Nic and I have received some crazy news! Crazy bad and crazy good. First off, my camera was stolen, and may or may not come back. Myself, Nic, one of our friends, and his counterpart have been on the hunt for this and other items that have been stolen from the same place. We are trying to following the proper protocol, but in the meantime I am fresh out of photos. AND this means I lost all of the awesome photos of things being constructed! At first I was really bummed out about this, and I'm still bummed because I don't really have any money and likely will not be able to replace the camera if it doesn't come back. However, I'm feeling a little more at ease about it and have accepted that we were warned about petty thievery, and although it really sucks that it's happened to me twice (ipod four months ago, camera a few days ago), all I can do is try to protect my things better in the future. This particular situation is more difficult because the maid has been taking things, meaning that the normal modes of protection (keeping things in your front pockets, zip your purse or don't carry one, etc) simply do not apply, as this crafty maid stole not only my camera, but also my camera cord, from our bedroom while Nic and I were not in our room. Yikes!
The whole thing has left me feeling a little strange about my role in Senegal. I think it happens from time to time that teenagers (and the maid is a teenage dude) like to rebel, and sometimes they rebel in a way that helps them feel like they have "gotten back at the man," aka their boss or a faceless corporation. Some Arkansans steal from Wal-Mart. Some steal from Dillard's. Some rip off pens and notebooks from the office they are stuck working at, or sneak food to their friends out of the drive through windows at the McDonald's when the manager has scheduled them for crappy hours. It's a way to show the man that they've got some control. The man has money/stuff/whatever, and the man is oppressive, and they can at least feel like they're getting theirs.
In this situation, us Peace Corps volunteers are "the man." We are perceived as rich "haves," and stealing our stuff while cleaning our house isn't hurting us because "we've got plenty." But we aren't a corporation. We're real people with real issues, real needs, and sometimes come from real poverty in America, too. I guess what I'm trying to say is I get the attitude. I just don't agree with it, and I REALLY don't like the thought that I am "the man," but in a way I am- I've got a computer, the government pays my meager but none the less consistent salary, and if I have an emergency I can go to the hospital or the offices in Dakar and not have to think twice about it. Does that make it ok to steal my stuff? Well, no, but do I acknowledge that I may have some social privilege? Yes. How does this make me feel about my role in society as it stands? A little odd. I'm here to help, after all, and not oppress anyone.
Ok, so speaking of emergencies (don't worry, I'm happy and healthy!), Nic and I's site was closed yesterday due to some ongoing problems with water access, housing, and unrealistic expectations. As it turns out Peace Corps volunteers cannot build water towers. We are going to be moving to a new site here in a few weeks- on the other side of the country. We are going to be getting a new house, new P.O. box, and be lined up with new NGOs and counterparts. We will still be in a Pulaar and French speaking area. I will keep everyone updated on the timeline and details. As it stands, Monday or Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday, we will be moving all of our stuff out of Agnam and be placed in one of the regional houses until our real new house is lined up.
And then we're heading South.
Actually, I couldn't be happier about it. It's the break Nic and I have been waiting for. I'm not the type to whine about issues at our site on a public blog, but things have been going wrong for a while, and I am so happy that Peace Corps is taking these issues seriously and is taking the proper course of action. Anybody interested in the details can call me. I am in the end really happy with the solution that Peace Corps has provided for our issues at site. Even with the stolen camera and temporary life in the regional house, I feel very lucky.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Trainings, continued
Alright! Here are some more of the things we did during our two trainings with the Yaajeende program.
We helped construct a permanent "rocket stove" setup in a small concrete room used as a kitchen by the village chief's family. The stove setup has several features that make it a better alternative to the standard mud stove and open fire kitchen setup. The form of the cooking space itself helps pull smoke out of the room (respiratory illness is a big issue for women that cook regularly over open fires, as is common here), thus encouraging good lung health and smoke-free eyes. It's also good for babies and children, as the hot parts of the stove and the fire are off of the ground, which means that babies and children can't walk into them, knock the pot over, or step onto hot coals (ouch!). It conserves wood by insulating the fire area and concentrating the heat, a big money saver in a location where many families have to buy their wood from markets for daily cooking. And then there is my favorite element: It's a back saver! You can cook standing upright instead of bending over a hot pot and fire.
