#1 Special Plate and Cup

One of the children has HIV - I will call this child Morgan (a gender neutral name). I don’t treat Morgan any different because there really isn’t a need to. I knew Morgan had a special plate and cup but I didn’t really understand why. One night after the other kids went to bed little Eyob was still up and so I gave him some crystal light from my water bottle in a cup. He drank it and Zoudie said she wanted some so I poured some for her to try in the same cup - which he took upstairs to her. Hiwot came back down with the cup still full asking where I got the cup. “The cupboard of course.” “But this is Morgan’s.” “Oh sorry. It is clean though,” was my reply. “Yes but she is sick.” “You can’t get HIV from a cup.” Then it dawned on me…they think someone can get HIV from sharing a plate or cup. Then we had a lengthy HIV 101 discussion. Hiwot agrees that you cannot get HIV from a cup or plate yet she still brought down the full cup of juice. She says that the people who were born and raised in the villages still think this. Hiwot said that one time Morgan gave her a kiss on the mouth and she went and washed her mouth out. Really people? A kiss…that is preposterous. They should be more worried about getting Hepatitis A and B here than HIV.