Getting ready for Ethiopia - Need some different insights

[Magma]

Perhaps many of you may have read my thread about going to Ethiopia. At the time, I was adamant about not attempting to sex any women while over there. I've been doing plenty of research about the HIV/AIDS rate over there and also just joined up on a free Ethiopian dating site in order to get the ball rolling before I get there.

Since 1998, the prevalence rate of AIDS has dropped from 10% to about 4.4% in 2003. This shows a declining trend, but I couldn't find any numbers that are more current than 2003. This puts the total population of Ethiopians with HIV/AIDS at 1.5 million.

I will be spending a significant amount of time in Addis Ababa, the capital city. With a population of about 2 million, that puts the number of Addis residents with AIDS at 88,000 using the 4.4% prevalence rate of 2003. Trends show that this number may be lower, but estimating on the high end is not so bad in this circumstance.

At first, my inclination was to abstain completely whilst in Africa. However, Ethiopian women are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! Holy crap. I was perusing these Ethiopian dating sites and there are plenty of 8's and 9's to go around who are explicitly seeking American men.

I'm going to be there for six weeks, so I'm not sure if I can abstain with all these beautiful women around me. It is also apparent that many of these women are LOOKING for Americans. In their eyes, I'll be living like a gawdam king over there. Exceptionally high value is going to be demonstrated. So my question is this: Is the risk worth the reward?


p.s. As a side note, I've been milking this Ethiopia deal for the last two weeks with every woman I meet by very casually fitting it into the conversation. My social proof has skyrocketed. In the last week alone, I have three women set up for when I get back (Beeotch: "Here's my number. Let's get together when you get back and you can tell me all about Africa!"). It's so funny, because they think that if you travel all the time, that maybe they can be a part of it. Ha! Silly women...

Thanks for the input men!

 

[Bible_Belt]

I told you the women were beautiful.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200710081107.html
According to the report, in the first phase of the campaign that lasted from Nov 2006-Jan2007, 705,619 people were tested for HIV/AIDS and 37,943(5.4%) were found to be positive.

In the second phase, out of the 982,452 people tested, 70,470 were found to be positive (7.3%), according to the report, which showed a 26% increase by the end of August 2007.

The two major objectives of the campaign in the first phase were testing 320,000 people and enrolling 22,000 new patients to ART service; and more than double were tested. The ART plan for new patients fell short of the set target 11,582 but nevertheless a substantial increase from the previous trend, the report states.

In phase II of the campaign, though it was planned to test and council 1.8 million individuals over the seven months period, 982,452 were actually tested (53%) and 31,359 new individuals started ART (77%) from the 40, 710 planned to initiate.


So it looks like 5-7% of the overall population are HIV+. That's about a 25x higher chance that a random Ethiopian woman will have HIV compared to a random US woman. That's +2,500%. You are wise to use caution. Also, there is an incubation period that can fool a test for I think up to six months. That means a woman with a recent test that says she is HIV- can still give you HIV.

However, much of Ethiopia is refugee camp village people who can barely so much as wipe their ass, much less understand preventing STDs. This is not to pick on Ethiopia; it is that way in any third-world country. The lowest std rates will be found in educated, intelligent, and young women from at least upper-middle class families. If you controlled for each of those variables, the hiv rate would drop dramatically. Use a condom with a girl of the type I suggested, and your actual chances of getting hiv I don't think will be significantly different than in the US. Choose wisely, use caution, and I think you can still have fun.

 

[PhatE1vis]

Darn, Bible Belt beat me to that link. Here's another to support it: http://www.aids.harvard.edu/conferences_events/1999/ethiopia/tebebe.pdf

I would probably abstain even if the chances are minimal. Just leverage the social proof of the story when you get back to the safer USA.

 

[Magma]

Thanks BB and Elvis. There was some solid information there.

BB, concerning the social variables you posed. I thought about that and also found a significant number of high value women on the dating sites I perused. Many appeared, through their bio, to be of high class. Meaning, many had bachelor degrees and a high number of those were in graduate school. They appeared to wear nice clothes and wrote very, very well. This is actually what made me rethink my original stance of abstention.

Elvis, you make a good point and it is one that I considered as well. As I've discovered in the last couple of weeks, I can seriously leverage this experience back here in the US when I return. That opportunity will not go unchecked, believe me.

