Maria Banda has just resigned as a housemaid in Balaka District; she now plies her trade as a prostitute in Mangochi and earns a much better income.

For 33 years now, Reverend Levi Nyondo, as God’s anointed ‘shepherd,’ has watched HIV/AIDS decimate his ‘sheep.’ Although his homilies have urged sexual abstinence and fidelity, which should slow spread of the disease, he grudgingly admits that the heavy loss of his parishioners to the pandemic is a clear sign that these messages are falling on deaf ears.