In Epstein’s writing, she discusses how Uganda is much more socially cohesive than South Africa. She noticed how people were very close because they were not shying away from difficult or shameful conversations. Throughout the article, Epstein explores the change in their community due to their open conversations. The rate of infection had already begun to decrease. Epstein emphasized that people in Uganda talked about AIDS just as normally as we would discuss politics. This is very important to social cohesion. If everybody is willing to discuss difficult things with each other, then that provides the foundation for social cohesion. We have also been looking at Anne Hallward’s presentation on the benefit of sharing the difficult things in life. Hallward believes that when we share our personal stories, we open ourselves up for others to connect. It may not be the details that people connect to, but the emotions felt throughout the story. In Uganda, people discuss how the people they know are affected by AIDS. Not only are they connecting with the difficult emotions of seeing a loved one go through that, but most people even connect to the specific details of the story since so many people are infected.
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