“This year the world will lose 2.3 million people to the AIDS epidemic, and nowhere is there a greater toll than here in sub-Saharan Africa. The statistics are staggering: in Zimbabwe at least one in five adults has the AIDS virus, in Zambia the infant mortality rate due to AIDS has increased twenty-five percent, and here, in Botswana, nearly thirty percent of the entire population is HIV positive.
“Even more frightening is this week’s announcement from the World Health Organization that we could see an explosion in AIDS cases to the tune of forty million within two years.”
“Alex? Can you hear me now?” Isabel shouted into the satellite phone.
“Isabel? Is that you? I can barely hear you!” he shouted back.
“Sorry, honey. I’m afraid this is as good a connection as we’re going to get. I’ll talk loudly.”
“That’s okay. I can’t believe you could even call out. How is it there? Are you okay? God, I miss you so much.”
“I’m fine. I’m fine. It’s unbelievable here. Hell on earth. It feels like another planet.” She looked at the lean-to the crew was huddled under to escape the burning midday sun.
“I bet, I bet. When’re you coming home? Have they told you yet?”
“That’s one of the reasons I called….”
“Isabel? I think I lost you. Isabel? Are you still there?”
“Alex! I’m here. Sorry. I’ll shout. I called because they want me to stay on and go over to Zimbabwe next week. It’s really great, actually. Doctors Without Borders is letting us travel with them while they go distribute protease inhibitors to these makeshift clinics…”
“So you’re going to miss our counseling session again?”
“…these people, most of them, anyway, don’t even know what AIDS is or why everyone in their family is dying…”
“I take that as a yes. I’ll call Dr. Bauman and let her know we’ll have to reschedule again.”
“What’d you say? I missed that.”
“I said, I’ll call Pat Bauman and reschedule. You’re out there saving the world and I’m just here…walking the dog…waiting for my globe-trotting wife to remember she has a husband.”
“Aw, Alex. I’m sorry. It’s just this one story—”
“It’s always ‘just this one story.’”
“Alex? Sorry, but I’ve got to go. The doctors we’re hooking up with just got to our camp and I’ve got to go meet them. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
The phone went dead before Isabel could say goodbye.