Notes from Zambia: Peter's Farewell

Sadly, another farewell party. This one was for Peter, a Ugandan volunteer who has been working with the Council for the last two years. His placement was to assist in implementing the Council's Workplace Policy on HIV & AIDS. It's no secret that HIV & AIDS is devastating Africa and Zambia is no exception. Though I'm no expert on the issue, I have heard that the prevalence rate exceeds 15% here. Scary stuff.

Peter has made an important contribution to the Council's understanding of how to respond to the human resource aspects of HIV & AIDS. Most Council workers are affected by the disease in one way or another – either they are personally infected, or else family and friends are. This can result in missed work days due to illness or the need to take care of family members, inability to do certain tasks (particularly physical ones), and significant strains on household resources.

This post is not intended to dwell too much on the HIV & AIDS side of things (plenty of other resources out there), but I did want to point out that the personal nature of the work Peter has done really made an impact on people working for the Council. As a result, when we had the farewell party at the Council motel on Wednesday evening, it was touching to hear all the comments offered up by those in attendance. Each person had an opportunity to say a few words about their experience working with Peter. I recalled his friendly and unique way of greeting me each morning: “How are we?” and how he thoroughly entertained the University of Zambia students last December, all the while disseminating some very serious information on HIV & AIDS prevention. That's a talent.

After the speeches and formalities, we all tucked in to a tasty braii and found our groove on the dance floor! Peter will be missed by many.