Guinea Worm
e-mail on 8/24/2002 Return to List
Bonjour Tout les monde,
So again the usual apologies for this taking a
little while to get out and also for all the spelling mistakes. I'm in my last
two weeks here in stage and, well, things have been packed.
Worm week was a blast. We traveled up to the
Kaya region to a village called Forgui. It was great to get away from Bobo with
all the health volunteers. The education folks were completely green with envy
as they had to stick behind and teach yet another week of model school. We
traveled in a bus to Ouaga, then stopped off at the house of the Country
Director for the Peace Corps. It was a great place that felt like a home back
in the states. It had an actual kitchen, something I hadn't seen in quite some
time. Even the smell of the house was a refreshing change from the normal odors
of Burkina Faso. We then split up into four Peace Corps vehicles for the ride
up to Forgui. I was lucky enough to get one of the ambulances. We sat across
from each other, stretched out and comfortable. We grooved to an '80s tape I
had and the two hour jaunt up north went quickly. We even saw a giraffe, though
it wasn't just "chilling" on its own, completely free as I had
envision my first giraffe encounter. It was in a private mini zoo that ran next
to the road. Not all that different then a zoo back home.
I managed to get a cold right before leaving,
I never imagined I would get a cold in Africa, and by the end of the trip I
managed to pass it along to a few people. So I was coughing and sniffling a
good bit. In fact, I'm still carrying around a wad of TP for nose blows.
We spent the first few days doing the protocol
thing, which means so much here. Mostly meeting everybody and listening to
endless speeches about how grateful they are that we are there. Then we had a
brief training on how to sensiblize (teach) for guinea worm. Then Wednesday was
to be our one big day going out to the families of the area and giving them an
education on the do's and don'ts of GW. So we had a block of about five hours
of time for this. When we got there the sky was a beautiful dark grey. You
could feel the rain in the air, the slight charge that makes me feel like I'm
home. I bet Tara a back rub that it was going to rain while we were
"sensiblizing." She was winning for about five miniutes after we
broke up into our groups (two volunteers, one or two facilitators, and a local
volunteer). Mat (the coolest guy, been fishing in Alaska the last couple of
years), Jean (our head language teacher), Vini (a real sharp dresser), Zabre
Salfo (our local guide), and I made it about a third of a kilometer before the
wind started picking up. Once the wind gets going here, you know the wet stuff
is not far behind. The sky was amazing! I love the sky here. The ripple of
clouds and the ever-darkening blues and grey as you looked to the south made it
seem like I was looking straight down on the Pacific ocean just before a storm.
We ended up running to the first house we were
going to "sens," and hid out in a dark room for about 45 minutes.
Then, finally the rain let up from its buckets and we went outside. The five us
were determined to get our job done. We stood out in the rain for about 45 minutes
running through our spiel on GW and demonstrating proper filtering technique. I
was feeling fine, what's a little rain to me. But here they've gathered the
entire family, about 15 adults and 7 or 8 kids, and the kids are freezing. They
are wearing barely any clothes, and their teeth are just clicking away. All I'm
thinking is that we might be saving them from GW, but they are probably going
to die of hypothermia tonight. We sloshed our way to three more family
compounds after that, as it rained the entire time. At the end we were
completely drenched, a little muddy, and cold. Mat who I figured had been use
to the cold was shaking all over. All he had worn was his GW T-shirt that we
had received that day and a pair of khakis.
Finally after four families and who knows how
many frozen children, we started back to the house we were using as a jump off
point. As we approached, we saw people hoping out of the vans and going into
the house. I mentioned to Matt that everybody looked awfully dry. It turned out
that every group but ours and one other went right back to the jump off point
after the rain started. With our four houses, plus the other group, we managed
to "sensibilize" a total of 7 families that day. I had mixed emotions
on the whole thing. I was proud as hell of my group and the other one, but well
a little disappointed in everybody else. But I could understand if I tried
hard. Before we all left to go "sens." Dee our sante leader told
everybody to come back if it started to rain, which was good advice in respects
to how Mat ended up being sick for the next few days.
What happened next though was really the
highlight of the entire trip. So if any of you have been reading any of the
tour guide type books on Burkina Faso, you've probably seen that during the
raining season, transportation can be difficult. Well we were only 7km from the
CSPS and School in Forgui where we were staying and it ended up taking four
hours to push all four vehicles through the mud. The two four-wheel drive 
ambulances didn't have
as much trouble as the two rear-wheel drive vans, but they all managed to get
stuck at least a couple of times. For the second van, we'd make it about ten
feet then have to dig it out again and push, push, push. Finally the driver
just cut across a corn field to avoid the mess of the roads. So much for those
crops right? But it was so fun to play around in the mud, to traverse the
little rivers that formed everywhere. Just about everybody was caked with mud
by the time we got back to the School.
That night, I felt so completely satisfied
with myself. Mat and I had "sens" like no other group, I had then
done more than my fair share of pushing and digging and what not (though I
loved every minute of it). So when we got back and had showered, I was just
floating. That night itself was the most perfect night since I've gotten here.
It was cool with just a little breeze, and for some reason there wasn't a fly
or mosquito anywhere to pester us (quite the rarity). We all just laid some
mattresses outside, laid side by side and listened to some music on the little
speakers I brought. If every night was like that one, I might never come home.
The next day we woke up early and headed back
to get some last minute "sens" in before we left. We were to have
only two hours, but of course the roads were still in horrible shape so by the
time we made it to our staging point, we had just over an hour. Mat and I just
grabbed the nearest family and did a thorough one hour sens on the GW. After a
little more pushing we made it back to school in time for our closing
good-byes.
It was then a night in Kaya, which was a
blast. We went out to a club called Liberte and danced for hours. Right when we
got there I headed for the floor and started dancing with one of the two girls out
there. By the end of the night, she was grabbing my ass every so often to get
my attention to dance with her. It was later that I found out she was one of
the waitresses of the place. We went back to the Kaya Regional house (a great
place that feel just like a friends apartment back in Seattle - there was even
a small package of Starbucks coffee in the freezer), my shirt was completely
soaked with sweat. Those of us that were the last to return managed to piss off
a few people as we talked for a good two hours, apparently too loudly.
The next day we left for Ouaga. Ouaga was
great, we had a night there. A bunch of us went to the Rec Center (sort of an
adjunct to the American Embassy) and watched movies until about one in the
morning. I was in heaven, I had needed a movie fix for quite some time.
Now we're back here. There's more, but I don't
believe I have the energy to go into it now. You'll just have to buy the book.
Any ways, I should get at least one more
e-mail out before I leave for my village. I'll talk to you all soon.
An bi Kofe (See you later in Jula),
Shaffer
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