A friend pointed me to the Nata village blog, a collaborative unfolding story of HIV/AIDS work in Nata, Botswana. Two of the bloggers are women, Peace Corps volunteer Melody Jenkins and Martha Ramaditse from Nata village.

The pictures, videos and stories both of the daily life of the village and of the issues of HIV/AIDS was striking to me. It was, well, ordinary in the best sense of the word. The post about two women who are living openly with HIV, role modeling health and social strategies where HIV is still a stigma. The documentation of a wedding.

It is easy to romanticize work like this. Particularly when white northerners come to "help" people in other places in the world. I am in no place to judge the perspective, but my sense is the ordinariness, the quotidian, is a reflection of respect.

How do we become more engaged in the world through stories about the real lives of our "villages?"

Tags: nptech, ict4dev, blogging

Crossposted at Full Circle