I also found that Ethiopia sits at #25 for the countries with the highest prevalence of AIDS/HIV. I think the #1 country was Botswana at 34%. 34%!!! Can you imagine that! Yikes.

Thanks guys!

Anyone else feel like chiming in? Don't hesitate to "waste" one of your posts!

(post #4 for the day)

 

[KontrollerX]

Here is my advice when travelling to any 3rd world country...

Make sure you've got all the appropriate vaccinations, shots and what have you before you go over there.

Here is my advice when travelling to Ethiopia specifically...

Never ride bareback over there. Never. Not ever. No no no. Doesn't matter if she's low or high class. Too much AIDS going on over there to risk your life even once and to be honest I wouldn't even fvck any of those chicks over there even with protection no matter how hot she is and no I am not a racist, I am a realist and the AIDS rate over there is sky high. If this were not the case my opinion would most certainly be different.

 

[Magma]

Here is my advice when travelling to any 3rd world country...

Make sure you've got all the appropriate vaccinations, shots and what have you before you go over there.

Here is my advice when travelling to Ethiopia specifically...

Never ride bareback over there. Never. Not ever. No no no. Doesn't matter if she's low or high class. Too much AIDS going on over there to risk your life even once and to be honest I wouldn't even fvck any of those chicks over there even with protection no matter how hot she is and no I am not a racist, I am a realist and the AIDS rate over there is sky high. If this were not the case my opinion would most certainly be different.

Thanks KX. Just got my shots/meds a few days ago: Yellow fever, adult polio, malaria, typhoid, tetanus, Hep A, Hep B, and a few others. Got sick as a fvcking dog for a day and a half and felt like Swiss cheese after all the holes they poked in me.

I am really going to evalutate each situation very critically. NEVER in a million years would I dream of not using a condom in Africa.

So you're vote is for "not even once?" It's good to get balancing perspectives. Thanks KX.

(post #5 for the day)

Edit: Ethiopian Woman

 

[KontrollerX]

Yep my vote is not even once without a condom dude.

Doesn't matter if the chick is rich or poor or middle class.

You are going to AIDS land basically and a lot of the chicks be they rich or poor might not even know if they have it or not.

The old phrase "Its better to be safe than sorry" absolutely applies to the fullest effect for you and all 3rd world country travellers.

Oh yeah and don't do the stupid thing some guy's do in some misguided attempt to further protect themselves and what I'm saying is don't wear two condoms at once.

That just increases the risk of tearing both condoms and thus STD contact.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I respect whatever choice you make, but I think it is worth the risk to land a super-model looking wife who thinks the world of you and at least can't leave until the Green Card arrives. By the way, for anyone traveling abroad who might fall in love and get married, don't tell Homeland Security/INS that you got married. If you do, they deport her from the airport. She has to come as a visitor and marry you here in order to stay legally immediately after marriage.

I know AIDS is a horrible dread disease that kills millions of people, but most people did not get it from safe sex with a carefully selected different-sex partner. Especially with a condom, it is actually kind of hard to catch.

This is an interesting study of "discordant" couples, where one has HIV and the other does not. Transmission of the virus was much lower than most people would expect.


http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-3156.2000.00582.x?cookieSet=1

Couples who desired a child and who practiced safe sex
except during a woman’s estimated monthly fertility period
were remarkably successful at having a child while at the
same time avoiding HIV-1 transmission to the uninfected
partner. In this prospective study 24 women (13.5%) of 178
couples with discordant baseline HIV infection status became
pregnant and delivered a live-born child. Only 1 (4%) of
these 24 (4%; 95% C.L.  0.0–21.6%) couples seroconverted
and became concordantly HIV infected.

 

[Quiksilver]

Dress the part.

Smart travelers always dress as the local culture does. It lets people identify with you and open up to you more readily. You won't be labeled a "dumb american" so fast and more doors will open for you.

Bring a canteen too, its pretty humid down there.

 

[Sir-M]

I also found that Ethiopia sits at #25 for the countries with the highest prevalence of AIDS/HIV. I think the #1 country was Botswana at 34%. 34%!!! Can you imagine that! Yikes.

