To start I wanted to include one photo of our team and my adviser taken the day before he left in Machenge Village...smiles all around.
It was bound to happen at some point. From handling hundreds of flies each week that are carrying thousands of bacteria, to eating sweet, raw tomatoes, to stopping habitually alongside the road for grilled field corn that has been touched, examined, and inspected by at least a dozen potential customers, all using their unwashed hands. After a week of an upset stomach, headaches, not being able to go to the bathroom (which already was a problem) and generally feeling weak I finally went to the dispensary run by the Catholic nuns.
Compared to most dispensaries in rural Tanzania it is remarkably clean and welcoming with vases of frangipani are in every room. The place was so inviting that while waiting for my blood results I decided to take a nap on the cot. A stream of patients kept walking by the room where I slept, staring at the "mzungu" (white person), who was seemingly comatose. The room also happened to be where they were conducting the new point of use (POU) HIV tests. Unfortunately, many who had come to be tested were positive, but at least they had come at all as many are afraid to know their status. When I asked the nuns about HIV they said the largest prevalence is among government officials, especially those in the Ministry of Education. Much to my dismay I was told that secondary school girls are often "hired" by these government officials.
The results of the blood tests showed I had typhoid fever, a bacterial infection most commonly found where there is poor sanitation and where water is contaminated by fecal material. I am not alone as typhoid fever affects over 20 million people each year and causes 200,000 deaths, mostly in children less than five years old. Of course it does not take a PhD researcher to tell someone that the sanitation in Tanzania is poor, but I certainly have had a close and personal experience with many of the nasty latrines found in the villages.
Now back on the mend my team and I are still out and about. Two days ago a deep well (360 feet) was drilled in Manyata, a village where people had to travel up to 7 km to obtain water or buy incredibly expensive 20 liter buckets from vendors. The district engineer and his assistant along with a videographer hired from Dodoma came to watch the well being drilled.
The videographer took his job very seriously walking around in a suit with a big microphone (which I think was more for effect than actual function) interviewing villagers and officials. I too was included in the interviews and I just hope my broken Swahili was at least comprehensible. There were many shrieks of joy from the villagers, dancing, and lots of discussion about how Manyata had really "uchangamka"-woken up.
Now the challenge remains to maintain the system, but for now everyone is certainly filled with joy.
Otherwise life continues on much the same in Kongwa, only it becomes hotter each day as we move into the peak of the dry season. The good news is the usally stark and barren baobabs are flowering beautiful white blossoms. This means rain is on the way!
Free Rider
Riding in the back of a truck
packed with charcoal and mysterious oil drums
a man in a suit peers out into the savannah
with dignified curiosity.
Compared to most dispensaries in rural Tanzania it is remarkably clean and welcoming with vases of frangipani are in every room. The place was so inviting that while waiting for my blood results I decided to take a nap on the cot. A stream of patients kept walking by the room where I slept, staring at the "mzungu" (white person), who was seemingly comatose. The room also happened to be where they were conducting the new point of use (POU) HIV tests. Unfortunately, many who had come to be tested were positive, but at least they had come at all as many are afraid to know their status. When I asked the nuns about HIV they said the largest prevalence is among government officials, especially those in the Ministry of Education. Much to my dismay I was told that secondary school girls are often "hired" by these government officials.
The results of the blood tests showed I had typhoid fever, a bacterial infection most commonly found where there is poor sanitation and where water is contaminated by fecal material. I am not alone as typhoid fever affects over 20 million people each year and causes 200,000 deaths, mostly in children less than five years old. Of course it does not take a PhD researcher to tell someone that the sanitation in Tanzania is poor, but I certainly have had a close and personal experience with many of the nasty latrines found in the villages.
Now back on the mend my team and I are still out and about. Two days ago a deep well (360 feet) was drilled in Manyata, a village where people had to travel up to 7 km to obtain water or buy incredibly expensive 20 liter buckets from vendors. The district engineer and his assistant along with a videographer hired from Dodoma came to watch the well being drilled.
The videographer took his job very seriously walking around in a suit with a big microphone (which I think was more for effect than actual function) interviewing villagers and officials. I too was included in the interviews and I just hope my broken Swahili was at least comprehensible. There were many shrieks of joy from the villagers, dancing, and lots of discussion about how Manyata had really "uchangamka"-woken up.
Now the challenge remains to maintain the system, but for now everyone is certainly filled with joy.Otherwise life continues on much the same in Kongwa, only it becomes hotter each day as we move into the peak of the dry season. The good news is the usally stark and barren baobabs are flowering beautiful white blossoms. This means rain is on the way!
Free Rider
Riding in the back of a truck
packed with charcoal and mysterious oil drums
a man in a suit peers out into the savannah
with dignified curiosity.
1 comment:
Maggie,
It has been a pleasure reading your stories and adventure in Tanzania and may you recover well from the typhoid fever. Godspeed.
wui seng
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