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