Hmm well.. I live in South africa but i work in Botswana... lets be frank, Botswana probably has the best women in africa.. yes there are a few nice ethiopians. but damn.. come to botswana for a weekend.. anyway.. the current population here is about 2.5 Million people of which roughly 1 Million are foreigners. a good majority of which hail from Zimbabwe... plus many tourists that come every year, all of which just need to have some of Botswana's Booty, some of which according to them is just "too good to use a condom on".. well well.. i think the aids rate is declining slowly, but nevertheless.. buy a Box of condoms before you land in africa... better safe than sorry...

PS. South africa has an 5.3 Million people with aids, Zimbabwe has 1.8 Million People with Aids ... and those are Botswana's neighbours.. Botswana only has 350,000 with aids

 

[Magma]

Hmm well.. I live in South africa but i work in Botswana... lets be frank, Botswana probably has the best women in africa.. yes there are a few nice ethiopians. but damn.. come to botswana for a weekend.. anyway.. the current population here is about 2.5 Million people of which roughly 1 Million are foreigners. a good majority of which hail from Zimbabwe... plus many tourists that come every year, all of which just need to have some of Botswana's Booty, some of which according to them is just "too good to use a condom on".. well well.. i think the aids rate is declining slowly, but nevertheless.. buy a Box of condoms before you land in africa... better safe than sorry...

PS. South africa has an 5.3 Million people with aids, Zimbabwe has 1.8 Million People with Aids ... and those are Botswana's neighbours.. Botswana only has 350,000 with aids

Thanks Sir M! I do believe that Africa, as a whole, has some of the most beautiul women in the world, and I know that I'm going to have a hard time abstaining while over there.

I am still very unsure of what I'm going to do. Hell, I might be working so much that I won't even have time to sex any women. I am leaning towards abstaining though. I've just been way too careful over the years with my sexual health to put myself at such a high risk.

 

[BadsnakeUK]

Think long and hard about whether a few weeks of poon is worth a potential death sentence. That's basically the reality of what you're asking. HIV doesn't infect based on social class or education, and remember there are other routes of transmission other than sex. So if your beautiful African queen has been to a hospital where they're not too fussed on clean needles etc you could still be running a serious risk. Think about this.

BTW I'm a nurse so I know what I'm talking about.

If you're absolutely insistent on taking this risk then make sure you buy your condoms at home rather than over there (if you're in the UK check for the kite mark etc). Oh, and make sure you don't do anything while drunk - it increases the possibility of not bothering with a condom or not putting it on right.

As a final precaution I'd advise buying a clean set of sharps (needles) including a dental needle in case you need any medical treatment over there.

IMHO I'd just do as others have suggested and use the social leverage when you get back home. I always like to use travel to reflect on my priorities and get away from it all anyway.

 

[Magma]

Think long and hard about whether a few weeks of poon is worth a potential death sentence. That's basically the reality of what you're asking. HIV doesn't infect based on social class or education, and remember there are other routes of transmission other than sex. So if your beautiful African queen has been to a hospital where they're not too fussed on clean needles etc you could still be running a serious risk. Think about this.

BTW I'm a nurse so I know what I'm talking about.

If you're absolutely insistent on taking this risk then make sure you buy your condoms at home rather than over there (if you're in the UK check for the kite mark etc). Oh, and make sure you don't do anything while drunk - it increases the possibility of not bothering with a condom or not putting it on right.

As a final precaution I'd advise buying a clean set of sharps (needles) including a dental needle in case you need any medical treatment over there.

IMHO I'd just do as others have suggested and use the social leverage when you get back home. I always like to use travel to reflect on my priorities and get away from it all anyway.

Thank you for taking the time brother.

You bring up some very good points regarding needles. I believe my boss is bringing those types of medical supplies with us, but I'll double check. Thanks for the heads up.

Since I don't drink, I'll at least have the ability to think clearly about any situation that might arise. I've been thinking about it a lot, and it just is not worth it at all.

Does it mean that I'm not going to flirt? Of course not. I'm going to have fun with it, as I always do, and represent myt SS brethren.

Thanks again for taking the time Badsnake.

Cheers!

 

[Magma]

So I hopped onto a couple of Ethio dating sites and have a few Ethio hotties looking to show me the sites around the city. Once my profile was up, the floodgates opened. It's pretty obvious from the convos we've had that they are just looking for someone to take them away to the United States. I don't care though. It's all good.

So I've got some women lined up to show me around for when I arrive. Should be interesting to say the least. I leave in the morning. Thanks to everyone who gave good advice and I'll talk to you all in six weeks!

Peace!