Aahhh

Well, here it is, our years of planning, fundraising, months of work and hundreds of miles of biking are complete! Today is our last day in Kedougou. It is hard to leave this place that has become a second home. Today we are saying goodbye to friends and packing up, making final arrangements. Tomorrow morning we get up at 3 AM to catch the bus from Kedougou to Tambacounda, where we will then negotiate places on a station wagon, called a "set place". These cars are usually old wagons from europe that run like old lawn-mowers. It should take about 12 hours to get to dakar. It will be a long day to be sure.

Andy and I are exhausted and missing our homes, friends, families, food... etc. The next few days we'll be in dakar "on vacation" trying to spend as little money as possible.

thanks to all, our journey here was only possible because of the amazing support we received.
-jesse

Two women in Togue find some shade under their new nets.

Jesse shows the other villagers his dance moves. Note: no one else is dancing.

In Dindefelo Tanda, a Bassari woman and some children display their nets.

Jesse (left) and Andy (right) stand with two women from Thiarmalel.

The List

Village . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nets Given . . . .2005 Census Population

Busuura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Asoni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407
Afia Magazin . . . . . . . . . . 88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295
Afia Pont . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
Wandintu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dar Salaam(#1) . . . . . . . . 10
Sylling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Boundicoundi . . . . . . . . . . 63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Nathia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Thiarmalel . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Mamakono Tanda . . . . . . 56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Alingal (Temasu) . . . . . . . 49 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Dindefelo Tanda . . . . . . . . 61 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Dapata Pass . . . . . . . . . . . .33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Togue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Dar Salaam(#2) . . . . . . . . 12
Bambaya Labourou . . . . . 41

I should note that the 2005 census is outdated, especially for some of the smaller villages here. We are looking for more recent numbers for these. Some villages were not included on the census we found, so we are looking for numbers for these too. Villages like Dapata Pass had no nets to begin with, had a population of workers who had branched off from another village to farm more distant fields (and did not have many children yet), and had more people than the 2005 census. Other villages like Boundicoundi have relatively more money and had more mosquito nets to begin with. There are variations in each village that changed the ratio of nets per person in each village. In a general way, I'd say we were liberal with nets in the villages. If somebody made a claim that they should have one, we'd listen why and usually give them one. We wanted to cover the entire population, because in general "herd coverage", as they call it, is the best way to statistically decrease the incidence of a population. If a young guy had three wives, we started by giving all his wives nets. If he made the case that he had his own hut and didn't spend the night with any of his wives that often, we gave him a net. Our main reason: If the guy is a jerk, he'd steal a net from one of his wives and leave her without protection. Most of these men, were definately not jerks, but its hard to tell. Jerks are out there, and we take the safe, liberal side of things and give them nets to protect the women.

Totals: 17 villages with complete coverage
1100 nets distributed
2600 people protected (rough estimate)

The Finish Line

I am exhausted. We've biked an immense amount over the last 6 and a half weeks, but it has been very rewarding. Yesterday, we biked to the villages of Togue, Dar Salaam (#2 for us, there are many villages named Dar Salaam) and Bambaya Labourou. These are at the wash at the bottom of a set of bluffs near a city called Fongolimbi. We decided to explore the turf out there, because we had heard that these villages were receiving a very low amount of health care support. When we arrived, we realized these rumors were true. In some of the other villages we covered, some of the population had managed to get mosquito nets, but out there, barely anybody had one. There were also increased eye infections. Our questions about malaria during our talk seemed harder to the populations in these villages. A pregnant woman in these villages in trouble would have to either walk up to the top of the bluffs to Fongolimbi or bike an hour and a half to two hours to get all the way to Kedougou. Our last village was Bambaya Labourou. When we were finished there, our nets were done, and now the Netlife team is trying to feel like it's on vacation. We do this mainly by trying to add cheese to more meals. After all, we need to bulk up. I (Andy) lost 5 kilos while I've been here and Jesse has lost 12 kilos. We'll be in Kedougou for a few more days then head to Dakar. I admit, I really miss home. I miss my loved ones and will be very happy to see them when I return.

Take care everyone.
-Andy