I have big dreams for things I want to do in the future. I plan like people who do not have HIV because I know this is not the end of life…

I am living in such a way that I do not think of myself as an HIV positive person [laughing]. I regard myself as a normal person like any other person and I have big dreams for things I want to do in the future. I plan like people who do not have HIV because I know this is not the end of life.  Life continues as long as I take my treatment well, having safer sex.

[Laughing] yes I have a lover… I have not yet disclosed my HIV status to him; I do talk to him about issues around HIV. I do this to find out how he would handle knowing I am HIV positive. He knows that I work at the clinic.I am employed by Mother 2 Mothers project but he does not know what type of people M2M employs. He is happy that I am working and so when I am with him we talk about HIV. We have not had sex yet; he told me that we would abstain until we are married. That is the problem I have and as such I always talk to him about HIV to hear what he would say.

He has not said [if he has tested] but you can see that he knows a lot about HIV so it is possible he knows his HIV status and it is likely that he is in the same situation as me [laughing]. It seems he is also having the problem of how to tell me while I am having a problem of how to tell him. When we talk he talks freely about HIV issues. I have not asked him if he has tested for HIV.”

Ncamsile Shabangu, female, 38 years, Swaziland

Every day from the 1st of July until the 21st of July we will be sharing extracts from 21 oral testimonies of 21 men and women living with HIV in Swaziland, Ethiopia and Mozambique. We’ll share these extracts here on this blog – with daily links on twitter and facebook. On the 21st of July, our partner the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) will launch a publication of these testimonies at the International AIDS conference 2014. Read more about 21 stories 21 days. Read more about the project