Translation

I spent a few minutes today putting together a facebook album for my nephews, who live in Alaska. They are growing up on the other side of the world, and I had received a (very cute) plea for some "fotos of Afruka" from them. As I started compiling, I started stumbling over what I thought would be a 5-minute project. Things like HIV/AIDS are well known to almost everyone in America, but how do you write about this for children? There are no simple terms to explain a poster like the ones shown here, which I saw up in a local community center:

How do you translate what AIDS orphan means? Explain vertical transmission of a disease that affects children because of their parents' infections? Or write a simple caption for an epidemic that creates caregivers out of 6-year olds? Children in Sub-Saharan Africa are not strangers to the concept of early responsibility; it's nothing at all to see little girls, some barely large enough to carry the weight, with their younger sibling strapped on their backs. Four, five, and six-year olds are well into the age of being able to ride the bus by themselves, be left alone, or take on household chores like caring for the livestock or cooking. AIDS is another part of life here, and seeing a child care for a sick adult is par for the course.

How does this shape the consciousness of a continent? What ideas do resource-rich American  youth grow up with? Barbie and Ken-doll families? Sesame Street? Hello Kitty? Plasticized, cuddly, and sheltered versions of the world... Here in Africa, the realities of life are not going to wait for adolescence, so why wait to introduce them? What is most telling, is that kids here in Africa can be just as young at heart as children in the USA. They are resistant and amazing small beings, and while they may grow up fast here, they carry still the threads of their youth in their smiles.

I hope I didn't scare the bejezus out of my nephews. Hundreds of thousands of children grow up too quickly, and we have decide what we translate from the adult world, to their world.