|
| |
|
| |
This play is the sequel to 'Country girls come to
town' (see drugs stories) |
| |
|
| |
| |
In the family shop, Tjik, the father is waiting for
his son and daughter to return from town. When they arrive, he asks
them about their trip. Bouachan tells him that her girlfriends from
the village, Noi and Dockeo, are now working in a night club in town
and that her brother got into a fight with a drug dealer. The father
is worried about his son, who still has a black eye. He reasons gently
with him and tells him to take better care of himself and his sister.
Nock is surprised and glad, that his father isn’t shouting at
him. He feels sorry enough for himself already as his face and ribs
hurt.
Noi arrives back in the village and comes to see Bouachan at her shop.
She explains that she doesn’t feel well and her eyes fill with
tears. She is worried that she has caught HIV from unprotected sexual
intercourse with customers at the night club. Bouachan’s father
advises her to have a blood test at the hospital. Bouachan offers
to accompany her. Tjik and Nock go to work together in the family
field. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Bouachan and Noi go to the district hospital so that
Noi can have a blood test. Noi stops at the gate and refuses to go
in. She asks Bouachan what would happen if she really had AIDS, how
would her friends, relatives and neighbours treat her? Bouachan tries
hard to persuade her that knowing is better than not knowing and finally
Noi agrees to go in. Dockeo, the other bar girl, worried by Noi’s
illness has decided to go for an AIDS test too. She arrives at the
clinic, while Vieng is inside seeing a doctor.
Bouachan and Dockeo talk to each other. Dockeo is very brave and says
she is sure coming for a test is the right thing to do. When Noi comes
out, she is comforted by the fact that her friend is also having a
test. The doctor tells them to come back in three days for the result.
The three friends go drinking and laugh and joke about their childhood. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Tjik, the father, and his son, Nock, are working
happily together in the field. Tjik sings songs from the past to
make his son laugh. He is proud because his son is no longer taking
drugs and is trying hard to make a new start. He helps his father
in the field till late evening, comes back home, has dinner with
his father and goes to sleep early. But he can’t sleep because
his father’s loud snoring. So he gets up, walks around a bit,
and thinks about taking some yabaa (amphetamines). He is torn because
he is really craving them, but he promised his father he would not.
Finally, when he decides go out and get some, his father wakes up
and catches him.
|
| |
|
| |
| |
In the meantime, Bouachan and her friends are very
drunk, they want go home but still want to drink, they dance and sing
songs till the early morning. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Nock has a nightmare. He dreams that a lion and a
king cobra are chasing him. He cries out in his sleep, and his father
comforts him. He tells him to try sleep to save energy for their hard
fieldwork next day. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Bouachan and her friends go to the hospital and get
the blood test results. Dockeo is HIV negative, but Noi tests positive
for the virus. Bouachan comforts Noi and tells her not to give up
hope. She must make a new start and not get depressed. She suggests
giving her a new job, working together in family shop. Dockeo says
she will also return to the village and try to make a living sewing
clothes from silk. |
| |
|
| |
| |
Dockeo is very busy in her shop. Her small business
is going quite well. She has also found a real lover, one of the doctors
she met at the district hospital. He wants to marry her soon. |
| |
|
| |
| |
It is the first day for Noi working in Bouachan’s
shop. Bouachan tells her about the prices of the goods and then leaves
her to sell things alone, while she goes to the market.
Nock comes to the shop and sees Noi working there. He is afraid
of being near her, now that the whole village knows that she is
HIV positive. He insults her, calling her dirty, and tells her to
get out of the shop. Just as Noi is leaving, Bouachan arrives back
and demands to know what’s happening. Nock asks her what she
is thinking of, letting Noi work there, when they could catch AIDS
from Noi, when she touches the goods in the shop or drinks out of
the same glass as one of the family. Bouachan laughs at him and
tells him that you can’t catch AIDS in any of those ways and
that it’s perfectly safe for them to work together. At first
he is not prepared to accept her word for it. But she shows him
a poster she got at the clinic with pictures explaining the ways
of transmission and non transmission of AIDS.
The pictures show that you cannot catch AIDS by:
• Shaking hands, kissing, staying in the same house, eating
together, using the same toilet...
You can catch AIDS by:
• Having penetrative sexual intercourse without using condom,
needle sharing, mother to child transmission and having unscreened
blood transfusions
Nock agrees that he had no idea about how you could catch AIDS
before, and admits that he was scared. He agrees to let Noi work
in the shop and offers to help her. They hang the poster on AIDS
in the shop for everyone to see. |
| |
|
| |
| |
That evening, the village chief announces the wedding
of Dockeo and a doctor from the district hospital and invites all
the villagers to join the celebrations. The play ends with a playful
Khmu song about village life. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|