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cementedmindsfollowshare
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5-29-2007 3:26 AM
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cementedminds says:
This is a long piece, and it's difficult in places. But it's worth it.

More from the piece.

I lay down to test the mattress: it was lumpy and totally unyielding, not the sort of place one would want to spend much time, which seemed a little odd, given the purpose of this room. Agnes Munyiva saw my wince, laughed and patted the bed. 'You need it to be hard, because otherwise you could get hurt when the men are pushing on you,' she explained.

The mattress, stuffed with lumpy cotton and resting on a plain metal frame, fills most of her room, just one metre by two. The walls are made of mud, the roof of scraps of tin. The air has a tang from the raw sewage and rotting food scraps in the alley outside, and Agnes tries to keep the clouds of flies at bay with a crisp white muslin curtain in the doorway. Remnants of linoleum, pieced together like a quilt, cover most of the dirt floor. She has a kerosene burner for making tea and a gas lantern.
6 Comments   | Add a Comment
5-29-2007 6:42 AM
debbyski
When Agnes was despairing about how to make money, how she would survive
in the city, her neighbours suggested she try umalaya, sex for money.
'In the neighbourhood there were other women who were doing it, and
they encouraged me to try it. I had children who needed food.' And so,
with great reluctance, she began to sit on a wooden stool outside her
home and try to catch the eye of men who passed by. She never imagined,
in those first few weeks, that she would be earning a living this way
30 years later.

Selling your body to survive; having sex with strangers to have enough food to eat and feed your children. I can't even articulate the rage I feel at this moment at...
read more»
5-29-2007 7:03 AM
cementedminds
I'm with you Debbie - it's so upsetting.
5-29-2007 7:17 AM
thefoxalmighty
What obligation does a researcher such as Plummer have to the women who
have given him their blood for 20 years? What does this project owe
Agnes?
Brilliant Article. And Thanks for the find.
5-29-2007 7:20 AM
cementedminds
Thank you Fox. I thought it was a wonderful article too.
5-29-2007 10:53 AM
bignosemousie
Great clip, Anon. For so many reasons.
5-29-2007 2:27 PM
dna last mark
Other animals Have HIV like diseases like cats cows monkeys and other but are immune because they have evolved the bubonic plague helped a few europeans become immunen to aids because it opened up a white blood cell through its opiate receptor the same one that the aids virius uses yet here in america where Dawinism is of course fought over about many more people have aids and help it evolve through pumping tons of drugs into its victims
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