By popular (albeit surprising) demand, I am submitting one final entry to my Africa blog.
I returned to America on April 1 and have subsequently eaten my way back around the world from the comfort of home:) I have overindulged in the amazing family, friends and food in my life over the last three months (though not necessarily in that order)!
My social life feels a bit like the movie Groundhog Day without the budding romance at the end:). I have had a similar version of the same conversation several times over, and never get tired of telling people about my life in Senegal.
I know, it's surprising, but life there has gone on without me! Thiewal Lao has received a new volunteer, Kelly, who I got to meet briefly before I came home. She seems to be doing an amazing job and I wish her the absolute best of luck! You can follow her blog at www.SeneKel.blogspot.com to see how the health poste and other projects progress.
I finished my Peace Corps service in an incredible place. I had achieved a defined goal. I was proud of what I learned and the manner in which I learned it. I met some incredible people with whom I will remain friends long after our experience. I was coming home to THREE nieces. And I was excited for my next big adventure for so many reasons, not excluding access to running water this time around!
That's right, I am writing this blog post from my new apartment in Pittsburgh, PA. Less than a week ago Mama P and I loaded up a rental minivan and drove 17 hours from Lincoln, NE to the home of the industrial revolution so I can start grad school at Carnegie Mellon University in the Fall! I must add that she was a very good sport about the whole thing!! I will be starting a Masters of Public Policy and Management program with a concentration in International Affairs in August. I will spend the second year of the program in Washington DC working in an apprenticeship - cross your fingers that they want me on Capitol Hill!! I wouldn't be here without Peace Corps and I will keep you all posted if I am resentful of that in a few months:)
Since I've been home I became a Godparent, took a road trip with my Mom, watched one of my best friends graduate Medical School, celebrated birthdays, weddings and baptisms and have fully committed myself to reversing my hair loss! Bring on the broccoli!
I get emotional every time I think about the support I received while I was overseas. I remain astonished and touched at the number of family, friends and even strangers who read my blog and can even quote from it!
But now I'm back and safe and mostly healthy. I'm glad I did it and glad it's done!
I wish you all the very best for the future!
THANKS again!
Maggie
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Closure... Sort of
The health poste in Thiewal Lao is not yet open. Additionally, the health poste in Thiewal Lao will not be open during my Peace Corps service. I have accepted this. It doesn't make me especially happy, but I have come to terms with losing out on this particular Kodak moment.
A Ministry of Health-appointed nurse will be assigned to Thiewal Lao this year. I know this. 15 community health volunteers are trained and ready to do health education outreach. The poste has a trained midwife, pharmacy tech and a functional Health Committee; all of whom are desperately protective and proud of the new facility. For these reasons I can leave Senegal with confidence that two years of work will not be wasted.
But despite some very dedicated self-convincing, there was still a sliver of my heart that was missing sufficient closure on a project that has ruled my life for the past two years. A project that in all reality, no matter how much I tried to phrase it otherwise, was not finished.
Last week I got my closure.
As you might imagine, we don't get a lot of traffic out in my part of the middle of nowhere. So when a fully equipped mobile medical van rolls into town, it tends to make quite a stir. Even the toubab (that's me) was running to stare at the spectacle.
Last week Dr. Gregoire Sar and his team of three doctors and three nurses came to Thiewal Lao to perform free HIV tests, do basic medical exams and give vouchers for a follow up at the health poste in Dabo in three months (if the Thiewal Lao health poste isn't open yet, that is). This alone would have been incredible. But it gets better. Instead of seeing patients one-by-one in the mobile medical van parked in front of the health poste, they spread out, set up their supplies and used EVERY ROOM in the health poste! We don't yet have shelves and chairs and exam tables so people hurriedly brought wood benches, the doctors laid out the diagnostic testing supplies on butcher paper taped to the ground and after three hours they had to turn people away with promise of return. 91 people were examined. Every one of them was thankful... for the facility.
That's the thing. I wasn't so much touched by the excitement to be treated, but for the access to the treatment. It's a small difference, but it is my whole world at the moment. You see, in three hours I was reassured I have done my job. I brought people to the facility. My purpose was to provide sustainable access to medical services and ensure that people use them. And they are. They will. My replacement will have an incredible and overwhelming amount of work to do to educate and positively change the behavior of the surrounding population in many health related areas of daily life. My job was to set up the infrastructure to do just that and it is entirely possible that I did.
