Sexual Health, etc.

Hello All,
If you start wondering why this post is not as well edited as the last one, I’ll tell you that my computer went to heaven recently. I no longer have much time to write, but hopefully that will change.

I think dust was the culprit. Now the rains have come and there is no more dust. The rainy season is the best! Now temperatures only get up to the 90’s and the rain cuts them down. Sometimes I can even sleep with a sheet. This month has been all about reproductive health.  I also had nice vacay to the South of Senegal for the 4th where I enjoyed a mud fight and biking to waterfalls, and I’ve welcomed the newest member of my family.  
And my scholarship applications are finally in!

It was a huge amount of work. It was really difficult to recommend to PC which girl’s should get the second scholarship because I live in a small town and I am somehow connected to each family. One of the students is the daughter of my co-worker at the clinic, for instance. Thanks to Sharon Kelly, nine girls in my town will not have to worry about the cost of school next year.

I couldn’t have finished the scholarship program without the help of the teachers.I like working with the junior high teachers because they come from different parts of Senegal. Our rural school couldn’t be more different than the inner city schools where I worked in in the Western Addition, San Francisco and Brooklyn. However, all the my schools face the challenges like lack of resources and student absenteeism.

One teacher, Madame Mboyjong (I’m misspelling her Jola name) is now employed by Peace Corps as my French teacher. Madame M and I meet on her roof to have French classes in which I usually just ask her about her opinions on the education system of Senegal. In our last class, she told me that in many homes, families eat only once a day. She has witnessed many of these kids come to school and faint in the middle of class. Madame M also runs Club Education de la Vie Familiale. This is the sex ed club I mentioned previously. She said that one of the reasons why her girls get pregnant and STD’s is because they have older boyfriends who are taxi drivers in the big city. These boys will buy the affection of the girl’s with bean sandwiches. These bean sandwiches may be the explanation behind some unwanted pregnancies in town. Also, many teenager girls are expected to get pregnant. I was congratulating my colleague and his wife the other day when they told me she wasn’t fasting for Rammadan because she was pregnant. Then I found out she was 17.  

Side note: for those of you who have not done Rammadan, it’s not fun and not easy. Not drinking water for 14 hours in a humid climate it not safe. Lot’s of farmers get heat stroke during this time of year. When I go to the market in the morning (which has all but closed during Rammadan) and try to quickly and discreetly buy my mangoes, a few people will ask me if I’m fasting. Mind you, I don’t know these people and there asking me if I’m fasting.

I say, “No, I’m Christian.”

“Well when do you fast?”

“Never.”
My host mom just tells me to lie and say I’m fasting.

HIV Ed

One cool thing my clinic taught me how to do this month was to give Rapid HIV tests. The first day I did them I was terrified. My nurse, Matt Cisse, asked me if I want to do HIV consultations with him. Bien sur! My clinic is actively trying to cut down on mother to infant transmission, so we offer pregnant women the test.

When our first mother came in, I was very nervous. My nurse had me ask her what she knew about AIDs.

“It’s Bad,” she said.

We then explained how HIV is spread and if she wanted to take the test. She obliged. My nurse pulled out the small kit and did the blood test right there on our dusty hospital bed as our patient balanced her toddler on her lap. The three minutes it took to get the results were tense for all three of us. My nervousness made me want to talk, but what could I say in Wolof?  Slowly the blood seeped into the “negative” line. Phew.

The next mom came in, she was 20. Like the first woman, she knew that HIV was transmitted by sex, but did not know about transmission via breastfeeding or labor. After our chat my nurse informed me that I would be giving the next test. Qoui? I am not exactly a health professional. The test looked easy enough, but I’d heard stories of volunteers pricking themselves with these needles after giving the test. But, I wanted to learn to how to something for my community, so I took out the needle, stabbed her and took her blood. Collecting the blood was a little tricky and it almost dripped on the floor. She did not like being stabbed. In the next excruciating three minutes, I got nervous again. How do you tell someone they could be HIV positive right before they have a baby? In a country with no baby bottles, no formula and expensive anti-retrovirals, people don’t realize that you can live with AIDS instead of just die from it. I told myself, her chances of having HIV a less that 1 in a 100. She’ll be negative. Right?

And voila.  Another negative.  During the next ten tests, I asked to women if they had any questions for our nurse while we were waiting for the results. This cut the tension and seemed to me like a better use of all of our time as we waited. That day, all our moms were negative. It occurred to me later that if I continue to give tests, I will eventually have to tell someone that they are positive.

Another fun thing I did with the clinic was distribute Trachoma meds to nearby villages. Every employee at the clinic including our receptionist descended upon the greater community to give out pills to prevent blindness.

Matt and I went door to door for several hours and gave out our fluorescent pink pills to several hundred people in one day. The funniest thing was that no one knew how to take a pill. Most people chewed on the pills and then grimaced as they swallowed without any water. Dozens of children just simply threw up pink slime. I know whose going blind now!

Actually, we did see a number of blind adults that day. At one home, the children had crusty eyes. Matt explained that it was too late for those kids, but we gave them the pills anyway.

The Fourth

Kedougou is in South of Senegal, at the confluence of Mali and Guinee, Conakry. PC Senegal has an annual fourth of July festival there. Not being much of a patriot, I still enjoyed the excuse to get rowdy with people from the homeland.

On the 4th, about half of the 250 Senegalese volunteers wore American flags to an all day party, topped with two pit roasted pigs. Pig in a Muslim country is the ultimate decadence. As the heavens opened in the only tropical forest region of the country, we continued dancing to American pop music and began throwing mud at each other and giving mud hugs. At sunset, I was surprised to find out that we had the country’s entire supply of fireworks on hand. So we shot fireworks and sang “Olde lang syne.” I realize now that’s a New Year’s song

Also on this trip, I biked 25 K with a new Canadian French friend to a volunteer’s site for a “work day.” There we painted a lovely mural with the help of our local artist, Jubal, and we planted trees and fixed two wells. Not too shabby for one morning. We celebrated with a hike to a nice waterfall.

The next day my friend and I went inter-tubing in the river Gambia.

These little retreats are very refreshing for my psyche. I can’t tell you how often people look me in the eyes and call me racial slurs, beyond just remarking on my skin color. Not cool, Senegal. If you want tourists to come and spend money in your country, be nice.

On a final note, the Diop family has received a new member this week. MY KITTEN. A gift from volunteer Jim Bick. Kitten and I rode in a car together for 3 hours to get to my site, and kitten was about ready to end it all when we pulled up to my door. Now I am taking tips from my American dad on how to train him to be a mouse hunter.  

A la prochaine