AIDS 2008 Day 4: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Good

• Meeting up with someone I knew from Kampala. Marion. I went to KPC (Kampala Pentecostal Church) with her on Saturday afternoons! Yay mini reunions and she said she would smuggle me back in her luggage.
• ‘The eyes of the hippo.’ Greatest phrase ever – it’s the ‘tip of the iceberg’ equivalent. It’s used by all those in sub-Saharan countries who don’t know what an iceberg is.
• The highlight of today was being called a hero. Someone who has kind of followed my work since the last Aids Conference looks at everything I did and said you are like two women – part photographer and part hero. Or something to that effect.

The Bad

• Carrying bags that are too heavy, my shoulders are killing me.
• Some of the most interesting sessions are run concurrently. So you have to try being several places at once or pick one.
• All the white, male scientists who refer to “test sites” in Uganda, like it isn’t people that are trying the microbicide, PreP, or whatever.
  
  

The Ugly

• Having people use the question period as a time to vent their issues. For example, this morning at ‘To cut or not to cut: A look at Male Circumcision” a woman from the (and I kid you not) International Coalition for Genital Integrity started spouting random “facts.” And no one stopped her for nearly 5 minutes…
• More than 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water. Can you imagine?
• Getting caught in traffic and taking 2.5 hours to get from the conference centre to where I stay. It usually only takes 1 – 1.25 hours.