I have lived in Senegal for over 7 months now and some days I feel as though I am falling into a routine and flow of life here, slowly piecing the puzzle of preventative health together, while other days I am overwhelmed with the discouraging lack of behavior change and panic at the thought of living here for another year and a half. Every emotion here is extreme whether it is raw joy or deep anger or homesickness.
It's been so long since I've updated so here's my attempt to fill you into what I've been u to.
Work wise things are continuing to roll along at a decent pace. The Women's Care Group I am trying to start in my village and the other two closest villages is set to kickoff November 6th. A lot to do before then in order to make for a fun kickoff party and effective health talk. I found out through my child and maternal health that 30% of children in my village die before the age of 5. Many times these deaths could be prevented with adequate health knowledge and practices concerning pre- and post-natal care, diarrhea, child nutrition, etc. The goal of the Women's Care Group is having local volunteers go house to house bi-weekly to share their health knowledge and in turn increase preventative health practices and result in BEHAVIOR CHANGE (those magical words). I just wrote a grant to try to get funding for uniforms for the volunteers and materials and supplies for the duration of the program. Grants=Pain in the butt! Hopefully it gets approved. I am both excited and nervous at the possibilities, but Inshallah something good will come of it.
The relays (volunteers who sensitize their own population on health issues) in my village and I have been focused on malaria prevention over the last month. We have been giving talks about mosquito net usage and care and making home aid mosquito repellent called “Neem Lotion.” Spence and I did a mosquito repellent making demonstration at the market and people were very interested. It might have been the 'toubab' factor, but it got everyone talking. People were explaining the process of making Neem lotion to those around them who didn't see and translating for people who do not speak Pulaar or Jakanke, without us even asking them to. One man said that he was going to go home to his village and teach the people there to make Neem Lotion. At the end of the day who knows if anyone actually went home and made the repellant. What I do know is that for a few hours everyone was talking about malaria prevention, asking questions and helping one another. I consider it a success.
A volunteer near my region had a “Healthy Baby Contest,” in her village last month. The program started as a way to get women to regularly weigh their babies. Monthly they showed up to the health post to weigh their babies while village health workers gave health talks. At the end of the year all of the most dedicated women in the village had a table and did rotating health stations. Each woman had a PCV to help them. Mika and I helped a woman talk about pre-post natal health care. Our most successful group was of all men, maybe 15 of them. Usually, men play little to know role in a pregnancy, but these men were all ears listening to when they should take their wives to the hospital, what their pregnant wives should be eating, and several ways they could help make pregnancies stay safe and healthy. Again you never know if they will actually practice
Lately, I've been working on a radio show about cold prevention and treatment, People do not understand or refuse to believe in the word “contagious.” I lecture grown men on the health committee about pulling snot out of their nose, wiping it on a tree and continuing the health meeting without washing their hands. Snot rockets are common place. One person gets sick and the coughing and sneezing, fevers, and body aches commence and with the lack of hand washing and the added bonus of sharing cups and eating out of the same bowl...the entire household is sick. And people laugh when I ask them to cough into their elbow or tell them not to share cups. My idea of contagiousness is as silly to them as many of their off the wall beliefs. Yet its proven over and over again. Anyway, the radio show has some funny skits, a song written about colds to the tune of the new Pulaar hit sung by my little sister Ruby and cousin Fatu, and fun American tunes! Doing radio is a something fun and different. It reaches all over the Tambacounda region so it really gets the message out there. I might be into this radio thing!
Other news:
1. ALERT , ALERT, AMAZING PACKAGES received:
Thank you Mom, Dad, Sana, Jake, Abby and Sam for the birthday packages! Everything good was packed into those babies! Fun great activities for my soon to be girls group, delicious foods, a beautiful cross, Dakar clothes, way cool home-made jewelery (thanks to my new jeweler Becky Lyon), giraffe printed shorts and an amazing poem (thanks Abs!), letters, games and photos. Seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH for being so THOUGHTFUL!
Stacey and Matt thank you! Conditioners importance in my life had been forgotten, but now my illusion that I didn't need conditioner here has been shattered. The Cliff bars and granola bars=yum! And travel coffee is awesome because sometimes I get stuck places without a caffeine fix and those times kind stink! THANK YOU sooo much!
