Thembi!

Thembi to me is a hero. She has known about her aids for two years and she is 19 years old now. I listened to her radio diary and it just made me more thankful for life and the freedom I have. She had a boyfriend, and they became serious. However it was not serious enough to stay together. They ended up breaking up. A few months later she had heard that her boyfriend had died. She was very curious to why such a thing happened. Therefore she went to his families house where his sister informed Thembi that he was very sick, then it just got s bad to the point he couldn't even talk, and that's when he passed away. Thembi assumed quickly it was AIDs he had died from. His sister however said she (as well as the whole family) she was not sure of what had made him so sick. That's when Thembi decided to go get tested. She got tested five different times. She asked the doctor why she had to be tested so much and he said because they all came back positive and he wanted to make sure. He said she was H.I.V positive and had been for a while. She was very devistated. The hardest part was telling her current boyfreind that she said was perfect for her. However he said she was perfect for him and that he loved her and that he didnt regret anything and that he was never going to leave her. They joke a lot to comfort eachother and to make each other feel better about the situatoion they are living in. As time goes anlong during the raidio diary, Thembi goes to the doctors and she explains the pains she is getting, and the doctor tells her to hang in there and gives her medicine to hopefully help the pain. Thembi got so sick during the recording she stopped recording for a motnh or so because she said she didnt want people to hear how sick she sounded. She was embarassed of how sick she had gotten. She also talked about how people used to make fun of her because of how skinny she was, and how she wanted to hide. She got so sick that her mother made her go to the hospital. Thembi got a little better and now has to drink her medicine every day. She also explained the sad story about how in her town sometimes when someone finds out that they are H.I.V positive they burn their house down so that can not live there anymore. Malikai (her boyfirend) and Thembi have a baby. She said she wanted to have the baby so she could feel like she had something to live for. Now Thembi goes around and tells her story and talks aobout her own life and whats its like to live with aids. To me she is like a hero. I believe this because now when people hear her story they can now know to take caution in everything that they do. They also now know that getting tested is the biggest thing that someone could do in their life.
If I were to be told i had aids I do not think that I could ever go on with life. However Thembi is just the opposite. She strives each day to get stronger. I look up to her and hope that someday if I am ever hit with a hardship like her I can be just as strong as her. What are all of your rections to this story? here is a link to where you can here the radio diary of Thembi.http://www.radiodiaries.org/aidsdiary/