Hi guys, I’m a former Lawyer and Systems Engineer. I was raped on August 2003 by a bisexual addict. I was diagnosed on 2006. My life before HIV was a very disciplined one. A very hard working woman living in a developing country, having 2 careers doesn’t make me Einstein. When it was time to go to college I wanted to be an artist. My parents said NO, so because Law school classes where only until 3 pm. My parents thought I was there until 10 pm. The fact was: I was in all arts workshops. I went to college at age 16. But I wanted to be in a creative career. My father passed when I just got my Lawyer Diploma. I’m the eldest child so I had to work hard to pay for my siblings studies and support. Three works at a time from 7 am to 10 pm. So I decided to have a new diploma as an engineer, as a professor’s assistant I won a scholarship and found Internet on 1991. A world to mix colors and technology to make beautiful things.
I trusted people too much, a family who’s parents a priest brother lied to me for years. They had one brother hidden from the police he was a minor drug reseller. So one Sunday afternoon on 2003, I was alone in a small office that we had and a drunk, very high guy appeared and just raped me.
After 9 months of Elisa’s test I considered myself free. Elisa test doesn’t look for a virus only 2 enzymes the body produces when you have liver damage (all of us have fatty liver) . But my body was alcohol and any meat free. I was a vegetarian.
Om 2006 I woke up in a hospital, very sick, skinny , no hair at all. I had AIDS. I survived because I’m very stubborn. I found the Tribe and became a member. In the 1970s and 1980s a change in my country’s educational system made women to study more than men. A very machista society where women were considered the assistant, the one who brings coffee. So we had to be the best. In High School I went to the USA, Cuba and Spain. Best education were in Spain and Cuba. Despite I was already accepted in some colleges in the USA. I decided to study in my country. So when I came back I skipped grades and went to college at age 16.
In my HIV path, all my family and friends know. And I was never treated as a freak. Only in one work (the guy who raped me was my boss’s wife’s nephew) so my contract was “erased”. At the beginning of 2011 shingles left my left leg as a puppet one, 2 years in a wheelchair. I walked again, because I’m stubborn.
My ethnicity “mixed” a little bit of Asian, Original American and European. I’m straight, but I don’t remember what dating is.
I’m a widower, a high cultured guy. A car accident, all his organs donated. He and out baby boy passed the same day.
I came back to Tribe to find out if some friends I made are alive. If they are healthy.
Dating? Not with a USA man, because of their political structure. Their health system. And let’s be honest many HIV guys I knew were bisexuals, wherever they are.
On 2006, I was a freaking NUN! I didn’t “knew” one single gay guy or a lesbian, never thought of knowing addicts. But I found very good and bad people. It’s because of the good people the reason I’m writing now. To the bad people I say: You’re an illiterate, racist person who thinks that any job can make you win, that any lie can make you better.
For the good people: be brave, this is just a bug in your blood. Be happy, find happiness. Stigma doesn’t define you. HIV is just a bug in your blood. Study, work. Find happiness.
If as a non poz women I used to scare men, now it’s twice scared men. I’m strict, bossy, logical, and was raised to win.