Evading Deaths Fatal Gaze in the Land of a Pandemic

Phokeng, which is part of the Diocese of Rustenberg. The bishop of this diocese is a Redemptorist, Bishop Kevin Dowling. Rustenberg is about two hours ride from Pretoria, close to three hours ride from Johannesburg. I spent 3 Weeks in Phokeng, living in a Redemptorist monastery which is within the compound of the bishop's residence.
Inside this compound are a number of other buildings: one that houses the offices of the Diocesan Commission of Justice and Peace, another hall that we would call a seminar house where various diocesan and local meetings are held, the hospice where persons with AIDS are provided care and anti-retoviral (ARV) medication, a dormitory for the personnel of the hospice and a parish church.
Behind the parish church, barely a hundred meters away is a makeshift graveyard. I went to visit it Wednesday, July 12 at noontime. Because it is winter in South Africa, one can stand under the midday sun and be dressed in thick clothes.
This place is not meant to be a cemetery. But there are dead bodies that desperately need a place where they can be laid to rest. There are many reasons why those who were buried in this makeshift graveyard cannot be buried elsewhere: their homes are far away from here, the nearby cemeteries would not take them in and, in a number of cases, because the dead died of illnesses owing to AIDS complications.
This is a cemetery where most of those buried died of illnesses related to HIV-AIDS.We were told earlier that since it opened in November 2004, there have been 660 persons with AIDS admitted at the hospice. Of these, 260 have died; a number were children.
This is especially true when one looks at the graveyard of the children buried here. In most cases, the adult graves are separated from those of the children. At the center of the cemetery is a long row of children's graves. Since most of those who died were not Christians, one does not see many crosses at the head of the graves. And very few had the names of the dead.
But what was most striking was that stuck into the mounds of earth were the children's milk bottles (even Coca-Cola bottles), dolls, toy trucks, teddy bears and other toys. In some cases plastic tubs used for the babies' bath were placed on top of the grave. Naturally, there were many plastic flowers.
Death's presence here is most palpable. One is almost powerless to evade Death's fatal gaze as one realizes the power of its tight embrace. In the stillness of the whole scene, one recognizes life's paradoxes.
There are 6.2 million South Africans infected by HIV-AIDS. (I had checked the official figures from ASSA, their equivalent of our Bureau of Census and Statistics) and it indicated that as of July 1, 2002, there were 6,461,372 Africans with HIV-AIDS. If one wants to know what is the estimate for 2006, one only has to multiply this number with 5% and that figure would be close to 7 million South Africans today. With a total population of roughly 50 million, that means roughly 14% have AIDS. Of the 6.5 million with AIDS in 2002, 3,199,493 are child-bearing women, and 205,134 are children.)

More statistics: 200,000 South Africans die of AIDS complications every year, there are 1,500 new infections every day, 1.2 million children are made orphans because of AIDS, this number will double in 2010 (the year South Africa will host the World Cup), 600 children die of AIDS every day and in 2005 there were 990,000 children who lost their mother to AIDS.