Here's my interpretation:
The brown lines up there are steel rebar. To cook, one slides wood under the rebar. The cooking pot rests on top of the rebar. The smoke release hole is about a 6 inch by 6 inch square directly behind the fire. This also helps create air circulation. The rest of the wall of the construction rises above the height of the pot, thus creating insulation between the pot and the walls. In addition, the reddish-brown areas are filled with sand then sealed with concrete for further insulation. The grey slats up there are bricks that the pot rests on that further insulate the fire. There was an expert construction guy there that was doing the technical construction, our job was mainly to transport materials to and from the site (bricks, buckets of sand, metal parts, etc) and to follow along and learn how to do this on our own. The stove itself is a concrete and brick permanent installation that will require much less maintenance than a typical mud stove. I tried to find some pictures on the internet of something similar, but instead I found this:
Can't win 'em all, I guess.
After searching a while, I finally found this version of what we built, which seems to be much shorter and lacking the food preparation space, but it helps give a better idea of what I am talking about (from http://aeglenn.blogspot.com):
It's still not exactly the same thing, but much closer than a baseball player cut out. We also learned how to construct a food storage and dish drying area that is kid proof, bird proof, and animal proof. Oftentimes animals will see metal bowls, assume there is food in them, and head for them right away to eat all of their contents. This means that animals contaminate the bowls (and their contents, if there is food in them) with all kinds of germs, dirt, manure, etc. This area is off of the ground and screened in, and there are two doors in front of it that you can lift to access the dishes and food inside. Usually, dishes are dried outdoors, and prepared food bowls are often hanging out outside while people wait to eat. Sheep, goats, cows, chickens, and sometimes birds just can't seem to resist them. We helped a team of people construct a fairly sizable one of these at the village chief's house as well. No pictures of this...couldn't find anything like it on google images or in blogs.
After we finished this training, we had a day break in Ourosogie and then attended the food security training at the Hotel Oasis here in Ourosogie. The focus of the training was essentially on understanding and introducing the concept of food security, how does the government function and what role does that have in food security, what the cornerstones of food security are, how to identify the key players in food security programs, and the identification and resolution of food security related issues, including the identification of concrete trainings, methods, techniques, and actions that could be utilized within the community of des Agnams (the C.R. of our site, Agnam Thiodaye). The information itself was typical of any food security discussion- what roles do citizens have in protecting their own food supply? What can be done to improve production? Access to potable water, etc? I was particularly proud of the concrete solutions identified during the sessions, including the use of compost in food production, instructing people on how to make dirty water potable, and increasing access to markets through microfinancing organizations and community discussion. All around great solutions. The yaajeende folks that will be implementing these solutions are stationed in their villages (one specifically being Agnam Thiodaye) for five years, meaning that at least some of these solutions are guaranteed to be brought into the community. The food security training lasted three days (Nic and I missed the first day). It was conducted entirely in French, which was great for technical vocabulary, and I feel confident that the yaajeende folk have been trained properly for the actions they are going to be taking in their communities related to food security.
Alright, I think that effectively sums up our past week. Take care all!
We helped construct a permanent "rocket stove" setup in a small concrete room used as a kitchen by the village chief's family. The stove setup has several features that make it a better alternative to the standard mud stove and open fire kitchen setup. The form of the cooking space itself helps pull smoke out of the room (respiratory illness is a big issue for women that cook regularly over open fires, as is common here), thus encouraging good lung health and smoke-free eyes. It's also good for babies and children, as the hot parts of the stove and the fire are off of the ground, which means that babies and children can't walk into them, knock the pot over, or step onto hot coals (ouch!). It conserves wood by insulating the fire area and concentrating the heat, a big money saver in a location where many families have to buy their wood from markets for daily cooking. And then there is my favorite element: It's a back saver! You can cook standing upright instead of bending over a hot pot and fire.
Here's my interpretation:
The brown lines up there are steel rebar. To cook, one slides wood under the rebar. The cooking pot rests on top of the rebar. The smoke release hole is about a 6 inch by 6 inch square directly behind the fire. This also helps create air circulation. The rest of the wall of the construction rises above the height of the pot, thus creating insulation between the pot and the walls. In addition, the reddish-brown areas are filled with sand then sealed with concrete for further insulation. The grey slats up there are bricks that the pot rests on that further insulate the fire. There was an expert construction guy there that was doing the technical construction, our job was mainly to transport materials to and from the site (bricks, buckets of sand, metal parts, etc) and to follow along and learn how to do this on our own. The stove itself is a concrete and brick permanent installation that will require much less maintenance than a typical mud stove. I tried to find some pictures on the internet of something similar, but instead I found this:
Can't win 'em all, I guess.After searching a while, I finally found this version of what we built, which seems to be much shorter and lacking the food preparation space, but it helps give a better idea of what I am talking about (from http://aeglenn.blogspot.com):
It's still not exactly the same thing, but much closer than a baseball player cut out. We also learned how to construct a food storage and dish drying area that is kid proof, bird proof, and animal proof. Oftentimes animals will see metal bowls, assume there is food in them, and head for them right away to eat all of their contents. This means that animals contaminate the bowls (and their contents, if there is food in them) with all kinds of germs, dirt, manure, etc. This area is off of the ground and screened in, and there are two doors in front of it that you can lift to access the dishes and food inside. Usually, dishes are dried outdoors, and prepared food bowls are often hanging out outside while people wait to eat. Sheep, goats, cows, chickens, and sometimes birds just can't seem to resist them. We helped a team of people construct a fairly sizable one of these at the village chief's house as well. No pictures of this...couldn't find anything like it on google images or in blogs.
After we finished this training, we had a day break in Ourosogie and then attended the food security training at the Hotel Oasis here in Ourosogie. The focus of the training was essentially on understanding and introducing the concept of food security, how does the government function and what role does that have in food security, what the cornerstones of food security are, how to identify the key players in food security programs, and the identification and resolution of food security related issues, including the identification of concrete trainings, methods, techniques, and actions that could be utilized within the community of des Agnams (the C.R. of our site, Agnam Thiodaye). The information itself was typical of any food security discussion- what roles do citizens have in protecting their own food supply? What can be done to improve production? Access to potable water, etc? I was particularly proud of the concrete solutions identified during the sessions, including the use of compost in food production, instructing people on how to make dirty water potable, and increasing access to markets through microfinancing organizations and community discussion. All around great solutions. The yaajeende folks that will be implementing these solutions are stationed in their villages (one specifically being Agnam Thiodaye) for five years, meaning that at least some of these solutions are guaranteed to be brought into the community. The food security training lasted three days (Nic and I missed the first day). It was conducted entirely in French, which was great for technical vocabulary, and I feel confident that the yaajeende folk have been trained properly for the actions they are going to be taking in their communities related to food security.
Alright, I think that effectively sums up our past week. Take care all!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Trainings upon Trainings
Hey all! The past couple of days Nic and I have been traveling around and getting trained. We are tre bien forme, as they say, and I thought I'd share some of our knowledge. Unfortunately, my camera seems to have vanished, so I've done my best to illustrate with Microsoft paint. Let's see how it worked out, shall we?
First, we went on a camping trip with Yaajeende in a village about 30k away from Agnam. The first day was pretty chill, as the actual trainers arrived late, but we did construct something known as a tippy tap, a hygienic water-saving hand washing alternative to the running water/sink combo, something I only see in larger cities or super nice restaurants. We built it outside of the bathroom at the health post (we were camping out in the grassy area by the health post). How it works is that you take a 5 liter bidon, make a small nail hole in the upper part, and tie it to a tight string attached to a large stick that sits at an angle when undisturbed. When you step on the stick, it pulls the rope tight, tilts the bidon, and lets out a nice trickle of water. No contamination is even possible as your hands never touch the handwashing device itself. Here's my interpretation:
(of course, that should say diameter up there)
And here's a much smaller but probably better interpretation that I found on google images... actually, not that much better, because they forgot the soap on a rope!
