AFRICA CLOSEUP / LIVING IN THE TIME OF THE PLAGUE / BY ZINA SAUNDERS

Faith at a rural store that has very little to sell. Click image for larger version

What is it like to live in a world where a third of everyone in your country will most likely be dead in the next few years? Where 80% of the people have no jobs, where inflation can leap over 100% in a month, where schools have the blackboard painted on the wall?

With such a world as your backdrop, how can dreams be conjured, hopes be nourished, plans be laid?

Meet Faith, a 22-year old AIDS orphan who lives in Zimbabwe, working days as a bike messenger, going to school at night, volunteering as a counselor to other AIDS orphans — staunch and brimming with a fierce optimism.

Faith provides a glimpse of what the world is like in Africa and how humanity flourishes even in the worst of circumstances. She is eager, striving, and filled with aspirations, even while the world around her crumbles into disaster.