Advertisement
Published: April 7th 2009
Obama Pagne
I found this in the market in Mali; notice anything askew?Hello Faithful Blog Readers,
I’ve had the photos loaded for weeks, but just couldn’t find the time or energy to write any text. Most of you are well aware that I tend to be rather long-winded so writing a blog is not something I generally whip off at the last minute. I put a lot of photos and comments on this one though, so hopefully the photos will tell the story!
I think I put the OBAMA pagne as an “Africa Moment”, but don’t feel like looking back and the fact that it could not have been more than two weeks ago gives you some indication as to my frame of mind! Ha! In any case, if you are going to create a commemorative fabric, the least you could do is to get the guy’s flag right! At least they spelled his name correctly!
Next, you will see my boss. His name is Mesfin Loha and he is a fantastic guy to work for, and with. And I’m not just saying that because he’ll read this on the web; he doesn’t even know about my blog! Ha! He made me laugh though; this was his first trip to
Mesfin eating street food
This is my boss; his first visit to West Africa and his first experience eating street food - egg sandwich and coffee - yumm! West Africa and he seemed to really enjoy the variances between his culture and that of WA. Unfortunately, I did not manage to snap a photo of him dancing with a baguette across his shoulders like an Ethiopian herdsman! He thinks the roadside restaurants are very efficient and with minimal set up costs, could be a very good enterprise for East Africa. So, if in a few years you see these stands all over Ethiopia, you will know where the inspiration came from!
The next series of photos are from an Integrated Health Center we visited in the Zinder Region. The first one is Mesfin, the center nurse (I could find her name if I had the energy to get my notebook, but I think it is Salimatou), me, Naroua Ousman, the head of Health and HIV and AIDS for Niger, and my colleague Sisay Sinamo who is in charge of nutrition programming for the Africa Region. The next few photos are of a woman and her family who came in for care. She delivered her third child at home with a village midwife 20 days prior to her visit and was suffering from a post-partum infection. She had
stopped nursing the child who was being fed with goat’s milk. I sat with the women and worked with her for about an hour to get her milk to flow and talked to her about feeding her baby, avoiding anything but breast milk and talking about her medications. It was so much fun and such a challenge trying to find all those Hausa words again. I thought of Wendy Vogt the whole time because she said whenever she talked about nursing, she always ended up touching her breasts and I was doing that thinking, “Why can I not discuss this without touching myself?” Anyway, the older women are the best because I got to hear their conversation in the background. “Wallahi, tana son mutanen; akwai wanan da suna son mutanen, kwareye .” (“Honest to God, she likes people; there are those that really like people.”) My apologies to the Hausa scholars for the spelling errors! The elderly lady in these photos is the grandmother of the young sick mother, great-grandmother of the baby. She was so cute. The other one beside her is her twin sister. I told her I had twins and she was very excited. She blessed them
Precious Little One
Outside Mazamani health center over and over and said, “May God leave them as long as He has left us.” Big “Amen”! - If she only knew of my son’s ‘Evel Knievel’ personality she would know how desperately that blessing is needed! After spending time with the women, I talked with the child’s father for a bit. I had him laughing with my creative analogies and colorful illustrations of diarrhea all with the goal of helping him see why exclusive breastfeeding is the only way to go!
The next few photos are of a newborn, friend of the family. He was too new to even have a name. How beautiful is that face? This is also another vivid picture of why capacity building is important. He was being bottle-fed water by three trained and licensed nurses who all work for the Niger Ministry of Health! It is important to note that we think that health staff know what is important and why, but often their training has been quite lacking and even they do not understand basic health messages like immediate and exclusive breastfeeding and why this is important, especially in the African context! And we then wonder why the village women don’t
Working with a young mother
This woman was 20 days post partum with a serious uterine infection. She has stopped nursing her child who was being fed with goat's milk. I sat with the woman for about an hour to work with her to get her milk to come and explain the hazzards of alternative feeding. Happily, she was able to nurse again. Look how young she is; this is her third child! do it! The nurse giving treatment in the next photo is Souley Idi, one of my best friends and the nurse I worked with in the clinic in Kournikoutchika. He has had the fantastic opportunity to work with and learn from Médecins Sans Frontières. He knew exactly how to treat the infant and even showed us a neat little trick he learned from MSF to stimulate the baby’s sucking reflex as by this time, he refused to nurse when put to the breast. It goes to show you how much working in partnership with NGOs can do for local capacity! The mother had gone to the head of the pediatric ward for the hospital and received no treatment or council except to go to the emergency room. She then went to emergency and they told her to go to a clinic. She went to the clinic and there was no nurse there, and it was while she was waiting that Souley showed up and treated the infant. By the time the nurse got there, he had done everything except write a prescription for antibiotics for the umbilical cord infection.
Those of you who know the Zinder gang can see
Young Woman
The woman was at the clinic with a post postpartum infection. She gave birth at home in her hamot about 2 km from the health center. Twenty days post postpartum, she was really suffering and had stopped nursing her newborn the photos of Moussa mai aikin fata, Dengui and Zara and their brood; Sa’a and her boys (can you even believe that?) Dengui’s brother (or some other relative but ‘brother’ in the Niger context) is working as the guardian for World Vision so he leaked it to Dengui that I was there before I was able to pass by and surprise him. He knew exactly who I was when I got out of the car and he said, “Kadija, Dengui didn’t tell me you were coming!” I am constantly amazed that after bazillions of volunteers and years and years later they can remember faces and names like we were there yesterday! Dan Bande “Teacher” from Radio Anfani and his family are there and Abdou (although I didn’t get his whole crew this time), and the PCVL house. I met the new PCVL, Elizabeth, and sadly, they are being forced to move out of ‘our’ house…I was very bummed about that! She was looking for a new place when I was there. I saw Boubacar, the driver and he looks great; he hasn’t aged a day!
