God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

Zest for life..

There are moments where you can feel it: the zest for life, the yearning for reaching out to the stars and grabbing the moon and the sun – touching the universe.

There are moments where you can feel it: that life has too many boundaries, too many rules, too many people telling you what to do and how to act and their reasoning seems so far away.

There are moments where you know that life has so much more to offer if you only would let it in, so much more love, so much more hope, so much more faith.

There are moments where you simply feel connected, carried, unconditional loved not even knowing where it comes from – it just comes over you in a split of a second.

Exactly then you are one with your birth and your death, your are one with your meaning, your calling in life – it is a most precious moment – keep it in your heart as it warms you when the cold slips in again in your daily life.

May 2013 be a year where many such moments keep you warm and carried and unconditional loved.

SH

Filed under: General, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Different worlds

Being on a cruise liner as a chaplain means also to be exposed to many different people and talking about God, the world, HOPE Cape Town and obviously HIV and AIDS. And suddenly one realizes again how different the worlds are we are living in. Standing casually last night watching the evening show I was chatting with the medical doctor on board. Naturally we are in close contact as our work portfolios touch each other and this time, we spend even more time together chatting and befriending each other besides the work. Speaking about my experience of HIV and AIDS in South Africa and my question, whether there are HIV rapid test on board the good doctor is not sure whether there are. In the ongoing conversation he admits never having treated a case of HIV and as the discussion goes along, he mentioned that in the case he would encounter such a case on board, he would advice the person to leave the ship. I was stunned. Not that he had any reservations or discriminatory thoughts about people living with HIV. It was simple, that for him, HIV was an unknown syndrome, not present while he was studying and never present to his knowledge in his rooms.

Knowing how he cares about patients I wondered till I was falling asleep that for me HIV was such a “normal” factor of life while for him it was something unknown in practice and even far away in theory. Indeed different worlds and a reminder, that often we think, our environment, our knowledge, our expertise is normal to all others – and it is not. I hope that my talk tomorrow about the work we are doing with HOPE Cape Town in South Africa will open up some minds and hearts and contribute to a better dealing with HIV and AIDS in an European environment.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

Compliments of the Season

It’s never too early: I am taking this opportunity to thank everyone who made 2012 a fabulous year…
Hoping 2013 will be a blessed and best one for all of us – Somebody shout Amen!

For all those I’ve made promises to and never kept – Ek is baie jammer, it was not intentional but I will do better in 2013.

Those that I owe lunches, kisses, dates, etc. eish, I’ll do my best to fulfil.

 For those that have supported me and made me smile through all my hardships… I truly appreciate you – May God bless you!

For those I’ve disagreed with, argued with and just never got along with…… well, 2013 is another year, pasop!

Those that I’ve hurt… unintentionally/intentionally… I’ve probably apologized – “I’m Sorry” again…

For those that stuck a knife in my back… oppas, ek het ‘n gun gekry…. Nah, relax… 4giveness is the best revenge!!! 

For those that have let me down… DANKIE….’twas just another stepping stone closer to my destiny!!!    

To all my real friends … I bought us some superglue

But all in all, you have made 2012 a great year; I wish you and your loved ones prosperity, good health, wealth, happiness, greener pastures, abundant blessings…and a  Wonderful Festive Season

May 2013 be the year you achieve wonderful things and grow in maturity and wisdom..

Blessings & Peace

 Fr Stefan

Now @ sea till mid January

Now @ sea till mid January

Filed under: Catholic Church, Center of Healing, General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, HOPE Cape Town Association, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, HOPE Gala Dresden, Medical and Research, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, SA-German Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

Drinking and ART Therapy

English: AIDS Project Los Angeles color logo

Ever thought about drinking and HIV medication? Is it healthy to drink after taking the pills? In the ongoing struggle to improve adherence to HIV medications, alcohol has long been an obvious crux standing in the way of progress. Brian Risley, manager of the treatment education program at AIDS Project Los Angeles, says some of the common refrains he hears from his HIV-positive clients are, “They got drunk, they forgot to take their meds; they went home with somebody and they didn’t bring any meds with them.” Now cutting-edge research has teased out a new component of booze’s detrimental effects on health outcomes: the fact that many people with HIV skip their meds on purpose when they are drinking because they falsely believe that antiretrovirals (ARVs) and alcohol are a toxic mix. Read more in an exclusive report from the magazine POZ about this thrilling and important topic here.

Filed under: HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

Vetting the press…

HIV-1 Gag

HIV-1 Gag (Photo credit: AJC1)

There is so much information floating the internet regarding HIV and AIDS and I spend quite some hours per week just going through it all to see what is new and what kind of developments are important for activists and doctors and patients. Here now a variety of links to interesting articles of the last week:

The first one is rather for doctors and it deals with resistance of HIV. It is about fusion inhibitor and optimizing a medication so that resistance is not an issue anymore.
Journalmed: Neues Anti -HIV -Peptid ohne Nebenwirkungen und Resistenzbildung (German) click here
American Society for microbiology (English) click here

The second one is about the laws of Missouri, which make every HIV positive person per se a criminal click here

The third is for those interested in research and deals with the  simulation of maturation of the virus click here

The forth and last for today is about the story behind the story: Reporting on HIV click here

Enjoy reading and learning more of the world of researchers, activists or people affected by or infected with HIV.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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