| Busera Distribution complete! |

On Sunday we transported 70 nets to Dindefelo, which is 4 Km from Busera. We passed the evening at Badgi's house. He is the Dindefelo nurse that came with us to the distribution and has given us valuable data regarding local malaria rates. That evening we spoke to the chief of Busera and made the plan for the following days distribution.

After breakfast we bike down to Busera, with some villagers helping with the nets. When we arrived in the village a group of chairs had been placed in a semi-circle under the shade of a large Baobab tree. There we sat with Badji, his local health officers, and the chief of Busera. Slowly the women of the village arrived and took their seats on logs or mats, preferably in the shade.

I started first by greeting the village and began to explain the nature of our project, who we are and why we do what we do. Badji repeated much of what i said for emphasis and clarity. Then andy stood up and talked about the care of nets, their use, and their benefits. After Andy, badji and his health officers spoke briefly about vaccination, malaria testing, symptoms, pregnancy and sanitation.

After talking for a bit and making sure that people understood, which can be tough, we proceeded with the distribution. One of the health officers held the list of all the adult females in the village and went down the list calling out names like Salumata Kata or Miriama Diallo. Each woman would come up with her identity card, as the health officer wrote down her identity number, Andy and I were opening the packages and labeling them with the NETLIFE logo and the date.

Distributions always give me a rush. Everything seems to make sense for a while. It is local custom to celebrate happy events with a little dance party, and of course Andy and I participated, giving our renditions of the traditional Danes and throwing in some American originals, the lawn-mower, the butterfly and of course the sprinkler.

After the distribution we were invited for lunch. It is particularly on special occasions that meat is prepared in the village, where livestock is often minimal. In this case 2 chickens were prepared for one lunch! We had a busera special concoction consisting of rice, with a sauce made of chicken, spices, lots of oil, onions and macaroni noodles!

Next up: travel to afia tomorrow to start distributions for afia, asoni, afia point, wandintu, and darsalam.

-jesse

| Jellies and shoe welding |

Remember Jellies? Those classic white or clear plastic shoes that all the girls wore in the 80's or was it the 90's?

Everyone in rural Senegal wears jellies. They love them for rainy season and soccer. Last week i watch Bocar Diallo, the chief of Thokiethan do some shoe welding.

Shoe welding consists of heating up a knife in the fuel wood that is cooking dinner and using it to melt the plastic of the shoe. What happens is that the straps on these shoes eventually break off the sole. Shoe welding can be done repeatedly to keeps a shoe going for years.

A pair of jellies goes for around 2 dollars in the local markets and lasts one person for many years, with proper repairs.

-jesse

| Back in Kedougou | jesse

Well, we are back in kedougou again. We have been in the village for the last few days. Rainy season is upon us, lowering temperatures and providing ample breeding ground for mosquitoes. We spent some time in Thokie Than (pronounced choky chan), Andy's old village, which was near some villages of concern. This morning we got up at dawn and biked off to Petassi, passing beneath some beautiful bluffs. In Petassi we found that nearly everyone in this village had mosquito nets! We were pleasantly surprised that one of the local campaigns had reached this village. Generally, all the nets end up near the larger towns and don't make it out that far. We stealthily avoiding discussing our current project with the villagers and simply greeted the chief and some acquaintances.

We moved onto Boundacoundi, where we delivered letters from their much loved form peace corps volunteer, Meta Diallo (Holly Parker). The chief was very excited to hear about our project and will be spending the next week collecting a census of adults in need of nets.

In thokie than we picked up a traveler, Salu Diallo. Salu is an 11 year old boy that has a bad seconday syphilis infection in his feet. His feet have been dry and cracking for years, leading to bleeding and opportunistic infection. He cannot work in the fields often because his feet hurt him so much. After discussing his problem with Mos, the local nurse, we determined the cause of his infection. However, the medicine that he needs is only available in Kedougou. So, we brought him down, taking shifts with him on the back of our bikes. Salu is great to have around, he has been a help with our meetings and helped us determine how many people in petassi had nets. His gentle manner and his huge smile are striking.

Next up: Distribution in Busera, followed by Asoni, Afia Magazine, Afia Point, Wandintu, and Darsalam.

Dindefelo

On Wednesday, Jesse and I set out for Dindefelo, a southern village with another health post and a beautiful waterfall. Our ride was uneventful until Jesse bit it after running into a bush. Covered with dirt, he continued on. Then at the base of a small hill, Jesse's pedal hit a rock, turned him sideways and sent him into ... sort of a cartwheel that neither started or ended gracefully. I saw the whole thing perfectly. Although his fall was spectacular, only his knee, elbow and pride were mildly scraped. After yelling at the earth and perfecting his french, Jesse got right back up and pedaled on to Dindefelo, took a nick bucket bath and is just fine.

Dindefelo was sort of like a day spa for us. After being there for a short while, we got our first taste of rainy season. The cool winds blew in and the sky opened up. Despite local custom to avoid getting drenched, the local nurse, Badji, had learned from old Peace Corps Volunteers the benefits of letting himself get soaked. He coaxed us to empty our pockets and take a rain shower. At first, the rain was freezing, but soon it was just plain wonderful. At the side of the health post building, channeled gushes of water ran off the aluminum roof. The water slapped the top of our heads as we found bars of soap to wash our clothes and bodies simultaneously. All the people, soaked through our clothes, washed each other's backs. I truly believe it's the first time I've felt clean since I've been here. That night we slept through the post rain coolness. The next morning, after village bread and coffee, we tried to take a nap. Instead, we were attacked by three children whose mode of assalt was massage. As if to try to disturb us, they grabbed our feet (which are somewhat frightening lately) and deftly pulled, stretched, pushed and cracked every tissue and joint in our feet. They then walked on our backs and limbs for the next 45 minutes. Some kid even found a way to massage my back with one foot and crack the bones in my hand with the toes on his other foot. Heaven. Heaven. Heaven.

P.S. We also met with the chief of Buusura, who we intend on working with as part of our project. We discussed preparations needed for a distribution, which went quite well.

Take care out there. - Andy

Scouting Out Netlife Villages

After some bike problems, we had some luck go our way. In Kedougou, we found some French surgeons working out in a hospital in a village called Nenefecha. These very nice gentlemen gave us transport out that way and gave a very nice tour of the hospital, including its pharmacy, laboratory and operation room. They told stories about some of the crazy things they had seen in Senegal and all over the world. When evening came, Jesse and I walked the hour and a half path to Asoni. There we greeted many people and toured huts in the area, looking for mosquito nets. We were also getting an idea of how many beds were in huts compared to how many people lived in that compound of huts. This way, we found a good way to estimate mosquito net need.

For example, in a compound of eight huts, there were 9 beds and 28 people using the huts and beds. 8 of these people were married women and 1 was a village elder without a wife. So in order to cover all 28 people, we will plan on giving a net to every married women, and if we find an older guy without a wife, we'll give him one too, so everyone has access to a net.

After this tour, we met with village elders, including a man named Fula, who was the village health liasion. Together we talked about village needs and a plan to distribute mosquito nets in the area. They agreed to make a census of married women in the village with consideration for elders without wives. Needless to say, they were very excited and thankful to hear this news, since they had such difficulties with malaria in the past few years. Overall, the discussion went very well, and we agreed to distribute the nets toward the end of the month.

On our way back from Asoni to the hospital town of Nenefecha, Jesse and I got lost on the wrong path for about two ours. Our legs are very sore, but we were fine and ended up finding a ride back to Kedougou. Now we are planning some efforts in some other villages including Patassi, Boundoucoundi and Sylling. Take care out there. - Andy

First Village Experience

Jesse and I started our biking tour by travelling to Bandafassi, a large village where our villages local health post is stationed. We got up early to avoid burning my arms any more, which apparently can get burned even when it is not in direct sunlight. A few rains had fallen before we arrived, but it has not rained for about a week. The roads are dry and the terrain, which was once dry, red earth, now has a velvet of green about it. In Bandafassi, we met with the nurse, Mactar Mansaly, who has been working there for over 30 years and is vastly popular with all the people of the surrounding villages. He showed us around the health post and allowed us to see what kinds of tests and treatments are available. To our surprise, his health post is trialing a new test for malaria. It looks like a home pregnancy test. You put a drop of blood and some testing reagent in one side and it draws the fluid across a paper like medium. If you have one line, you do not have malaria. If you have two lines, you have malaria and are treated. He is also sending blood smears of these people to be examined at a laboratory to verify that this is a good test. From his experience so far, he has had good results. Mansaly also allowed us to look at his records of all of these malaria tests he's done since mid-August. From that list, we got a general idea of which villages had the most positive tests of malaria. The malaria treatment there seems to be up to current standards of good treatment.
After Bandafassi, we continued to my old village, where I lived from 2000 to 2002. They were excited and crazed, and we were soon surrounded by just about every kid in the village. We spent the next day in Thioke Thian and talked to village leaders about our last distribution there and how they feel the village has changed. We reaffirmed education in that village, urging people to use the nets in the months after rainy season is over, because of a rise in positive malaria tests in September and October. We also spoke with my old health contacts in the village. These were people that I started training to be health care teachers when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Sarah Hohl was the volunteer in Thioke Thian after I was done, and she refined their teaching skills to a theatrical science. There is a group of about 5 Thioke Thian villagers that put on a great skit about a pregnant woman and a man who see the effects of malaria. They agreed to help us by coming with us to the next set of villages we want to help.
Our next step was supposed to be Nenefecha (near Namel on the map), but Jesse's gear changer on his bike fell apart when we were just about to start a mountainous path. We opted to come back here to Kedougou to get things fixed. It seems like we've fixed the bike well enough to function, so we'll be ok. Tomorrow, we'll hit Nenefecha to look for these very interesting French surgeons we met that work at the hospital there. Be in peace. - Andy

| Kedougou | Day 1

Our 14 hour trek from dakar went off without a hitch. It was very hot as always and the road was terrible, as always. Roadside mafae was amazing. Mafae is rice with a peanut butter sauce... delicious! its my favorite senegalese dish. Tomorrow we will get our bikes ready for our first ride out to bandafassi to meet with the mansali, to discuss malaria rates in the surrounding villages...

| andy and jesse in dakar! | Jesse

This french keyboard stinks. Everything is in the wrong place.

We have safely made it to dakar and have arranged to pick up our nets from the vestergaard distributor here. Transport of the nets and our bikes will cost 140,000 C.F.A., or approximately 350 USD. Andy did some great bargaining on that! So, tomorrow we will leave for Kedougou. Dakar is a crazy place, imagine new york with 100 times more homeless people that are all trying to make money selling junk. Traffic is obsured. If the rate of joblessness was nearly this high in the US i think most people would resort to violence and crime, but here they try so hard to make an honest living.