3 decades with HIV
Life is a very big lesson and at the end of all the painful sufferings and joys we go through we must come out stronger than before.
The pain is our training and the endurance and the joys are the certificates. I am so grateful to God for taking me this far as I celebrate over 30 years of a very productive life with HIV. I have weathered the storms associated with being HIV and have come out the winner having destroyed all the evil machinations of HIV/AIDS mainly the shame, fear, stigma and discrimination.
On 24/10/25 I shall be celebrating 60 years of a very turbulent life of which over 30 years were lived with HIV. My life has been marked by first: recklessness, prostitution, drunkenness and all the other bad vices one can imagine, in fact I have done everything bad that you can ever imagine except murder but have now evolved into a new and prayerful person. I have also been ill and have been admitted into hospitals suffering from what at first appeared to be malaria but later turned out to be Tuberculosis(TB). I later tested HIV positive while undergoing TB treatment in September 1999 at St Luke’s hospital near Lupane.
I never believed that I would ever be able to survive from the debilitating TB bout which had reduced me to a living skeleton but God had other plans for me and soon I was on the road to healing from TB. Being someone who had never taken prayer seriously I decided to pray earnestly to God to heal me so that I would be able to look after my two children Simba 9 then Rutendo 5 and Mai Simba my wife of 10 years then. I am happy to say my 2 children are now both adults and now have their families giving us 5 grandchildren of 4 boys and 1 girl.
I think God in His own wisdom seeing the purpose for which he was preparing for me in later years saw it fit that I have a family of almost all members living with HIV. My wife and daughter Rutendo both later tested HIV positive and I know I am the culprit who brought the HIV into our home. I am happy to say that we are all enjoying excellent health and if we don’t say we’re positive nobody can ever know. My family have forgiven me and we are all comfortable talking about our HIV+ statuses
When I was fully recovered from TB around 2003 I started disclosing my HIV positive status first to my wife, my siblings community and later to the world via newspaper articles from 2009. I have been writing weekly articles since then and I shall continue doing so maybe until I drop dead. I have also been invited to talk on radio, television and even to church congregations and my major highlight was the 2 day media workshop at CUT in Chinhoyi where I had the privilege to address newspaper editors, TV and radio station managers with Hon Prof Mavhima as guest of honour on how the HIV story should be written it was really a mile stone.
My major achievement which I am so proud of as I celebrate my 60th birthday and over 30 years of life with HIV is the publishing of my autobiography which I have decided to call “The Extra Time -The story of my life with HIV” in recognition that God gave me extra time to do some good work after I had squandered my youth doing bad things. This is a very good book in which I have laid bare my whole life and a lot of those who have read it all testify that it’s a great book indeed and I am inviting everyone to try and read it. The book has also been given wide acclaim on radio, TV and in newspapers. The book costs $10 cash and $11 ecocash and all those who want copies can get in touch with me on my number below so that we arrange on how they can get their copies.
In next week’s article I shall talk about all the people who stood with and helped and encouraged me to persevere while I was struggling to regain my health and to move on when I was fully recovered up until where I am today enjoying good health as a very prayerful person who has stopped all the bad habits.
By Piason Maringwa.
+263774322043