2. Trip to Dakar, Joal, and Popenguine:
The Health and Environmental Education summit was in Joal this year. Although I'm not sure how helpful the summit was it did give my stage time to get back together and celebrate life. There were birthday's to be celebrated (HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH AND KIM!), Lebanese and French food to be eaten, a beach day or two, real coffee, we even took a rendevous to Sereer Island at night to check out the island made of shells and inhabited by Catholics. It was a great break and happily I was really ready to go back to village at the end.
3. Icky/Sad News:
Tucker died. My sweet baby and kitty died at only 2 ½ years. Most of you know how obsessed I have always been with my little cuppy cake so it's been hard for me. I just expected him to be around for another 10 years. That little mischievous booger is a really big part of my life. At least I know that he had so much love. That my family spoiled him and gave him all their love down to his last day. It won't be the same but I know it will get easier.
4. School has begun:
I have a NGO funded adorable pre-school and a government elementary school near my village. I plan to do fun health experiments and activities with the kids. The teachers seem open to that, but I also know they can be pretty hard to work with. They are educated in Dakar and then sent out to work in villages so many of them are not happy where they are. They cancel classes with ease and just disappear sometimes. Regardless, I plan to get in there and have some fun!
My eyes have been opened, once again, to just how many kids do not go to school here. Many times school is simply not a priority and little importance has been placed on it. For example, my niece is 4 and had her first day of pre-school and her parents didn't even walk her there. My dad, and many other family's do not buy the kids the supplies they need because they “don't have money,” but really it's just being spent on something else...like tea...always. It's such a different perspective of education's importance.
5. I emptied my entire hut to sweep my ceiling. Yes indeed, termites are slowly dismantling my hut. They leave a yellow dusting of freshly munched ceiling on my entire room, similar to frost on the lawn in late autumn. The job turned out to be a project complete with cob webs destruction, frog, mouse, poisonous lizard and bug eradication, and bleaching everything. I feel mildly cleaner in my newly freshened living space!
6. We had a traditional dance celebration with men that dressed as trees. They also ran around with hay that was on fire to push people away from them. It was a fun culture fete.
7. Malaria like I've never seen it. While in a families compound I happened upon a little boy whose body was hotter than I've ever felt and whose eyes were yellowing. It was obvious that he had a serious case of malaria, but the family had gone to the health post and gotten medicine. While still there the little boy started convulsing. It was terrifying and so frustrating because there is so little you can do. I ended up lending them money to go to the health post, but it took them so long to get there. First, they had to go out to the fields and get the donkeys, then prepare the chariot, and slowly, slowly make it the 7 kilometers to the health post. Alhumdudlilah, he ended up getting a different medication and recovered. Scary and so sad.
8. Mental health is so misunderstood here. People treat mentally slow people like animals in many cases. I realize it is still a stigma in America and that not long ago our own practices were repulsive, but it sucks to see this first hand.
9. Some interesting local beliefs:
* If you brush your teeth after sun down an old person dies. You know like every time a choir sings an angel gets its wings!
* When you lose a tooth if you don't throw it on top of your hut a new tooth will not grow in. I thought this was funny, but then explained the tooth fairy and realized maybe they are right.
*Vampires: Oh my goodness, this topic comes up daily in my village. My brother drew a vampire and it was an owl with a human head and bat wings.
9. My older brother is convinced that evil men dig up graves after the bodies have decomposed and take the fingernails to pound into powder. It then turns to poison and they put it into the water of people they dislike.
10. Tambacounda has 7 new volunteers!!!
11. It's HOTT again. I mean it never really stopped being hot but at least it rained. That is all behind us now. It's back to blazing until the 'cool' season that people speak of. I have yet to be convinced that this exists.
12. I miss Autumn. My favorite season. I miss the smells, the crunchy leaves, the red and yellow trees, the crisp feel, bonfires, pumpkin baked goods, sweaters, fire places, football, etc.
Well, I hope these scrambled thoughts have given you an idea about what I've been up to! I miss and love you all and will be in AMERICA in 50 days!!!
