Home Visit to Felix

We ducked under clothes hanging on a front porch clothesline to arrive at our first scheduled home visit. We were welcomed into a small dimly lit room to meet Felix, a young man in his 20’s who is suffering from the late stages of AIDS. Felix has already lost one child to AIDS, has another child, Esther, who is HIV positive, and has a wife with AIDS who is currently hospitalized. Felix and his family are totally dependent on his gentle mannered parents who have a total of 10 people depending on them. In the U.S. having someone in the hospital might temporarily lessen the demands on the caregiver. Not so in Zambia. The only food patients receive in the hospital is that prepared and brought by the family. Felix’s parents now have the added burden of finding money for transportation and food to take to the daughter-in-law.