more thing to remind me of how blessed I am.
I'm sorry if I was preachy - I just had a long cry and felt like people needed to hear that story.