June 30, 2006
La Deuxieme Partie
I have made a lot of progress on my project during the past few days. I’m really excited because I am working with an amazing Malian woman named Ramatoullaye who is the director of HIV Education at the Point G Hospital in Bamako. Ramatoullaye actually has HIV, and sadly, her husband and all three of her children died of AIDS. Working with her is so inspiring because despite the fact that she has faced so many hardships, she is actively working to combat HIV in Mali and making a real difference in people’s lives. She has a very commanding presence. On Wednesday, she helped two other GAIA students, Erica and Ally, present their project from last year at the clinic. Last year, Erica and Ally filmed a discussion group for women they held at the clinic, and then used the footage to make a documentary about HIV attitudes in Mali. Many of the women who watched the film on Wednesday were the ones who participated in the group last year, and it was really unsettling to see that many of them believe that people will give you AIDS if they don’t like you by putting it in your food or coughing on you. Hopefully, the peer education program will do a lot to dispel these myths.
My project has a new aspect as well. Besides providing peer education training at the clinic, Ramatoullaye and I will also be taking in patients to get HIV and other medical tests done at the Fondation de Charles Merieux in Bamako. This is especially important because last year, GAIA tested over 1000 pregnant women for HIV. While only a small percentage of these women were found to be HIV-positive, the clinic at Sikoro did not administer the medical tests (CD4 count, viral load, liver function, etc.) necessary to determine the proper treatment regimen, and consequently, many women were not treated properly, if at all. This is really a shame because HIV treatment is actually provided for free by the Malian government (I find it funny that one of the ten poorest countries in the world provides free HIV treatment to its citizens and the US still doesn't provide all of its citizens with quality health care). Ramatoullaye (the Malian woman helping me with the project) and I are going to bring the HIV-positive patients to the Fondation Merieux five people at a time so that they can get their tests done and start treatment. It is our hope that since Ramatoullaye is HIV-positive, the patients will not be afraid to go in for testing and realize that treatment is both available and helpful.
I am excited because I had my first Bambera lesson this week. Our entire house is taking them from this really amazing professor named Dudu that comes to our house. Just to give you an idea of the exchange rate in Mali, I am paying TWO DOLLARS (1000 CFA) for every hour lesson - and considering there are only 5 people in my lesson group, that is pretty amazing. We have only learned "hello" and "how are you?" and things like that thus far, but he is coming again tomorrow, so I am hoping to be able to at least be able to hold a basic conversation by the time I leave.
Just a quick cultural sidenote – our latest pastime is dodging marriage proposals. The other night, all of the GAIA volunteers and doctors had dinner at a Chinese restaurant (in Mali... strange, right?) and everyone seemed pretty shocked that none of us are married (who knew I’d be over the hill at 20?). It’s unusual for here though because in Mali, people get married as young as 13 or 14, and polygamy is also common... men have up to four wives! All of the marriage talk wouldn’t be so weird if people weren’t actually ASKING us if we wanted to marry them, and by this I mean that 55-year-old men stop us when we are walking and say things like, “I’ve been watching you for the past few days and have decided that you should be my wife.” To which we respond, “I have a boyfriend,” or “My husband lives in Iceland,” or “My father would have to approve of you before we can get married and he has a chronic fear of airplanes.” Our responses grow more interesting by the day, it will be interesting to see what we come up with by the end of the summer…
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June 27, 2006
Mali - Les Premiers Jours
I finally arrived in Mali to start my internship with the Global Alliance to Immunize against AIDS (GAIA) on Saturday at 4 am after a very long flight. Anyone who is ever planning on flying to Africa, should fly Royal Air Maroc... it is wonderful! For instance, rather than spend my eighteen-hour layover in the airport in Casablanca, a Royal Air Maroc rep tracked me down, and put me on a bus to a hotel in Casablanca where I spent eighteen hours eating free food and walking on the beach. Definitely the way to go.
When I got to Bamako, one of the doctors I am working with this summer, Malick Kone, took me to Dr. DeGroot's (the professor I am working with at Brown) house in Sikoro. Sikoro is actually a suburb within Bamako, which is the capital of Mali, and is a city of about 100,000 people. Right now, there are THIRTEEN people living in the house, but it's pretty big so it really doesn't feel very crowded at all. We actually have a pool and a doorguard... much better than the living conditions I had been expecting.
Mali is a gorgeous country. The only drawbacks are that it is incredibly hot (it's been up to 100 degrees since I've been here) and there are mosquitoes EVERYWHERE... even though I sleep under a bednet, I have tons of bites! I have gone hiking every morning since I've been here and the countryside is beautiful. There is also an amazing mosque right by my house that we want to go visit at some point - the only deal is that you have to go on a Friday and girls have to cover themselves up completely - veil and all. However, despite the beauty of the countryside, the city is INCREDIBLY poor. Our house is by far the nicest in our neighborhood. A lot of the houses are dilapidated and the roads are unpaved in our neighboorhood (the nearest paved road is a couple of blocks away). Standing out so much has also been a little difficult to get used to - whenever any of us go out, little kids call out to us, "Bonjour blancs!" (literally, "Hello whites!") Everyone has been incredibly friendly though - it takes forever to walk anywhere because people are constantly stopping to start conversations with you, but it's been great because I already know a lot of my neighbors.
Although I speak French, it's still been a little difficult to communicate when I go to the market because many people who haven't had formal education only speak Bambera - I am trying to learn a little while I'm here but it's a pretty difficult language. Malians really appreciate it when you try to speak it though. My neighbor Nina, a Malian medical student, has given all of us names in Bambera - mine is "Penda Keita" (pronounced PEN-da KAY-ta). Nina is the sister of Dr. Dao - another doctor who works with Dr. DeGroot and Dr. Kone in SIkoro.
I have had some great experiences in the past two days - Dr. DeGroot and Dr. Kone took me to the lab at Bamako Medical School where much of the work on the GAIA vaccine is being done (GAIA's mission is to find an HIV vaccine - check out www.gaiavaccine.org). Today, all of the GAIA volunteers and I went to the chief's house to present our projects to him. My project is an HIV peer education program for women titled "Le Main de l'Espoir" or "Here Bolo" (Bambera) or "Hand of Hope." I will explain the project in more detail later, but basically, Dr. DeGroot and I designed a curriculum that uses a mnemonic that uses each finger to remember an aspect about HIV prevention/treatment. This summer, I will be working with the President of HIV Education at Point G Hospital in Bamako to implement the program with a group of ten-fifteen women in Sikoro. At the end of the program, all of the women will become peer educators, and work with Dr. Kone throughout the year to continue teaching other women in Bamako and Sikoro. We are also planning on piloting a parallel men's group as well, which another student from BU, Jared, will run.
That's all for now...
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