“What year is it,” he asked me. “2015,” I confidently responded. “The doctor told me I’d live to only year 2000,” he said with a smile and a flick of his cigarette. He then started praising God loudly as he stood under the small bus stop. “God is Good, God is Good,” he was almost singing the phrase as people pumping gas behind him stopped what they were doing to see what was going on.
“I go to church every Sunday,” pointing down the street. “My brother’s the preacher,” he said with a step forward and a tug of his left pant leg. I clicked the shutter and asked, “Why were you not going to make it past year 2000?” He got quiet for a second and then with an outburst, “AIDS, I didn’t use protection and it felt too good to stop.”
I have met so many people living with AIDS over the past three or four years and yet it is still quite misunderstood or looked at as a contagious infection. Former NBA great Magic Johnson once addressed the scare by stating, “You can't get AIDS from a hug or a handshake or a meal with a friend.”
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