Editor's Note: Chicago Defender Archivist, Ayana Haaruun, is on fellowship in South Africa. Every Thursday until the fellowhip ends, her latest experiences will run in the Defender. Here's Ayana's latest report from the Mother Land.

"How do you think you were infected?" I asked shyly, as if I were talking to my religious grandmother about sex. Calmly, [Anna] said that she wasn't sure how or when she was infected, only that her husband died in 1994. She didn't know if her husband died of AIDS. She said, "One day he couldn't walk - he just got sick and died." Her husband was 48.

Anna's husband practiced polygamy, having two wives. When I asked if her husband cheated, Anna turned to me, threw her hands in the air and replied,, "Yes. A lot. I don't know their names, but I know he was cheating with young girls. And we're old. We didn't believe in birth .control, and he didn't use condoms."

Health care
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS