Git R Done

Seeing as how I have been in country for almost six months, I thought it might be time to get some work done! And at this particular moment I am feeling slightly overwhelmed at the amount of work I have seemingly heaped on my plate. But then again, what is new?!?!? This is what I have been up to:

It was very obvious from the beginning that the reason I was placed in my village was to jump start construction, and therefore completion, of a half-built health poste. Upon arrival in my village I spent three weeks talking to literally every person and asking them a range of questions from what kind of food they eat, to how many kids go to school, to the most obvious question... what are the greatest problems/needs in this area? With no exception, EVERY man and woman was able to articulate the the single greatest need was an accessible medical facility. It made sense.

My village of Thiewal Lao is located 15km north of the road town of Dabo. The "road" to Dabo is, as previously mentioned in my blogs, a crazy concoction of landscape that makes any kind of travel difficult, especially for those seeking medical attention. What's more, Thiewal Lao sits in the middle of the Department of Dabo, so more that 30 villages are travelling even further to reach Dabo's health poste which lies on the outskirts of the area. Any medical needs exceeding minor skin abrasions must be referred. Women are not able to get the prenatal care they need, serious injuries become life-threatening en route and traditional medicine methods are relied upon in the absence of modern medicine practices.

This need was so poignantly articulated becuase they have had time to think about it. The greatest tragedy of all in this is its history. Four years ago the local government received a large sum of money to build such a facility. And for two years construction crews started and stopped progress. After two years of no completion, the original contractor from Dakar ended up stealing the remaiing money, pulling his crews and leaving a half-built structure to remind the people of my village what they are missing.

But today is a new day. Each year each village chief ('jarga' in Pulaar) is given an opportunity to meet with the sous-prefet (like a mayor or governor) and submit letters of petition addressing needs, concerns and requests. Shortly after my arrival, my jarga had his meeting, submitted four letters of petition, and the sous-prefet actually READ them! AND the sous-prefet also picked up the phone, called the national police who went out and found the original contractor and gave him an ultimatum. He could return to Thiewal Lao and finish the original work at his own cost, or go directly to jail. He chose to send a crew. Now, this whole exchange may sound cool, but it is additionally absolutely unheard of in this culture where confrontation is avoided like the plague.

Now, the only snag in this is that the s ous-prefet didn't tell anyone what he had done, so when two guys showed up from Kolda to work on the health poste I was beyond confused. I had been in Kolda myself and returned home. About four hours later, my family casually dropped the news that these two guys had showed up with 1.5 tons of cement and were working. I still can't figure out why my family wasn't jumping and screaming this at me as I was riding back into the village, but nonetheless, I jumped up myself and sprinted over to my half-built health poste. And sure enough, I found two men, a mattress, and a literal TON of cement. I was so flustered by the time I got over there that I was mumbling in three languages and not actually saying anything. After a minute or two I politely excused myself and said that I would return shortly. I went back to my hut, got a notebook, composed my thoughts and slowly walked back to the health poste where I was much more successful in my line of interrogation. But I still did not know where they had come from at this point. In a desperate plea, my closest PCV neighbor agreed to join me in a meeting the next day with the sous-prefet just to make sure I didn't miss anything in translation.

In less than 20 minutes in his office I got the story, could finally be happy about the construction (especially because I don't have to find funding for that part of it now) and made it clear that we all MUST communicate with eachother... something that is not emphasized in daily business. And since then I have discovered that the NGO I have been working with, World Vision, has had money sitting in the bank waiting to be used for the health poste should the original construction be completed. Are you kidding me?!?!?!? Was ANYONE gonna tell me?!?!? What this means is that by the new year we could have a doctor, two matrones and two medical personnel operating a functional health facility that will benefit more than 10,000 people. It is incredibly overwhelming and even more exciting, and just getting started.

This facility will give me an opportunity to address myriad a health related issues, and, if done correctly, create an organized structure to my village that will influence changes in so many other areas as well. This is just the beginning, but its a good one!