i am elderly

The life expectancy here in Mozambique is said to have dropped to 34 years of age. Resources state anywhere between 34-41 years of age. The rapid decline is due to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Here, I am considered elderly.

As an American, you kind of grow up thinking you will live forever. (or at least I did :-)) There are so many things you want to do and see. Opportunities, you are told, are endless. To live in a country, walk down a street, and work with colleagues who live with the reality that they are in their last years is something to think about. If I had grown up in this country, and I was among the average Mozambiquan whose life was in its last few years, what would I be thinking right now? What would I be doing? Would I have lived the life I wanted?

HIV is not a disease you outwardly see on the street; its not like leprosy or a bad case of boils. It is often unseen until it makes you really sick. And then, you will not be on the streets or in the workplace. You will not be seen. It is said that one out of eight people in Mozambique is living with HIV. One out of eight! That’s an incredibly high number of people. I pass many of those people on the streets each day.

I’ve noticed a few people in their later years, but as I look around, there are many more young people. I’m told in the villages and out in the rural communities where our projects are at work, there is a great challenge to pass along traditional knowledge to the next generation – there is an entire generation missing. We want to encourage agricultural techniques that will help to sustain crops through droughts and floods – but there is no one to teach these techniques. No one to share what has worked in the past in these areas that are at risk for disasters. An entire generation is missing.

If there is an entire country where the “elderly” are between the ages of 25-35 years, is that not reason to be alarmed? It alarms me that I am among the elderly. Not in terms of age, but in terms of wisdom and instruction. Who will teach the next generations? Are those who are considered elderly here also considered wise? Are these really their golden years? Personally I feel my life is just getting started. I’m getting to the good stuff and there’s so much ahead. However, I don’t know that the average 29 year old here is feeling the same way.