Charlie Mukdaloy, 33, is a survivor.

In 1994 he and four friends set up a musical group. They called themselves the HIV Band, because all five had the HIV virus.

Today the band still plays around Thailand. There are now six members, though the numbers fluctuate. But in the space of three and a half years, the HIV Band has seen some 30 members come and go.

"I'm the only remaining original member," Charlie said with a wry smile. "The other 30 members have died of AIDS."

The HIV Band could be the only band in the world in which every player has AIDS. Last year they recorded their first album, a project which took one month to complete.

"It took so long because we kept getting sick," said Charlie.

The band is the brainchild of Phra Ajarn Alongkot Dikkapanyo, the head monk at Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu in Lopburi. The temple treats AIDS sufferers in their final stages. There is room for some 400 AIDS sufferers at the temple, and an average of one to seven people die there every day. Tragically, there is a waiting list of 10,000 sufferers, mainly poor rural people who have been shunned by society.

When Ajarn Alongkot first set up the temple four years ago, he felt that the Thai population needed to be educated about AIDS.

"Every day, 500-600 Thais are infected with the AIDS virus," he told NJ Magazine. "That's an epidemic. I thought that since I was often giving talks to young people about the dangers of contracting AIDS, music would be the ideal way to get that message across."

And so in 1994 he wrote a series of songs, in a folk-country style, and put the word around the temple for any AIDS sufferers who were musical. Using donations, he purchased musical instruments.

"Music is a wonderful way to educate," said Ajarn Alongkot. "When we go to schools, universities and other public events, people sit up and listen when the HIV Band plays. And on top of the novelty value, the band is very talented, too."

Charlie was in the original banch.

"I was working as a foreman in a Bangkok factory four years ago when I found out I had AIDS," said Charlie. "I moved to the temple. I played solo guitar. We found a bass player, a guitar, a drummer, and a singer. We got to work practising Phra Ajarn's songs. They were good songs and the lyrics were beautiful."

The band has a total of seven songs in their repertoire. The names of the songs include "Rak Manut" (Caring For Humanity), "Rai Sanyan" (Without Warning) and "Thanon Sai Meud" (The Dark Street). Their cassette tape, available at the temple, is probably the first music tape which depicts a cremation of sone of its band members on the cover!

Popular Thai folk singer Phongsit Kamphee has expressed an interest in recording with the band. He has appeared on stage with the band during World AIDS Day last December at Bangna, Bangkok.

Charlie and his fellow band members live at the temple. "Our goals are simple," he said. "We're not shy about the fact we have AIDS. When we perform, we introduce ourselves and explain how we got AIDS. In that way, hopefully other people will not get it.

"That's our motivation -- to give knowledge as well as entertainment."

The job of lead singer belongs to Pissamai Trakulsanitmaitri, a 31-year-old former housewife from Nan. She came to the temple last year with her husband and three month old child.

"My husband was a soldier," she said. "He was away for long periods of time. He slept with a prostitute. I caught HIV from him.

"We both came here at the same time. He died last year. Then my baby died, too. I figured that the best way I could use my life was to educate others through songs."

That view is echoed by guitarist Surasit Saraprom, 37. "It I can save just one life by telling my life story, then I'll feel as though my life has been worth something," he said.

"We practise every other day," said Charlie. "But we have problems with our health."

According to Ajarn Alongkot, going on tour can be deadly to the band.

"When you have AIDS, you have to take good care of your health," he said. "Sometimes when we tour, a band member will get sick. They return to the temple and die."

Recently the band went on a five-day tour to Pattani in the far south of Thailand, some 1,000 km from the temple. "At the end, one of us died," said Charlie. "For this reason we don't go on extened tours."

And does the band have any major problems?

"We can't find a good keyboard player," lamented Charlie.

"Either they try out and they're not good enough, or they're OK, but then they die."

 

THANON SAI MEUD

The step I took that was wrong,

The path I chose to take,

Ended in a disastrous fate,

I wander nowhere, I live without meaning,

I want to run far away,

To stop this thing within,

I want to die, but maybe not just yet,

Because I'm not at that final stage,

I still have to suffer for my sins,

I understand the ultimate truth,

I have to carry on, to fight,

I must live to give my life meaning,

I must do good before I die,

Do the best for myself,

Today I'll do the best I can,

Aim the highest,

Please find it in your heart to give me energy,

Just a little hope, the will to go on ...