The next day we started the discussion and construction of a simple hand-dug water filtration system to help prevent the contamination of the soil. We built it at the village chief's house. An issue in our region is that people will often dump oily, greasy, bloody, and otherwise filthy water just into the streets, where kids play in it, horses drink it, and it seeps into the soil. In addition, many people have shower drains that drain directly into the street, and all of the dirty soapy oily shower water puddles in the sandy roads. By digging a filtration pit and directing waste water into the filtration pit, you a) prevent standing water in the street which in turn prevents mosquito breeding and the diseases that come with it and b) protect the soil and potentially wells/ groundwater from oily icky contamination.
Basically, you dig a large pit to the size of your liking, put large rocks on the bottom of it, and layer smaller and smaller rocks until you are layering with pebbles. Then, you attach pipes to your shower drain/waste water drain to guide the water to your filtration system. Then, you bury the pipes and protect them with a concrete encasing at the entrance of the shower/wastewater drain. Next, you build a strong wood thatching to cover the pit. Place a tarp over the entire wood thatching, then cover the whole pit, complete with tarp and wood thatching, with a few inches of dirt until it is level with the surrounding ground. I know the question you might ask: Won't the wood degrade and people will fall into the pit?! We asked our trainers about this, and they said that actually it holds pretty well but it does need to be rebuilt every 12 months.
Here's my interpretation:
And here's the proper, slightly more legit version, thanks again to google:
The concrete for the project was carried the way kings used to be carried in the olden days. A sack of concrete was put over two logs, and and four people carried the concrete by each standing upright while holding one of the four "corners" of the logs. Before my camera vanished I had this awesome video of Nic and 3 of our fellow trainees carrying the concrete and making this awesome grunting sing-song (nevermind the fact that Nic was wearing a Bob Marley turban- yes, those exist here, and yes, you actually see people with them, particularly shepherds for whatever reason), but you'll just have to settle for this:
Let's not forget about the olden days:
(That Egyptian king = concrete. Those guys carrying him = Nic et al)
We also learned how to make a permanent smoke-cutting health-enhancing stove, but, unfortunately, I am tired and will just have to spend some time writing about it tommorow or the next day. It feels really good to have contributed to concrete, practical solutions in the village of our camp site. Have a great evening, all!
First, we went on a camping trip with Yaajeende in a village about 30k away from Agnam. The first day was pretty chill, as the actual trainers arrived late, but we did construct something known as a tippy tap, a hygienic water-saving hand washing alternative to the running water/sink combo, something I only see in larger cities or super nice restaurants. We built it outside of the bathroom at the health post (we were camping out in the grassy area by the health post). How it works is that you take a 5 liter bidon, make a small nail hole in the upper part, and tie it to a tight string attached to a large stick that sits at an angle when undisturbed. When you step on the stick, it pulls the rope tight, tilts the bidon, and lets out a nice trickle of water. No contamination is even possible as your hands never touch the handwashing device itself. Here's my interpretation:
(of course, that should say diameter up there)And here's a much smaller but probably better interpretation that I found on google images... actually, not that much better, because they forgot the soap on a rope!
The next day we started the discussion and construction of a simple hand-dug water filtration system to help prevent the contamination of the soil. We built it at the village chief's house. An issue in our region is that people will often dump oily, greasy, bloody, and otherwise filthy water just into the streets, where kids play in it, horses drink it, and it seeps into the soil. In addition, many people have shower drains that drain directly into the street, and all of the dirty soapy oily shower water puddles in the sandy roads. By digging a filtration pit and directing waste water into the filtration pit, you a) prevent standing water in the street which in turn prevents mosquito breeding and the diseases that come with it and b) protect the soil and potentially wells/ groundwater from oily icky contamination.Basically, you dig a large pit to the size of your liking, put large rocks on the bottom of it, and layer smaller and smaller rocks until you are layering with pebbles. Then, you attach pipes to your shower drain/waste water drain to guide the water to your filtration system. Then, you bury the pipes and protect them with a concrete encasing at the entrance of the shower/wastewater drain. Next, you build a strong wood thatching to cover the pit. Place a tarp over the entire wood thatching, then cover the whole pit, complete with tarp and wood thatching, with a few inches of dirt until it is level with the surrounding ground. I know the question you might ask: Won't the wood degrade and people will fall into the pit?! We asked our trainers about this, and they said that actually it holds pretty well but it does need to be rebuilt every 12 months.
