One month in...

Well....I don't know if my week is any better. It is certainly shooting by fast. I am approaching my one month anniversary in Sanniquiellie. Wow. Eight to go.

Every day is a hectic hassle of diversions and relational conundrums. I have given up trying to plan any work in the am. The flurry of activity between 0730 and 1000 is incredible as folks hustle about to start their day. I have decided to just be available, to literally hang about with my coffee (this is new thing, what is up with that?) during this period to answer questions, give directions, plead to the expats to do the right thing, and wave good-bye to the vehicles as they depart. This has lessened my frustration levels in a big way.

We had a bit of a scare this week. On Sunday evening we got news that there was a cholera event underway at the furthest reaches of our work. While Kinon is only 50 ish km away from base it is a two to three hour drive in a four-wheel drive vehicle. The road is dirt-clay and severely washed out and rutted from years of abuse with little to no maintenance. There are about six or seven really really big holes, which are getting bigger with the rainy season, which threaten to swallow up our Toyota Land Cruisers. So we got word that some villagers were dying of cholera. What to do?

We have no real emergency prep insitu. AND we have almost a completely green, new crew. So we have to take this seriously and we spent Sunday evening and Monday building a plan while we had one of our national staff on an exploratory visit to confirm things on Monday. Building a plan is very difficult as there are staff here who are the kind to get flustered, like an old mother hen, and try to assert solutions and guidance which is neither helpful nor part of the mandate of THEM. Phew, tough cookie to swallow. So with the plan, or what germ of a plan based on some limited experiences and research, we took a ten-man exploratory crew up in two vehicles to check things out. We had on board a sketched-together med kit for treating 20 cholera patients and enough logistic materials to set up a mobile clinic, or in lieu, protection and material to convert one of the vehicles to an ambulance to move the papa-tangos (PT= patients) to the nearest clinic, some 30min drive away.

We got there and it was all talk, and no show. One of the three villages recording diahoreal deaths, upon further questioning, noted bloody stool rather than the classic symptom of 'rice-water diahorea'. A second village just wanted us to fix the only hand-pump water source. So we did under duress (clean water is sufficient to heal cholera. ya just need lots and lots of water) as this is not our purpose...or rather it is our purpose in a sideways way. Clean water leads to healthier people and healthier people use clinics less and so THEM eases pain and suffering all around and the pain and suffering thing IS the mission of THEM.

However the third village seemed to, indeed, have true cases of cholera. All eight cases are dead though, and there are no more cases in town. So there was nothing of value we could do here so we left. Phew, we really need to sit down and figure out a real plan. We will, nevertheless, return today with a skeleton crew to help train the villagers on maintenance of their open-pit well (only water source) to keep it clean, use it wisely and provide some chlorine solution for a designated villager to supervise and oversee the treatment of drinking water for the short term. If the cholera came from the well, then if we can keep everyone safe for the next two weeks then we beat this contained cholera problem. That and by training up a villager with skills for chlorination of drinking water, we may create a habit leading to good health in the future. Maybe.