Now I'm not saying in any way, shape or form that it wouldn't have been an absolute once-in-a-lifetime moment to have had the health poste open a year ago and hand over the reigns to my replacement to a fully functional rural medical facility with established classes and outreach programs and financial profit... but that sounds a little greedy at this point. When I leave village in seven days the last thing I will pass, perhaps all too symbolically, is the health poste. The point is that it will be there for a heck of a lot longer. It will open. And even though I didn't get to see patients waiting to see the Thiewal Lao doctor, I saw them flock to see a doctor. And for now that may be enough.
A Ministry of Health-appointed nurse will be assigned to Thiewal Lao this year. I know this. 15 community health volunteers are trained and ready to do health education outreach. The poste has a trained midwife, pharmacy tech and a functional Health Committee; all of whom are desperately protective and proud of the new facility. For these reasons I can leave Senegal with confidence that two years of work will not be wasted.
But despite some very dedicated self-convincing, there was still a sliver of my heart that was missing sufficient closure on a project that has ruled my life for the past two years. A project that in all reality, no matter how much I tried to phrase it otherwise, was not finished.
Last week I got my closure.
As you might imagine, we don't get a lot of traffic out in my part of the middle of nowhere. So when a fully equipped mobile medical van rolls into town, it tends to make quite a stir. Even the toubab (that's me) was running to stare at the spectacle.
Last week Dr. Gregoire Sar and his team of three doctors and three nurses came to Thiewal Lao to perform free HIV tests, do basic medical exams and give vouchers for a follow up at the health poste in Dabo in three months (if the Thiewal Lao health poste isn't open yet, that is). This alone would have been incredible. But it gets better. Instead of seeing patients one-by-one in the mobile medical van parked in front of the health poste, they spread out, set up their supplies and used EVERY ROOM in the health poste! We don't yet have shelves and chairs and exam tables so people hurriedly brought wood benches, the doctors laid out the diagnostic testing supplies on butcher paper taped to the ground and after three hours they had to turn people away with promise of return. 91 people were examined. Every one of them was thankful... for the facility.
That's the thing. I wasn't so much touched by the excitement to be treated, but for the access to the treatment. It's a small difference, but it is my whole world at the moment. You see, in three hours I was reassured I have done my job. I brought people to the facility. My purpose was to provide sustainable access to medical services and ensure that people use them. And they are. They will. My replacement will have an incredible and overwhelming amount of work to do to educate and positively change the behavior of the surrounding population in many health related areas of daily life. My job was to set up the infrastructure to do just that and it is entirely possible that I did.
Now I'm not saying in any way, shape or form that it wouldn't have been an absolute once-in-a-lifetime moment to have had the health poste open a year ago and hand over the reigns to my replacement to a fully functional rural medical facility with established classes and outreach programs and financial profit... but that sounds a little greedy at this point. When I leave village in seven days the last thing I will pass, perhaps all too symbolically, is the health poste. The point is that it will be there for a heck of a lot longer. It will open. And even though I didn't get to see patients waiting to see the Thiewal Lao doctor, I saw them flock to see a doctor. And for now that may be enough.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Don't Blink
For months I have been receiving reports. Like the Loch Ness Monster, there had been unprece-dented sightings between Kolda and Velingara, a distance too vast to legitimize the claims. He had stealthily eluded my earnest pursuance... until now!You see, there is a man with a green push-cart who, like the Ice Cream Man in America, lets you know he's coming by squeezing his clown horn. He travels with his cart throughout the region to weekly markets along the Route Nationale highway selling ice cream cones! That's right. The front of his cart has stacks and stacks of tiny cones like the ones Diary Queen keeps on hand for small children, spoiled pets and hungry employees. And on the top of this cart is one tiny hinged door which houses and equally small container of pink, yellow and green swirled ice cream. It is magical - and until last Saturday, I thought it was also just make-believe.
But it is real. It is also cold. It is nothing more than glorified ice milk, but, Oh, it is glorious. I have no idea how he keeps it cold, transports his cart or where he got his start. But I'm buyin' what he's sellin' and hopin' he is willing to consider franchising!
I had spotted him in Dabo, my road town, on Saturday morning as the weekly market was setting up, but I no more than blinked and I lost him in the shuffle. I was sure he was gone forever, but just as I was heading out to go back to village, he rounded a corner and set up shop under the last tree on the edge of town - DESTINY! I paid him my 50 CFA, strongly considered taking a picture of my petite cone and enjoyed every moment of coldness.
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