Newspaper dating adventures!

Awhile back, I wrote about how I was doing a story that involved newspaper personal ads. The story proved much harder to report than I had expected. My idea was to speak with people who were living with HIV about finding partners through the personals. Every week, I culled the adverts and sent emails and text messages to people who identified as HIV positive in their ads.I received few replies. And some people bothered to reply only to tell me never to contact them again. One woman replied, but then wouldn't meet me. One woman set a meeting time with me and didn't show. Another man replied but really only seemed interested in dating me. Another person met me only to complain about how someone had found his email address in the New Vision and subsequently conned him out of several hundred dollars.Needless to say, I spent a lot of time trying to report this story, and a very small amount of time actually reporting it. The result is here. One of my only successful interviews was with this lady, who was thoughtful and funny - I could have spoken with her for hours. About six pages of single spaced typed notes were whittled down to this 600 word story.It would have been great if I could have talked to a bunch of people and gotten multiple perspectives, written a really interesting feature that showed a real trend emerging, but as it is, I had a few sodas with a very nice lady.Joanna: "Dating is hectic, so I put a personal ad in the paper" KAMPALA, Joanna*, 25, an HIV-positive schoolteacher who lives in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, decided to take a chance on love by putting a personal advertisement in the newspaper. She spoke to IRIN/PlusNews before her first date with a man who responded."I've only dated one person who doesn't have HIV. It's kind of hectic, because you don't know your future or how it's going to be. You're not ready to pass on the infection to this other person. That's why I put up my ad in the Meeting Point section of the New Vision [a national daily].I just wanted to see, would it work? Does it work? But then ... I opened my e-mail and there were a lot of e-mails from guys - maybe 20. I'm going on a date this Sunday. We're not so sure what we're going to do - I don't like sitting down when I'm meeting a person for the first time, so maybe we'll go somewhere or do something. Somewhere with an activity, not just to talk and eat.What I liked about him is that when we talk, he treats you like a person. The others were interested in 'How do you look?' and I don't want a person who is interested in how I look, but in my character. We have talked on the phone for three weeks now. He works upcountry – he's an administrator with some NGO [non-governmental organisation] dealing with HIV.I hope he'll be like the kind of person I imagined on the phone; someone who is fun, not someone who has sadness or is into depression. Some people go on and on about their status and that kind of thing - they haven't gotten over it. I hope he shows some character; I want someone who is free to be himself.I'm scared, I really want it to work out, but what if it doesn't? What if we get there and we can't talk? What if we communicate so much on the phone but then there's nothing in person? READ MORE...