The next big story is the land…why on earth did Kadija buy land in
Zinder? Well, I don’t know; it seemed like a good idea at the time! It is right behind the new university (yes, they have a university in Zinder!). They are building a fistula hospital there (sad that they even need one, but good that they are addressing the need). The Catholic Mission built a huge complex there with a clinic and school, primary through high school. The area is booming and it is right on the road to where the Chinese are building the new oil refinery. So, whether the land will be my retirement location, a business hot spot or just sit there as an investment until property values rise remains to be seen, but I was very excited when I purchased it and I felt right at home. I could just see myself in a little villa there, walking over to the fistula hospital to volunteer on Monday, then over to the clinic on Tuesday, and then off to the university on Wednesday…it was an absolute blast in my imagination so it seemed like the perfect spot for the perpetual “Peace Corps volunteer”… When all of your kids are out of the house with children of their own,
Great Grandmother Twins
The one on the left is the great-grandmother of the baby at the Mazamni clinic. The one on the right is her twin sister. They were very excited that I stayed with them and continued to offer blessing and said, "May God leave your twins in this world as long as we have been in this world." Amin, summa Amin! you are all welcome to come and sit on my porch with me, drink tea, and discuss ‘the good old days’!
From Zinder we moved on to a field visit in the Maradi Region. I stayed in the Maradi Guest House for the first time! I remember when that was such a fantasy! Even so, I had to take a bucket bath the first night due to a water cut! You think you’re moving up in the world, but God finds ways to keep you humble….We went to Kornaka West and visited a cereal bank, where I received two chickens from the villagers as a token of appreciation for the visit (I LOVE AFRICA!), and a health clinic. This was a service day for the nutrition program. It was a great, but as you can imagine, heart-breaking experience! I’ve chronicled that site visit largely through photo commentaries, but one prevailing message that came back over and over again is that cultural practices might really play a huge factor in child malnutrition. I think this would be an amazing study! Are there any grad students out there looking for a thesis topic? This kind of assessment could really help us!
Father
After working with his wife, I spent some time explaining to the father how to follow up on the health status of his wife and child, including why he should not let the child have water or animal milk. For instance, in every case where we asked, men always eat first (in every season and regardless of the amount of food in the house); but I heard that is a Hausa tradition and is not so among the Zarmas, in whose regions malnutrition does not seem to be as severe a problem. Here, in Senegal, my housekeeper comes from a people group where children eat first, then men, then women. So, again, I think that would be a fantastic study - how culture and feeding practices influence malnutrition -
The young Fulani mother was a heartbreaking story as well. She was trying everything, but her child was so severely malnourished that she could barely hold her head up, let alone eat. She needed to be admitted into an in-patient treatment center, but unfortunately, MSF France who had run the closest centers was expelled from Niger recently. This has left a huge gap for most families as the government centers are run out of hospitals and the cost is too exorbitant. Most of them just turn around and go home. Some are trying to advocate for in-patient services to be offered where out-patient services are currently functional. Again, the
Less than 24 hours old
This beautiful baby boy was less than 24 hours old and when I walked in the room I discovered he was being bottle-fed water; three nurses in the room! He had an infected cord and a fever. He had completely stopped nursing and didn't even have a reflex. Souley worked him over putting into play some neat techniques he learned while working with Doctors Without Borders. He got his fever down, blood sugar up and had him nursing in a few minutes; something the head of the hospital pediatric ward, the nurses at the emergency room and the nurse at a private clinic could not do! capacity issue was huge as the attending nurse didn’t even seem to know what to do with this child and attempted to give her oral rehydration solution; not a good idea considering the salt content and extreme edema caused by the malnutrition.
You can see the making of the cereal food which is mixed with sugar and oil. I should have put photos of the sugar from Japan and corn soya blend from Saudi Arabia as well - all secured and delivered through the World Food Program. It is quite an international operation! Each child enrolled in the program gets 4,35 kg/two weeks.
The sweet looking lady near the end of the photos is a ‘femme relais’, or community worker trained though World Vision’s program. She was amazing! She takes her MUAC bracelet out to the fields and women come to her with their babies to be measured. On service days, she does cooking demonstrations in front of the clinic. You can see her big smile; she is truly a joy and it is wonderful to see so many volunteering with no per diem! The entire nutrition program is community-based and community-run. Most of the volunteers have been
Souley Idi at work
This is the nurse from the village where I used to work and one of my best friends. He was caring for this child who had not been nursed and was in a room with three nurses who were bottle feeding him water at less than 24 hours old! It just goes to show you how poor the training is and the capacity level of even 'trained staff' has so far to come! working since the food crisis of 2005, and without pay since 2007.
And the last photo is just another reason to be thankful to God! I am thankful for bleach, for sterile environments, for Northside Hospital, for trained nurses, midwives and obstetricians! I’m thankful for padded stirrups, heated rooms, epidurals, c-sections, heart stents, and morphine drips! I am thankful for my ‘child-bearing hips, my scars and my stretch-marks, because it means I have three beautiful and healthy children with whom God has blessed me. (Along with one freebee that did not contribute to my scar or stretch-mark collection!) I am thankful that I can take them to the doctor when they are sick, that I can buy the medicine they need, and that they go to bed every night on full stomachs, even having refused food on their plates!
I want to take you on my adventure through the Plumpy Nut factory, just not tonight…and then, there are the dunes….coming soon to a blog near you!
Blessing, peace and the love of the Lord be with you all...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.174s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.1236s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Amanda
non-member comment
This Made Me Cry!
What a beautiful post. Those twin great-grandmothers are gorgeous.