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My Dear Friend Zulami
"Within a matter of weeks, Zulami was also diagnosed with HIV."
By Clare Golding
 One person dies almost every hour of AIDS/HIV in sub-Saharan South Africa. About 11 million children under the age of 15 have been orphaned by AIDS/HIV.
This past February I had the opportunity to travel to South Africa with my grandmother. Over the course of 2 weeks we visited children in AIDS orphanages, traveled to very poor urban areas in South Africa like Soweto and met with various organizations who were doing charity work for the poor and diseased in what many have called a 3rd World Country.
When I was visiting an orphanage located outside of Johannesburg I met a 7 year old friend who will remain in my heart forever. I walked along the purple painted, dimly lit hallway. One room I peeked into had a poster of 50 Cent and Nelly, two well-known rap stars in the United States. I saw a little boy coloring a picture on a lopsided table. He turned towards me and wiped away his tears. Through his tears, I could see that he was smiling at me. But the tears kept pouring down his face. He pointed to the figures he had drawn on his paper and said “Mommy, Daddy!”
 I sat there trying to think of something to say. After he drew a couple more lines on his paper he said “My name is Zulami.” He began his story by explaining how he ended up in the orphanage. He told me that he used lived in Soweto with his parents. They divorced because his mom was “on plant” which meant she was a drug addict. His father was a picker at a local farm and didn’t receive enough money for his whole family to have one meal. He contracted AIDS, but he had to cover up his symptoms because he didn’t want to lose his job. When his father’s employer found out that he had AIDS he was fired immediately.
Within a matter of weeks, Zulami was also diagnosed with HIV. When the school found out, Zulami was expelled. He told me that he wanted to become a doctor and help the world cope with sickness and fight disease. But he felt he couldn’t do that any more because he no longer went to school.
One day when Zulami and his 11 year old brother were playing soccer outside of their shack in the streets of Soweto, the two brothers heard a thud. They ran inside their home and found their father dead on the floor. The two children sat beside their dead father for a couple of days until someone found Zulami’s mother. She came and picked up the children and took them to her home which she shared with their Aunt. Their Aunt was not home much because she was out in a gang with her husband.
When Zulami lived with his mother, he would wake up everyday to the smell of his breakfast. But one morning the distinct smell of the ground grain and spices was absent. He quickly got up to see if everything was all right. He ran into the kitchen and saw his mom lying dead on the ground with a bag of grain in her hands. He told me he felt like he had lost everything in the world because of AIDS.
 He said to me, “Keep what you got close, cause it can be gone someday.” I began to cry but Zulami stopped me and said “But, look...watch!” He waved up at the sky and said, “Hi Mommy, Hi Da.” Zulami knew that his parents were looking down on him and watching him all the time.
My experiences in South Africa were invaluable to me. When I left South Africa and came back to go the United States I realized that the world is really quite smaller than I ever imagined. While I may think of my life as difficult at times, I have come to understand that other people are suffering and have much less then I could ever survive on.
I will remember Zulami forever.
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