Here's my interpretation:
And here's the proper, slightly more legit version, thanks again to google:
The concrete for the project was carried the way kings used to be carried in the olden days. A sack of concrete was put over two logs, and and four people carried the concrete by each standing upright while holding one of the four "corners" of the logs. Before my camera vanished I had this awesome video of Nic and 3 of our fellow trainees carrying the concrete and making this awesome grunting sing-song (nevermind the fact that Nic was wearing a Bob Marley turban- yes, those exist here, and yes, you actually see people with them, particularly shepherds for whatever reason), but you'll just have to settle for this:
Let's not forget about the olden days:
(That Egyptian king = concrete. Those guys carrying him = Nic et al)We also learned how to make a permanent smoke-cutting health-enhancing stove, but, unfortunately, I am tired and will just have to spend some time writing about it tommorow or the next day. It feels really good to have contributed to concrete, practical solutions in the village of our camp site. Have a great evening, all!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
I stole your weave...
Hello all! I apologize for not blogging the past few months. I have been spending a lot of time putting together private emails and writing personal letters, and have neglected the public forum. Shame on me! Anyway, I am back with a newfound urge to blog.
Things have been very very crazy up north! Nic and I have begun working with the Yaajeende program, a program in a handful of regions in Senegal, sponsored by the US government, and with a focus on Pulaar speakers in Senegal (and Pulaar is of course our specialty!). The program has several pillars which align perfectly with our work in the Peace Corps, specifically, animal husbandry, infant and maternal health, and agriculture. The animal husbandry portion of the program is very much needed in this region, and the program itself is based on the Heifer model (see www.heifer.org for more information). In fact, USAID and Heifer are working together on this particular project. Owning animals, especially large ones like cows and lots of them, is a huge status symbol. Animals = $$$$. People often just let them roam around the area, and these large herds of sheep, goats, and cows, sometimes unattended, eat gardens, destroy grain crops, and annihilate low to the ground or young trees. One of the benefits of the Heifer model is that the donation of an animal includes education- what are sustainable ways to manage your animals? How can what is typically considered to be an animal waste be used to improve one's way of living? How can you transform something that is detrimental to the already-eroded soil and degraded environment into something that improves soil quality? The work isn't easy, but the transformation is possible. Teaching people how to properly manage those herds of cows, goats, and sheep is a necessary step in the right direction towards a healthier, greener (literally
- it's all sand out here) landscape. It doesn't matter how many gardens are planted if every fence is trampled and every little sprout eaten by a hungry herd of zebus. Education is key!
(Exhibit A: Adorable but deadly baby zebu cow. This little creature will soon grow into a crop killer worse than any cloud of locusts!)
We've also had some great, as well as difficult, interactions in our home and with our host family and friends. One of my earliest memories of arriving in site was one day when I was playing with my host sister and her friend, who is around 4 years old (parents in general aren't fully aware of their children's ages, nor their own. Oftentimes you will get an estimate of the age of a child when you ask the child or the parent, and sometimes they will give you different answers. This can be tricky!). The small children in the area have oftentimes never seen a white person before, and have no shame about pulling my hair, tugging my skin, sticking their faces on my chest and inhaling- imagine how a small child treats a new stuffed animal- and that day was no exception. The girl was pulling my hair, brushing it around with her fingers, picking it with a stick, and yelling something at me. "Mes maa yodaani! Mes maa yodaani!"
After a few seconds of processing, I realized she was yelling: "Your weave is ugly! Your weave is ugly!" (Mes being the word typically used for fake hair, wigs, or weaves). Not only did this little girl think my hair was fake, she thought it was ugly!
(Exhibit B: How small Senegalese girls perceive my appearance. Actually, my hair has been falling out recently. Really need to keep on the vitamins. )
Fast forward a few months. It's boiling hot outside and water for luxurious hair washing is hard to come by where we are, so I decide to cut off my ponytail. I have used hair in gardens and in potted plants before, so as gross as it may sound, I decided to put my ponytail in our back window to eventually put in a garden. Not too much later, I noticed it was gone from the window. I had assumed Nic had thrown it out, a very reasonable thing to do to with a dusty old ponytail. I went outside to watch the sky- it looked like a sandstorm was coming- and was approached by one of the neighborhood girls that hangs out at our house. She starts talking about my weave. She pulls at my hair, and I tell her, no, no, that's my hair, that's not a weave! And then she explains that she stole my weave. "What?" "I stole your weave! Your weave!" She makes a ponytails with her hands, and it clicks. She stole my ponytail from the window! ...and now I am so sure it is being woven into the hair of small girls all over the neighborhood...
