Health

- How is your malaria?

- Malaria?

- Yes, how are you feeling?

During training, we spent a week at our respective sites we will be calling home for the next two years (site visit). It was great getting to see my site, but I was unfortunately sick for most of the week. I had a string of visitors at my door welcoming me to the community, and this was generally how the conversations started. My symptoms were a sore throat, runny nose, and fever. Apart from the later, my symptoms were in no way characteristic of malaria. Though I do have more than my fair share of bug bites, I have been taking malaria prophylaxis, using a bug net, and again, did not have the right symptoms. These questions were my introduction to the misconceptions surrounding malaria. It has become synonymous with virtually all forms of sickness. I knew that by coming here I would battle misconceptions, and it had even been the focus of a few sessions during the prior week’s training on HIV/AIDS, but this takes me by surprise. The misconceptions surrounding AIDS have culminated in a disease known as the silent killer. Millions, maybe billions, are spent on awareness campaigns and testing. But the malaria story is different. It suffers from over diagnosis. How can you ever eradicate a disease when everything is called malaria? Similar to AIDS, the simple understanding of transmission is half the public health battle, and because of this, the cultural and social issues play a key role. And again, similar to AIDS, the malaria story is full of controversy. Remember DDT? But unlike AIDS, malaria is propagated and controlled by environmental factors. The cesspools of urine behind the latrine let them breed, the missing mosquito net and holes in the trap door let them in, and the lack of bug spray lets them bite. Each of these widespread problems is an environmental factor. Having the opportunity to deal with these challenges in a village is why I became a volunteer. But as with every problem, it’s a package deal. Social and cultural barriers play a huge role in environmental problems. During my site visit, later in the week, I had the opportunity to visit my village’s clinic. They were welcoming, and it was everything I had pictured a clinic in Africa to be. I’m really excited to help where I can there, and hopefully I can help with malaria efforts.

Each week of training has almost always shown me a new region of Ghana, a new set of potential projects for site, and most importantly, a new level of comfort being here. Training, on the whole, has been fantastic. It’s been a mix of lectures, practical, and being thrown into the culture and Ghanaian life. The logistics since my last post—

Week 5: Counterpart Workshop (an agricultural college in Bunso, Eastern Region) We spent a week at an agricultural college doing an HIV/AIDS workshop with our counterparts.

Week 6: Site Visit (Sirigu, Upper East Region) I won’t talk too much about it here, solely because it will be the setting for nearly every other blog post from here on out. But so far so good!

Week 7: PEPFAR Site Visit (Savelugu, Northern Region) Spent a week at a current volunteer’s site to see a PEPFAR project in action. PEPFAR is the President’s (President Bush) Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I went to a site just north of the Northern Region’s capital, Tamale, and helped with a project coordinated by a few current PCVs. It was an educational movie night with free testing and counseling during the film (or flim as Ghanaians call it).

Week 8: Offsite Tech-Training in Techimon (Techimon, Brong-Ahafo Region) This was the beginning of technical training. We learned about moringa, neem, and organic agriculture. We also went on a beautiful afternoon hike in the hills near the monastery where we were staying.

Week 9: Offsite Tech-Training (Bolgatanga, Upper East Region- my region!) Tech training during this week included beekeeping, visits to government agencies we might work with, and tree identification. During this offsite tech training, our day off was spent visiting a crocodile pond (I touched a crocodile and have pictures to prove it!) and an arts and pottery women’s group that has a visitor’s center in my village, Sirigu, and Kofi Annan visited the site a couple of years ago (pictures to come as well).

Week 10: Offsite Tech-Training in Tamale (Northern Region) We stayed a few days at a really nice hotel outside of Tamale and did shea grafting and visited a mango farm.

Week 11: back to homestay for language and tech-training exam (Maase/Kukurantumi, Eastern Region) We learned about committees that PCV have organized, I can’t wait to get involved.

Next week- Week 12: last week at homestay, and the much anticipated language proficiency interview

Market (or in Gurune- the da’a)

In market life, I’m progressing from one foot in front of the other to having the wherewithal to look around. We were away from our homestay communities for five weeks, and our return brought a small sense of comfort. Instead of seeing the market as a place where local children yelled ‘obroni’ and wooden hutches and boxes lined the way with food I couldn’t name, I now see families at work and an array of consumables. Blue cooler means water. Large metal bucket with plastic lining means chop (local term for local food). Sometimes there is consistency between the days, but a lot of times there isn’t. Coming from a world where shopping is a matter of ‘where’ something is bought, a new element of ‘when’ will now take precedence. I guess the idea of it is similar to something being on sale. The year-round supermarket doesn’t exist here.

Bug Bites

Amid all of the other inconveniences, I have to say, infected bugbites take the cake for the most haranguing obstacle. Before leaving, I would have told you I knew what an infected cut looked like, but being here has taken that to a whole new understanding. I sleep with a mosquito net (when the logistics allow), wear bugspray, and keep hydrocortosone cream within reach at all times of the day, but it’s never enough. They’re painful, sometimes swell, and go weeks without healing, all the while, the bites and itching continue. It’s what makes long sleeves and pants the ideal in a country that nearly borders the equator. With every tickle on my bare skin, I immediately brush away whatever might have been there without even looking at what may or may not have been there. I’ve taken to this so much so that when I spent a night at the Tamale PC sub-office, I brushed something away that had some weight to it, and in the light of a door jam, saw that this had been a lizard.

Mosquitoes are nearly invisible, I’ve only seen about three total. However, I haven’t gone more than a day without seeing a cockroach, spider, or absurdly oversized insect. Of the three, I have to say that the beetles are my least favorite. They are slower than the other species, so I feel obligated to kill them. Without a can of raid, this is a little more difficult with the bigger ones. Chacos or a door jam will do the job, but the worst is that their insides squirt out of their bodies. It really is disgusting. Dealing with bugs is, among other things, the simplest way to deter my being out after dark and using lights at night.

As simple amenities become luxuries, I am starting to feel comfortable here and can't wait to get started at sight. Hope all is well in America!