It’s Friday and I am leaving Bilbao. The sun is out and feels like spring is in the air, but not so fast. As I am leaving my bedroom on my walk to the train station, I hear the weather report on the morning news program. Forecast for today, heavy winds with showers in the afternoon, sometimes strong.
Yesterday, I visited Ronald who works for an HIV/AIDS organization. He has worked there for 4 years and emigrated there from Nigeria. He said that there are four workers; himself who does educational outreach to the black community and two chicas who outreach to the sex workers? Most of the cases of AIDS come from intravenous drug use. He said that the government was very supportive and he referred me to an AIDS hospice up the street when I requested it.
I walked there to visit the Centro de Acosida (AIDS hospice) cared for by the Sisters of Santa Maria Josefa del Corazon de Jesus, which was primarily founded to care for the sick. I went at about 1:p.m. and was not a good time to go since the siesta period had just started. A nun, dressed in a long and more traditional garb appeared and informed me that the mother superior could not talk to me at the time because she was busy. She asked that I speak to her on the house phone and so I did. The mother superior wanted to help me but did not have the time just then, so I offered to return at a more convenient time. I told her that I was leaving the following day. So she suggested if I could return at 5:30 p.m. and I said fine….
Following the conversation I walked across the street to have café con leche and one of the greatest chocolate cookies. Some way to loose weight! I spent an hour taking to one of the sons who runs the local bakery, He was not just good looking but very nice, and when I asked if I could photograph him, he readily obliged.
At 5:30 p.m. I returned to the hospice and met with the Madre Mata. She was a very young but stern and cautious in meeting with me. That is the feeling that I got through out my trip so far. People here shy away from the camera and are very careful what they say…She asked me why I was there and I told her that I was involved with HIV/AIDS in the Latino community in the United States. She again asked me why I was there and I again told her. She then was even more persistent in asking me if I had HIV. I then made it very clear to her that I was not HIV positive but that I was committed to the cause and I had made a commitment to be more active in this cause some time ago. I then choked up a bit, when I told her that I had lost many people to AIDS and that I knew many who are HIV positive. Well that seemed to break the ice…. She finally opened up and I was able to ask many questions and she answered them for me. Centro de Acosida currently has 14 patients although they have a capacity for 24. While the government provides some of the funding for the care of the patients a good portion comes from her congregation. She says that the government takes care of the prescription drugs and some of the social services such mental health and AIDS specialization but that was not clearly enough to take care of all of their needs.
She also contradicted the conversation I just had earlier with Ronald when she said that while many of the cases of AIDS is due to drug use; their are increasing number of new AIDS cases due to sex. When questioned some more about condom use and the church, she made it clear to me that while the official Catholic teaching is recognized throughout Spain, that this country was much different than other south American countries where the people look up to their local priest as a God. Here is where I promised her that I would go off record. While this information is not of press value, it will be published on the Internet so I will keep my promise to her. I asked her if I could take a picture of her and she questioned me if I was a member of the press”? I told her absolutely not. She asked me what I was going to do with the photo. I responded to her that I wanted to share it with my staff, board and community members, she then empathically said no!.
I offered if I could send any data, research on HIV/AIDS or drug information to her and she quickly accepted the offer. I spoke to her about our problem, of crystal meth. She never heard about it but interested in learning more. According to her the biggest problem here was ecstasy. She commented that anything I could do to help with her with any new information that it would very much appreciative.
As she walked me out the door, she asked me if I was or ever had been a priest. I said no, but that one does not have to be a priest to do the work that many of us do…
I walked out of there across the river and went to a small basco gay bar, at 8:p.m. I was the first one there. I talked to the owner Zulo for some time before his regular customers started to walk in. And when they did, it became a chatty place. They were all most gracious. Particularly a young man by the name of Adrian. We spoke about the local scene and about Spain…. he was of most help at the most embarrassing experience on my trip so far. After juggling down three “bas” their brand of Fanta, I felt nature calling me…and so I went to answer the call…there was a toilet but not a flushing mechanism. There was a blue bucket sitting in a large sink…so when I asked Adrian what I was suppose to do…his response to me was “don’t worry about it, I will take care of it”. And so he did…
I walked out of there at 10:15 p.m. I had to get up early for my trip to Madrid in the morning and the smoke from their rolled up cigarettes was a bit too much. Went home, opened my laptop, put on the local television ad watched their local version of late night television.
The people from the Basque area of Spain are some of the most down to earth and wonderful people I have met. Although very nationalistic, they are warm and very gracious. For the most part, they were never too busy to talk to me….
I will always remember the sign on my way out of Zulo’s…it says “when you are here; you are not in Spain nor are you in France but you are in Basque country”. That I will never forget.
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