Prepping for Belfast….

So I’m off to Belfast in a few days for the weekend, and as is my custom, I started trawling the net for bloggers in Belfast to meet up with, share a drink, etc. First time I did this was in 2012 when I went to Ghana; I met  two bloggers who are now very good friends of mine.

My search for ‘Bloggers in Belfast’ led me to (amongst other places) Michael, the author of  the HIV Blogger: Living Positively blog. He found out he was HIV positive in March 2009, and has blogged his experiences, and life story since then. It’s a very honest, very real, very ‘in your face’ chronicle of his life and I was just super excited with it! Coming from a development communication background where one of the key strains of messaging was to get people to be open and not ‘self-stigmatise’, this blog made me very happy.

On the blog I found an amazing video called Living +, where a number of people talk about living with HIV. Loved it, loved it, loved it! Key thoughts from the video:

• HIV is real, is a life changing diagnosis, but it isn’t the end of the world – you play a great role in deciding if your experience after the diagnosis will be positive or negative. You were happy before the diagnosis, nothing stops you from remaining happy, or being successful, or having a full, rich life.
• HIV is a sifter; as you become open with your status, you find that real friends stay and give you all the support you need, and the others are…. well, filtered out! You need to be open though, and give people the opportunity to accept you. Some will reject you though; don’t sweat it.
• When a person is HIV positive they need to take their meds. Technology is improving by the day, we’re closer to a cure but till then, take your meds!

Want to see the video? I thought you would! It’s below.

I also found Robyn, or Tee’s blog! That’s a hilarious one! Tee is the mother to Adam and her blog revolves around her life with her son and her husband – very interesting, every day read, loved the few posts I read!

I’m still searching for bloggers, will let you know if I find any more!

P:S – the main reason I did this post was because of the Living + video so go back and watch it now if you haven’t already! Thanks!

Related articles

• Class Adventure Time to Belfast! (katherineiorio.wordpress.com)
• http://xflylikeabee.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/belfast/