pre-IST

Hello all,

It has been nearly a month since my last posting, and I apologize for not having updated you in such a long time. So without further ado, here is what's been happening here...

When I last wrote, I was about to leave for southeastern Senegal to spend July 4th. The trip there was a bit messy, as we had to travel the worst road in the world (between Kaolack and Tambacounda). However, we also got to travel through the Park Niokolo-Koba, a UNESCO site and a national park that claims to have some lion in residence. Although we didn't see any of them, we did see baboons and warthogs alongside the road. The destination, Kedougou, was absolutely lovely! I went swimming in the Gambia river (and probably picked up schistosomiasis) and got to enjoy an amazing view of the mountains before having to return to my site. Upon my return, I spent about 2 weeks surveying my village about its health practices, got to witness (ok, not actually see, but hear) a childbirth, and (hopefully) started up the village's women's group again. The take-home message from the surveying was that hygiene and malnutrition are big problems in my village. Indeed, there are probably only 3 proper latrines in my village, one of which is my own. So a good portion of my work will focus on proper latrines being built for my village. At my pre-PC job a guy named Rajiv used to make fun of me for going off to the third world to build latrines. If only he knew how correct he was!

There is also a need for a midwife in the village- the childbirth that I witnessed was the birth of my host-cousin. We had to go to the hospital in a horse-drawn cart in the middle of the day (a pretty hot one at that). It was a bumpy ride for me; I can't imagine how much it sucked for the mom-to-be in labor.

With regards to non-work related issues, I have had to deal with a termite infestation in my hut. My experiences during the rainy season has given me a healthy hatred (and grudging respect) for insects, which have multiplied like crazy. We all know how much mosquitos suck, but the fliew are almost as bad during the day. And to top it all off, I have had to deal with a termite infestation in my hut. If the three were racing to take the post of Rithvik's most hated insect, mosquitos would probably win in a photo finish ahead of flies, and termites.

Not only have their been insects, but it seems like those small cuts and blisters never heal. I had a pretty nice infection on my foot last week that hurt like hell and that the flies absolutely loved. I've been religious about socks since then and the infection is clearing up, but it was a rude awakening.

Anyway, enough of my griping. I'm off to Thies again on Saturday to spend about three weeks doing what they call "Inter-Service Training" in which I use the information gathered about my village to design projects for my time there. It should be interesting to say the least. While I'm not looking forward to getting into the whole routine again, it will be really nice to see everyone.

Until next time,

Be safe