Salut tout le monde!
Things have started to pick up, which I am happy about. As much as I enjoy just chatting with people in village and relaxing I am thankful to have more to do. At the beginning it was difficult to get started, but somehow things have begun to fall into place.
I mentioned in the last post about how I was going to be teaching malaria lessons at the primary school. I started out with the youngest classes first, with the director making the introductions for me. The first couple days, the teacher for the CP1 class (equivalent of kindergarten/first grade) was not there or came in late. The kids (about 65 of them) started out quiet, but then got super loud towards the end and did not really listen. At one point one kid was full on punching his neighbor. What?! As soon as they saw their teacher coming, they immediately got quiet and sat up straight. I wanted to say, “Is it because I don’t hit you that you don’t listen?” Yes, here in Burkina Faso the teachers are not supposed to hit students, but it still happens. With one teacher for so many students I could see how they might resort to corporal punishment. I do not agree with this form of punishment, but it is what the kids are also used to in the home.
The other classes were less challenging thanks to the teacher always being in the room. They also were a huge help when kids did not understand how I was speaking. (I do not take this personally though because often they cannot even understand accents of French people). I taught each class for 3 days, but only one day for the whole morning for the CM2 class (6th graders). For the younger classes I stuck to the basics of explaining that it is only mosquitos that can give you malaria. The emphasis was on sleeping under mosquito nets every night. By doing so, you can achieve your goals because you are not sick all the time (or dead. WAN WAAAAN). Malaria is the biggest killer in sub-Saharan Africa. Of all the malaria cases in the world, 90% of them are found right here in Africa.
Just last year our clinic saw 5457 cases of malaria. 5457! And 12 of these cases resulted in death. And they were kids under the age of 15. I explained these statistics to the older classes. People in Burkina Faso and other malaria-zone countries tend to minimize malaria, like it is just some fever you get and then it goes away. We discussed the importance of early treatment by going to the local health clinic. Some people self-medicate when they are not 100% sure it is malaria, which can lead to drug resistance. Thankfully our health clinic always has rapid-tests on hand that can tell if someone has malaria within a matter of minutes. These are sent through the President’s Malaria Initiative (US org started in 2005) who partners with PNLP-Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme(Burkina’s org to fight malaria).
Each day I would ask who slept under a mosquito last night. It was only a handful. During hot season people sleep outside and most do not bring their mosquito nets out too. They claim it is too hot for mosquito nets, they don’t let air through. Also they claim there are not any mosquitos out. It is true they are less at this time, but there are still some! And people still get malaria. There was also the problem that many students did not have mosquito nets. Burkina Faso has national distributions to give treated nets to everyone every 2-3 years. However, people are not always home when this happens or they miscalculate how many are needed. Also some people sell the nets or keep them tucked away for safe keeping, as it is something new they don’t want to ruin. This June is supposed to be the next distribution. Just in time for rainy season, when there are more mosquitos.
We completed some other activities as well. I showed the kids how they can set up their nets outside and then taught them a song about malaria prevention that I wrote in French. I put it to the tune of a song that is popular here right now called “Chop My Money” by P Square feat. Akon. I think this may have been their favorite part. I also gave tests to the CM1 and CM2 classes. CM2 did very well, but the CM1 still needs to work on overall comprehension. It was nice to see though that they understood the basics of malaria and how to prevent it.
Here is the song below, along with the translation. Every now and then kids will come up to me and start singing it. Everything is easier to remember when it is a song! (If only I had had my physics text book to a song…)
C’est la nuit et on est prêt à dormir
(It’s night time and we are ready to go to sleep)
Mais il y a une chose ce qu’on peut sentir
(But there is something which we can feel)
C’est une moustique qui veut nous piquer
(It’s a mosquito who wants to bite us)
C’est paludisme qu’elle peut nous donner
It’s malaria that it can give to us
Palu, Palu
(short form of the word “paludisme”-malaria)
Il donne le corps chaud et on ne bouge pas
(It gives a fever and we don’t move)
Palu, Palu
Est-ce qu’on veut la meilleure santé ? Donc,
(Do we want the best health ? So,)
Evite le palu,
(Avoid malaria)
Evite le palu,
Evite le palu
avec une moustiquaire
(with a mosquito net)
Evite le palu
Evite le palu
Evite le palu
avec une moustiquaire
Une mousitquaire (x3)
Ça peut sauver nos vies
(It can save our lives)
Une moustiquaire (x3)
Ça protege nous-mêmes
(It protects ourselves)
If you are interested in learning more about malaria and how it is being fought today, I would recommend reading The Fever by Sonia Shah. Did you know we had malaria in the United States not too long ago? You will learn about this and much more in this book. Also feel free to ask me as well!