Either way around, I have been weighing lots of babies lately! One of the best parts of it is seeing mothers giggle when their babies are being weighed, but one of the scariest parts is weighing babies that are severely underweight and feeling helpless to do anything about it. One of the babies that I weighed was 2.9 kilos, or a little over 6 pounds, and several months old. TOO. SMALL. It's heartbreaking. But the doctor, the midwives, and the pharmacist that are around do a great job of providing individual consultations for each mother and baby, and exclusive breastfeeding are mentioned for the first 6 months without even a deep breath being taken. Mothers want healthy babies, and the health staff that I work with wants healthy patients, so it works out.
I also got to experience the crazyness that is a healthpost childbirth. I was with two midwives in Agnam Goly, a neighboring village that is about 3 k, or a 45 minute walk if you're in a fancy skirt. Which I was. Anyway, after a day of evaluating the post, watching the flow of people, and finally sitting down to some tea, the midwives pulled me into the back room to watch them deliver a tiny baby girl (3 kilos, newborn and bigger than the baby I weighed at the health center. :( ). It was in some ways a great experience. I was proud of the new mother, the baby seemed healthy, and things went as well as they could. I was shocked, however, by the lack of supplies. This health post was cleaner and nicer than home delivery, but there was only one clamp for the umbilical cord, dirty old foam mattresses with no sheets or pillows for the new mother to rest on, and when a hole was broken in one of the midwife's gloves, she just tied the hole with a piece from an old pair of gloves. Supplies are very limited, the rooms are dusty and dingy, and pieces of surgical equipment that we just use once and throw away in the states are boiled or bleached and used again and again and again. I feel that these midwives are competent and did a good job with the supplies that they have. I also feel that the system is broken if well-trained health care workers have to provide care with substandard, broken, dirty, or nonexistent supplies. The people that I know are well aware of the shortcomings of the system as well. They tell me that they need new this, new that, and show off the various countries that have donated medicines or supplies (this antibiotic is from France! Germany! Belgium!), and at the same time acknowledge that there simply isn't enough money in the local system to replace what gets old and to buy what needs buying. I don't think throwing more money into the system from outside will help it, but I'm not sure what will either.
Oh yeah! And there was a wedding at the village chief's house! Good times. I will post pictures on my Facebook for interested folks.
Have a great one, everybody!
Things have been very very crazy up north! Nic and I have begun working with the Yaajeende program, a program in a handful of regions in Senegal, sponsored by the US government, and with a focus on Pulaar speakers in Senegal (and Pulaar is of course our specialty!). The program has several pillars which align perfectly with our work in the Peace Corps, specifically, animal husbandry, infant and maternal health, and agriculture. The animal husbandry portion of the program is very much needed in this region, and the program itself is based on the Heifer model (see www.heifer.org for more information). In fact, USAID and Heifer are working together on this particular project. Owning animals, especially large ones like cows and lots of them, is a huge status symbol. Animals = $$$$. People often just let them roam around the area, and these large herds of sheep, goats, and cows, sometimes unattended, eat gardens, destroy grain crops, and annihilate low to the ground or young trees. One of the benefits of the Heifer model is that the donation of an animal includes education- what are sustainable ways to manage your animals? How can what is typically considered to be an animal waste be used to improve one's way of living? How can you transform something that is detrimental to the already-eroded soil and degraded environment into something that improves soil quality? The work isn't easy, but the transformation is possible. Teaching people how to properly manage those herds of cows, goats, and sheep is a necessary step in the right direction towards a healthier, greener (literally
- it's all sand out here) landscape. It doesn't matter how many gardens are planted if every fence is trampled and every little sprout eaten by a hungry herd of zebus. Education is key!
(Exhibit A: Adorable but deadly baby zebu cow. This little creature will soon grow into a crop killer worse than any cloud of locusts!)
