Starting my Work

Sorry for not posting for a long time! I am now in my Villiage and working with my homologue. He is an incredible person. So my villiage actually consists of about 2000 people, and it has on Health Post. A health post is the smallest level of the heath care system in Guinea. My homologue is the head of the health post. Unfortunately, he is the only one that works there, and he doesn't get paid... not exactly ideal. He is the only one as of now giving any medical care to my villiage. If there is something that someone has that is very bad, they will either have to go to the Health Center which is 5km away or the actual Hospital which is 35 km away.

My homologue is incredibly patient and is always working. Even when he goes home for lunch or goes home for the day, people know where his house is and will constantly come by with medical questions. He is very patient and will help just about anyone that comes to him at any time. Apart from working there, he also cultivates to make money for his enormous family (2 wives and 13 children)! i don't know where he finds time to do anything else. Apart from Layasando, he is also responsible for all of the tiny villiages in "the bush" that are near Layasando. He often goes out there to give vaccinations and if there is a real need for medical treatment.

For the past month and a half I have been foloowing him around. i take blood pressures and will help him question patients with medical problems. I am going to try to help him learn what kind of questions to ask and when. Not only will that help diagnose a patient correctly (even though he has limited madicine and can only really treat a few things ) but it would also give an opportunity to give advice on how to change their lifestyle so that they do not get sick again.

A classic example we run into is poeple with stomach issues. After a bit of questioning, I find out that they drink river water when fishing. Now, the river water is disgusting and full of Bacteria and parasites, so it gives us a great opportunity to tell them only to drink water from the pump (which gets ground water from very deep, which is much safer then river or well water.

I also plan on doing a lot of work with Nutrition. there is not much food in Layasando. I am almost positive that many poeple are not getting the nutrition they need. There are local ways we can help that. For example, there is a plant called Moringa that is full of great vitamins and protein that grows in the villiage that they simply don't know about. Also, people here eat Cashew fruits but throw away the nut! I am going to try to show them how to prepare that as well. The examples go on.

Other possible projects I can work on include AIDS/HIV education, family planning, malaria prevention, general hygene (its amazing what washing your hands and wearing shoes will do for your health), organizing the health post, starting paperwork, weighing and offering nutrition advice for babies (which will be one of my first projects), Domestic violence, female mutilation practices (which will only be well over a year into my service due to the sensitivity of the topic, smoking education, teaching english, and much much more.

For now, i have been learning a to about my villiage. It is a large cultivating and fishing villiage, and I have already gone fishing with some of the people. they walk through the Niger and fish with nets. It is really incredible to watch. I have also asked for one of the drummers to make me a drum, and I plan on taking lessons after everything settles down some more. I have been to weddings and funerals, naming ceremonies and sacrifices and have learned a ton about the people on the way.

I am also making some great friends. One is the owner of a "coffee shop" that I go to every morning. He helps me with just abuot everything I need. He has been so nice and incredible generous. He is also the captain of the Layasando football (soccer) team.

My name here is Mamadi Mara. i found out there is a lighthearted rivalry between the Mara's and the Oulare's. Its hilarous, most of my converstations begin with me calling a Oulare a theif, and him calling me crooked. It is grea, I can even jok like that with the cheif of the Villiage and even soldiers. Everyone loves it and loves, even more, that i get it. Therefore, a lot of my friends end up being Oulare's.

I have also been doing a little work in the Health Center in the next town over. I am a little distressed about the work they are doing. They seem not to follow a good level of hygene that, with the materials they have, they could, and they lie about what they do to get more funding. For example, I went through some patient records and found that they do not weigh babies, but they will report that they do to get more funding. Also, much of the Medicine that is supposed to go to Layasando is stolen From the Hospital or the Health Center and sold in Pharmacies before it even gets to us.

Let me be very clear though that this happens only with some of the people really high up. Everyone I have me in the villiages or the cities have been incredibly kind and honest. I can't tell you how many times I have dropped money or forgot something somewhere only to find a Guinean chasing after me to give it to me.

Anyways. I am sorry I do not have pictures. After my site visit during my training my camara just stopped working. if all goes well, I will be getting another one by the end of june and I will make up for pictures now.

Ok, thats it for now. I will be working to find a regular schedule of getting to the internet (very roughly every month). Take care, and until next time!