Other MSF staff

Wow. That was my impression of the Family Support Centre (FSC) run by MSF in Lae.

I have just arrived back in Port Moresby from Tari. It has certainly been an eye-opening couple of days.

After a 7-hour flight, I landed in Port Moresby yesterday.

It’s the second day back to work after the New Year break and 2012 is definitely off to a busy start!

From where Esther Goba sat watching two football teams clad in “HIV POSITIVE” t-shirts competing in a football tournament in Limbe, Malawi, she wouldn’t strike you as someone who is at the frontlines of the life-or-death match against HIV/AIDS.

How strange it would be if the players in a World Cup winning side were to meet just five days before the deciding match for the very first time to train together and then take the title with a convincing victory…

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is in its final stage and the excitement in Southern Africa is still palpable even in Zimbabwe where I work as a nurse for Médecins Sans Frontières  in an HIV/AIDS treatment project,  north of host nation South Africa.

It’s difficult to go anywhere in South Africa without getting caught up in football fever these days.

The all-star Brazil football squad entered the 2010 FIFA World Cup as early favourites to make it to the finals and hope to lift the golden trophy. And similarly in Médecins Sans Frontieres(MSF) upcoming HALFTIME!

In Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, a field of 20 agile aspiring footballers from HIV programmes run by MSF did their best in recent weeks to impress selectors and secure their participation in the HALFTIME!