Yoga in South Africa: A Transforming Journey | Michael McColly

[00:00:00] And I had been in the Peace Corps and so I knew that the situation in Africa was dire because of public health needs there. I watched all kinds of very troubling things when I was there. [00:00:18] And I just knew that way in which the virus was spreading that I should go, I should, I should do some reporting. So I went to South Africa at the AIDS conference in, in 2000, which was a, A, a kind of important moment in the history of HIV and aids because for the first time a conference went to the, you know, the, the Southern hemisphere, to this, to the global South. [00:00:56] And of course South Africa had an incredible problem with hiv. It was spreading so rapidly. [00:01:08] And of course Nelson Mandela was the president. Then he came to the conference and gave this, oh, this heart rendering speech because his own son had hiv. [00:01:26] And he said something like, we all are living with hiv. [00:01:34] You know, I mean, I was crying. Everyone around me is crying. [00:01:39] But at the conference, my way in was I taught yoga. [00:01:46] So I had these workshops for, you know, all kinds of people. Nurses and doctors and activists, some people with HIV and other people who were part of the, the healthcare world. [00:02:02] And they were from everywhere and it was just, oh, I loved it. And it was jammed. And they said, oh, can you do another class? Because we have so many people that want to do this. [00:02:16] And so I did another class and, and then I was there for a month or more and doing workshops with, with various groups of people. [00:02:29] And it, you know, I just, that that's, that was seminal for me. [00:02:38] And, and then I came back and then I went to Thailand and India and Vietnam. It's nothing like teaching yoga in India to, you know, to, to like social workers. I, I mean, I had this, you know, thing and then I also taught yoga with, with some young men who were sex workers, but they were also activists because they were going out and handing out condoms and things. And, and so. Oh, it was the sweetest thing because they, you know, when I, you know, spoke whatever little sang Sanskrit that I, that I knew, you know, Surinameskar, whatever, they would go, oh, they would start giggling, you know, and yeah, and it was like on a, like a concrete floor, there was no mats. And it was, you know, I think when you, when you teach to people who are really desperate in need of, of of care, it's transforming because, because you know, I had the medications eventually, of course, and I would go places and they didn't. [00:03:56] And that was so heartbreaking. [00:03:58] And they, I remember in South Africa, some young man wanted to see the medication and he wanted to look at it, you know, this tiny little pill that enabled me to have a future. [00:04:11] And he didn't know. Yeah. Hard to carry. [00:04:15] It was. Yes. The book really was emotionally difficult to write, and I carried it with me. And I remember some therapists and people saying, wow, you, you're. You're carrying all these people's stories. Because I interviewed hundreds of people. [00:04:36] And so I just took all this stuff in. But yoga enabled me to keep going, you know?