Yesterday...

I just watched Yesterday. Its a South African movie about a woman who lives in a village and discovers she has AIDS. The woman who's name is 'yesterday' has a young daughter and her husband works in Jo'burg and sees her maybe twice a year or so. It really doesn't say how they contracted HIV, but I guess the viewer has to fill in the blanks and infer that the husband was probably screwing around in the city and got sick. The village they live in seems to lack a certain level of the usual Zambian village cameraderie. The women are nosey and talkative.... like most women! There are no men...maybe because they have all gone to work in the mines.

Some parts in the movie are a load of doodoo....e.g when yesterday goes to the city to let her husband know she has AIDS and he might have it too. He flips and knocks the hell out of her! she goes home black and blue with a swollen lip. Then he comes home all skinny with sores all over and bad skin... you know, like most black AIDS patients look. Then she takes him in and consoles him when he cries about how he discovered he had the virus! He doesn't appologize for their 'little incident' and she just simply takes him in. Now she either has some psychiatric issues or she's just very forgiving. I wouldn't forgive a man so easily if he was my only sexual partner and I discovered I had contracted AIDS from him and he hit me for informing him of this. I would let his damned ass take care of his damned self for a while... then maybe i would feel sorry and help him out.

The film writter also displays the lack of medical services in rural S.A. The doctor can only be seen on tuesdays from like 9-5 or something like that. The doctor is very friendly and understanding once you get in to see her.

The writter also shows how ignorant people can be about AIDS. The village ladies want yesterday's man kicked out the moment they discover he has AIDS because they think that somehow he'll bleed on them, or make them sick somehow. So she has to build him a hut outside the village because the hospital is too full to take him and the villagers want him out pronto!

Finally I don't know why she had to leave her child to the school teacher. Where are her relatives and his??? they are living in his village so he must have a mother/ father/ sister/ brother/ cousins or something... but we don't see any. That's one thing we in Zambia have plenty of- relatives!

I guess the old adage 'its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all' stands true in this movie. Leleti Khumalo looks beautiful as ever.

I also read on msnbc that a guy who contracted HIV when he received blood as a baby is still alive 23 years later and has married and has a baby. his wife and baby are HIV negative. I thought it was a beautiful story and i hope he last more years. The doctors predicted he would be dead by age 3.

Also in the news... hooters chairman found dead. Hhhhmmm I wonder if he has a son who's single and wants to marry me:)