"Why do you want to go to Africa?"
Last May, Heather Tatarski '04 spent eight days in Ethiopia and Uganda making a documentary on AIDS for MTV with U2's frontman Paul David Hewson -- widely known Bono -- actor Chris Tucker and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. And all because she gave the right answer to that question.
Tatarski, now on the English department's foreign study program in Trinidad, doesn't even remember her response.
"I was so nervous," she said. "There were about 30 others; everyone thought they wouldn't get in." MTV was looking for two 18-22-year-olds who had never been to Africa to go along, and she was one chosen.
Tatarski first learned of the opportunity while interning in the Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs division at MTV. "I definitely took the internship because it works on issues that are important to me," she said, describing the original appeal of the MTV position.
The trip was funded by the federal government, in part as a chance for Secretary O'Neill to get a firsthand look at how United States aid was being put to good use in Africa.
Their days were very full as the group visited clinics, orphanages and a local water source, talking to HIV-positive prostitutes and infected children and parents along the way. "We had a zillion different things every day," Tatarski said.
"It was really scheduled, but I never knew what I was doing [on any given] day." She describes the days as "crazy" but said it wasn't stressful.
Still, Tatarski found that victims her own age were the hardest to deal with. Faced with these horrors, Tatarski is quick to admit she felt guilt. "But what Bono always said is that you have to take that guilt and turn it into anger, and turn that into action," she said.
MTV was working in cooperation with Save the Childern, an international non-profit relief agency, which allowed Tatarski to go safely into poorer villages and regions that she couldn't have visited as a tourist. Tatarski went on to raise money for Save the Children last summer.
"Save the Children organized the interactions in places like the hospitals and with the sex workers," she said. "They had the relationships."
Tatarski has been interested in non-profit groups for a long time, but the documentary brought her to focus more on AIDS work.
She described the opportunity as "something I'd been waiting for," almost a sign to spend her life on this work.
"I really think I'll go back," she said. "In Ethiopia, they say if you spend three days, you'll come back and live here."
Tatarski noted that MTV's national prominence and extensive resources allowed them to integrate non-profit social work with their media corporation.
"They can make more of a difference without running into the problems of many non-profits," she said, referring to lack of funds and popular interest.
In Africa, the work was complicated by local misconceptions about AIDS. "You've got Christian missionaries who preached abstinence, which isn't really practical. Then there's also a large Muslim population which doesn't believe in saying the word 'sex.'"
In Ethiopia, the group even saw a junior high play about reproductive health that managed not to mention sex. "With these cultural and social problems, we have to take baby steps," Tatarski said.
In Uganda and Ethiopia, the two countries Tatarski visited (Bono, Tucker and O'Neill went on to more countries), the level of education was actually higher than she expected.
"They knew AIDS was a virus," she said. "They knew you couldn't get it from kissing."
Still, only the most rudimentary treatment was available for the victims.
"They're going to die, and they know it," she said. "They might have hospitals, but not everyone can get there."
In contrast to the wide array of treatment available for HIV-positive and AIDS patients in the U.S. -- from AZT to protease inhibitors -- in Africa, "Sometimes there's Tylenol," Tatarski said.
During their interactions with victims and workers, it was Tatarski's job to interview Bono and Tucker, a task she shared with Vernon Taylor, the other MTV intern chosen.
"At first it was really weird," she said of interacting with her famous coworkers. "They're larger than life, you know? But we were there for a really serious purpose. There was no time to be star struck."
"Everything comes into perspective with that work. You look at Bono and Tucker, but just because they're famous, they have no more power against AIDS," she said.
Now in Trinidad, Tatarski often thinks of Africa. "Trinidad is better off," she said. "People in Trinidad have water."
"I'm seeing the best of Trinidad," she said. In a way, she was seeing the best of Africa. Uganda and Ethiopia are two nations that are developing with assistance from the United States.
"They're saying, 'We want to build up, not be corrupt anymore,' and opening their books and showing us what they've done already. These are two really potentially good countries," Tatarski said.
Five months after her trip, Tatarski's enthusiasm hasn't waned. "I do think I can make a difference, I do want to be active," she said. "I never want to ignore it, especially since I've been there."
"I go to movies, do normal things, and I take a step back and I think. Even going to the faucet. I move slower and think more," Tatarski said.
"I miss it. I think about it all the time," she said. "Somehow, it comes into my mind every day." She worries over people's reaction to the documentary, especially her peers. "I want the world to understand the way I do. I don't want to forget, I want to stay motivated."
The show was produced under the aegis of MTV's Fight For Your Rights campaign on sexual health, and will air under the title "The Diary of Bono and Chris Tucker: Aiding Africa" on Oct. 9 at 10 p.m.
