Random....edit to your satisfaction.

sorry for the silience.......I will do my best with subsequent posts not to allow three months to get by.Lots have transpired since last year obviously, most great some good and iffy and few bad. They range from glorious dayswhen I do nothing but roam in my village and greet elders squat with painin my knee but enjoying it all blissfully, to being followed by children, squniting away the heat and hoping for a tear to clear my eyes. These days are great!The days when I wake early and walk to the Guinea worm containment center,where on average twelve to fifteen children are lined up for rebandaging oftheir soars, where the worm has emerged and is causing havok on themuscles, they are crying and wailing, screaming in pain, but immediatelythe wounds heal they go right back the dam, swim in there and drink moreguinea worm copepods into their bodies. As a volunteer, I cant provideportable water to the poeple here. The District assembly has to do that butthey dont seem to be in a hurry and this town remains the guinea wormcapital in Ghana. Sad.Its almost halfway through the dry(realy hot) weather and the small watersources are drying up. the women are now walking at 2/3 am in the morningto the next village to fetch dam water. The lucky ones with kind husbandsand children will have them take the bicycle to fetch so that they donthave to walk and carry heavy mini-drums of water on there heads. when Istand in front of my house and see women walking to go get water, imembarrased that I dont have to do the same. These days suck really bad!!I have also been doing some School health education at the schools. and Imworking to maintain the cordial relationship that I have with the headmasters now, they will come in handy later in the year when the timecalls for other projects. My site is significantly bigger than my fellow volunteers. I live in a district capital of about 30,000 people. comparedto an avergae site of 5,000 - 12,000. SO to say the leats my communityintegration will continue right up until its time to come home. I try notto be too overwhelmed by it all. I realize that im always afraid evrytime I leave my house for work, not of the work it self(which is in itself not easyto pinpoint) but of the challenges that the day will bring. Who is goingtotease me abuot not being able to speak the language, who is going to ask me a really strange question about americans, who is going to ask me for money or overcharge me because i sound different.??? I need to get overmyself really... Lately i have been doingsoem reserch on GRE and MCAT here, I would like to take both so that I haveoptions when I return home. if you come accross anymateriales that youthink I might find useful in studying please send them my way. If I need toI can send you some funds. As for writing, I have been writing, but at times I fear to write. fear of what I might put down that will haunt me. Im really happy sometimes and those times, I dont want my happiness taken away or guilt to creep in, other times, im really sad and dont want to akcnowledge my petty downtimes when I observes what is happening around me.



A summary of daily shedule is long over due I think...:-) Agree?

I try not to get mysty eyes at the internetcafe when I recieve emails and packages from friends and family sooo...keep it coming. I didnt want to be the crazy american lady who cries in public. Women dont cry here, which does not bode well for me. Imdoing great, just very uncomfortable with the heat! Its sooo hot here inthe nort, no humidity just scorching sun. I cant wait for raining seasonand with that come mosquitoes....:-)! Apart from my reservations about tehweather, im really doing well. Still learning the language but I am gettingby with my broken dagbani. Savelugu is still the GUniea Worm captital ofGhana, and it is proving very difficult to cut transmission. The Dams aredrying up and there are only two boreholes in a community of 30,000 peopleor more. The pipes only run maybe once or twice a week. We just had ademonstration of women against he Guinea worm team because they dont havewater and they think the G>W>E>P team is responsible. The districtassembbly seems ot be taking their time on the issue of portable drinkingwater. Speaking of time, im still learning and understanding that peoplehere dont run for time, they make time adjust to their own bodyclocks:-)!!!



My daily schedule varies from day to day, but usually about three times aweek, I go to the containment center in town(where we keep guiea wormpatients) to keep them from wandering and contaminating otherwiseuncontaminated water sources. I go there in teh morning to help with thebandaging and pulling out worms. Most times I find that Im holding downscreaming children. The disease is very painful and causes havok on theirmuscles and viens. Sometimes we see very iinfected wounds that have to betaken to the hospital(will send you some pictures soon!). The patientsswear up and down that they will filter there water and not swim in thedams, but we are likely to see them again next year. After the C.C.C I make my way to the school to greet the headmaster and teachers, and maybe do 1or 2 health lessons for the day(the students especially like copepoddemonstration). Our cases now are mostly students so I have been spending alot of time at school doing some health education on guinea worm. Soon after the peak season in april I will being my HIV, Malnutrition( I willsoon start planiting Moringa trees, and being to introduce them as an addedway to treat malnutrition), Hygiene and other things at school and in thevillages.When Im not in school I go to field with teh national service students andthe area cordinators to give out or replace filters in small sections intown, and sometime I just go to town, roam, sit and crack groudnuts, andmake myself available to them. I go to greet the chief at least once evrytwo weeks and update him of the cases for the month, and also to thedistrict assembly to do the same.



This week we are organizing a volleyball tornament for the young people that are not in school, since the school aretargeted alot!! This should be fun especially because my counterpart is aman over 60 with 4 wives and almost 20 children. His children could make awhole team of players.I have made lots of friends and making more, some of those "friends" are not really friends. They want to know if I can take them to america when Im leaving, and some others want to make me their third of fourth wife. I keepelling them that they cant afford to marry me, when that doesnt work i tell them that im already married with children in america. I have lots of little beaded children who gather by the roadside when they see me walking and scream "siliminga(foriegner or white lady) buy me toffee" and I screamback with the same big and bright smile "dagomba bihi buy me tizet(thelocal food)" sometimes they run away as I get closer, other times, theyjusy follow me until they get tired. I have also adopted a couple familiesin town and they over feed me everytime i go to visit. They all want me togrow fatter, when Im trying to reduce my weight. Oh im also getting used tobeing called big woman. If they only knew the potential emotionaldamadge..:-)!!!



my tele is 011-233-024-531-9495, a phone call would make me very happy! im always so happy to get calls and letters and packages of goodies.

Naawuni ni ti alafee(God give you good health; alafee also means pineapple so hope you all get lots of those as well:-)

Zaasuma

I swear the pictures will come soon.....:-)!