We've also had some great, as well as difficult, interactions in our home and with our host family and friends. One of my earliest memories of arriving in site was one day when I was playing with my host sister and her friend, who is around 4 years old (parents in general aren't fully aware of their children's ages, nor their own. Oftentimes you will get an estimate of the age of a child when you ask the child or the parent, and sometimes they will give you different answers. This can be tricky!). The small children in the area have oftentimes never seen a white person before, and have no shame about pulling my hair, tugging my skin, sticking their faces on my chest and inhaling- imagine how a small child treats a new stuffed animal- and that day was no exception. The girl was pulling my hair, brushing it around with her fingers, picking it with a stick, and yelling something at me. "Mes maa yodaani! Mes maa yodaani!"
After a few seconds of processing, I realized she was yelling: "Your weave is ugly! Your weave is ugly!" (Mes being the word typically used for fake hair, wigs, or weaves). Not only did this little girl think my hair was fake, she thought it was ugly!
(Exhibit B: How small Senegalese girls perceive my appearance. Actually, my hair has been falling out recently. Really need to keep on the vitamins. )Fast forward a few months. It's boiling hot outside and water for luxurious hair washing is hard to come by where we are, so I decide to cut off my ponytail. I have used hair in gardens and in potted plants before, so as gross as it may sound, I decided to put my ponytail in our back window to eventually put in a garden. Not too much later, I noticed it was gone from the window. I had assumed Nic had thrown it out, a very reasonable thing to do to with a dusty old ponytail. I went outside to watch the sky- it looked like a sandstorm was coming- and was approached by one of the neighborhood girls that hangs out at our house. She starts talking about my weave. She pulls at my hair, and I tell her, no, no, that's my hair, that's not a weave! And then she explains that she stole my weave. "What?" "I stole your weave! Your weave!" She makes a ponytails with her hands, and it clicks. She stole my ponytail from the window! ...and now I am so sure it is being woven into the hair of small girls all over the neighborhood...
Either way around, I have been weighing lots of babies lately! One of the best parts of it is seeing mothers giggle when their babies are being weighed, but one of the scariest parts is weighing babies that are severely underweight and feeling helpless to do anything about it. One of the babies that I weighed was 2.9 kilos, or a little over 6 pounds, and several months old. TOO. SMALL. It's heartbreaking. But the doctor, the midwives, and the pharmacist that are around do a great job of providing individual consultations for each mother and baby, and exclusive breastfeeding are mentioned for the first 6 months without even a deep breath being taken. Mothers want healthy babies, and the health staff that I work with wants healthy patients, so it works out.
I also got to experience the crazyness that is a healthpost childbirth. I was with two midwives in Agnam Goly, a neighboring village that is about 3 k, or a 45 minute walk if you're in a fancy skirt. Which I was. Anyway, after a day of evaluating the post, watching the flow of people, and finally sitting down to some tea, the midwives pulled me into the back room to watch them deliver a tiny baby girl (3 kilos, newborn and bigger than the baby I weighed at the health center. :( ). It was in some ways a great experience. I was proud of the new mother, the baby seemed healthy, and things went as well as they could. I was shocked, however, by the lack of supplies. This health post was cleaner and nicer than home delivery, but there was only one clamp for the umbilical cord, dirty old foam mattresses with no sheets or pillows for the new mother to rest on, and when a hole was broken in one of the midwife's gloves, she just tied the hole with a piece from an old pair of gloves. Supplies are very limited, the rooms are dusty and dingy, and pieces of surgical equipment that we just use once and throw away in the states are boiled or bleached and used again and again and again. I feel that these midwives are competent and did a good job with the supplies that they have. I also feel that the system is broken if well-trained health care workers have to provide care with substandard, broken, dirty, or nonexistent supplies. The people that I know are well aware of the shortcomings of the system as well. They tell me that they need new this, new that, and show off the various countries that have donated medicines or supplies (this antibiotic is from France! Germany! Belgium!), and at the same time acknowledge that there simply isn't enough money in the local system to replace what gets old and to buy what needs buying. I don't think throwing more money into the system from outside will help it, but I'm not sure what will either.
Oh yeah! And there was a wedding at the village chief's house! Good times. I will post pictures on my Facebook for interested folks.
Have a great one, everybody!
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