ARTISANS | Melissa Njeng | Judy Cherotich | Laura Sangara | Marion Mbungo
Judy Cherotich*
Judy is a talented seamstress with a beautiful voice and an intense Christian faith. Judy was born in Busia in 1979, the 2nd child of her father’s 2nd wife. Judy grew up with 13 siblings, and 12 half-siblings in a traditional Luhya home. Judy was a good student, moving through primary school with high marks, and passing her secondary school exams. Yet because she was the child of the 2nd wife, her father was unwilling to pay for further education.
In 2001, she met a man named Charles, the cousin of neighbor. He asked her to marry him. Despite her misgivings about Charles’ ability to stay faithful to her, she felt that he was a better choice than the arranged marriage that her father was planning for her. Judy decided that it was better to marry this man who she loved, than to return to Busia without money, and marry one of her father’s suitors. She accepted Charles’ proposal, and in 2002 they were married. Charles found work as a contractor, and Judy found a job in a bakery near their home. Judy soon became pregnant and she gave birth to her first child in 2003.
Yet, at this point Judy and her husband started to disagree about their religious denominations. Judy is a Catholic, a member of Deliverance Church, while her husband is a Seventh Day Adventist. One day Charles told Judy that if she didn’t join his church, he would bring in another wife. She refused, and their marriage became strained. She began to suspect that he was “moving around.” One day a strange woman showed up at their house, asking to greet Judy’s husband. Judy was immediately suspicious and she chased away the visitor. When her husband came home, she confronted him about it, but he said not to worry, the woman was “not right in the head.”
One day in 2005, Judy suddenly “lost her mind.” She became delirious, very disoriented, and started seeing visions again; she thought maybe her family planning drugs were causing side-effects and she asked her husband to take her to MTRH. She was diagnosed with meningitis and spent the next month in the wards. Judy was unaware of it at the time, but while in the hospital she was tested for HIV.
One month after returning home, her husband sat down with her and explained that they had both been tested and that they were both HIV positive. Her husband begged for forgiveness, but also said he didn’t know where he got the disease; he thought maybe he was infected from an “herbal injectionist” at his brother’s house. (Sadly, almost everyone in Charles’ brother’s house is currently HIV positive, and several of his children have recently died). Her husband encouraged her not to give up, and told her about drugs that could save them. Judy was very shocked, and her faith was greatly shaken. She began to contemplate suicide.
Judy and Charles started going to AMPATH clinic together. Judy was put on food prescription through AMPATH for 3 months. She was still very depressed at this point and was still thinking a great deal about suicide. She used to think about putting rat poison in the dinner meal, and killing her husband, her baby, and herself. Her neighbors refused to talk to her, and wouldn’t let her child play with them. Her husband was very sick with TB, there was no money, and she didn’t see anyway forward.
In 2006, she was referred to Imani Workshops. Judy began to seek out a counselor because she knew that she was on the edge. She started talking to Richard. Richard counseled her and gave her books to read about the virus and how to live positively with it. As she started to participate in life at IMANI she saw so many people living positively, and she was encouraged to go on and her faith returned. Judy decided to forgive her husband and her stress went down. She decided to move on and live her life.
Today, Judy is no longer afraid to talk about HIV. She tells everyone she hears talking about it, “not to joke about HIV and get tested.” She has great hope at Imani Workshops. She loves that they work as brothers and sisters here, and she likes that when she has to go to the clinic everyone understands. She is proud to be working here because she can take care of her personal needs, and she can pay for school fees for her children. She also plans to open up a boutique where she can sell clothes and teach students how to sew. She also wants to buy her husband a photocopy machine that her husband will operate. Even though she acknowledges that she cannot trust her husband yet, their relationship is very good. She laughs as she explains that now she can win every argument. She simply reminds him that he is the one who brought HIV into their home.