Catching Up, Part 2

Hello again and welcome back. This is part 2 of ‘Catching Up’, a series delve into what Mr. Filip has been up to these past few months. If you haven’t read the first post yet, that would probably be a good place to start.

On our way to Senegal

Part 2:

Senegal

In early June, Mary (a fellow volunteer) and I traveled to Thies, Senegal for a malaria boot camp. STOMP puts on a tri-yearly boot camp that volunteers involved in malaria work can attend to learn more about the disease, to share ideas with other volunteers, and to interface with those who are directly working on malaria eradication.

Banjul's airport - not a fun place for a layover

First off, Senegal is paradise (when compared to Sierra Leone). While I’m sure it is very different once you get outside of the major towns, Dakar is a world apart from Freetown. The place is clean and much less chaotic than Sierra Leone’s capital. There is artwork all over and we even found some working streetlights… Needless to say, it was a bit of culture shock for Mary and I.

We had some trouble getting there however. Our trip there included a 10-hour layover in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. Peace Corps was supposed to set us up with a hotel, but that never happened. Instead, Mary and I spent the entire night hanging out in the airport lobby and were exhausted by the time we got to Senegal. We weren’t allowed to sleep because Banjul’s airport makes you recheck-in after you arrive. Unfortunately we had arrived too early to check in for our next flight and had to wait until the morning when they would let us through the gates. We asked around if there was somewhere we could get some sleep but they all agreed that we would need to stay awake until we could check-in. Thankfully, there was an awesome staff member on duty the entire night who hung out with us and gave us some drinks.

Fishing outside of Dakar

When we finally arrived, we didn’t get to spend too much time in Dakar as we were pretty quickly shuttled off to Thies where the training was to be held. We stayed in a Peace Corps training center in Thies which has untold amenities – running water, electricity, internet – it was impressive.  We didn’t get to spend too much time to catch up on sleep as we jumped into our first day of work the next day. Days lasted from 8am to about 7pm every day with the exception of one day off (which was still packed with other activities).

While it was long and grueling at times, we covered a ton of information from the biology of malaria and prevention, to the role of NGOs, to the application of technology towards the end goal of eradication. In between this, we also took time to discuss best practices within our respective Peace Corps programs to facilitate idea sharing between countries. Throughout we were able to talk directly to experts in their fields in person or through Skype. We heard from PMI, USAID, the CDC, and a number of start-up NGOs just to name a few. 

                    The slave trading port on Goree Island                       

One negative aspect of the boot camp (which really had nothing to do with the boot camp itself) was that very few malaria actors seemed to be operating within Sierra Leone despite the country’s extremely high rate of malaria. This significantly hinders our possibilities of collaboration between partners, but on the bright side, it means that Peace Corps can have a large impact here with respect to malaria.

Beach acrobatics on Goree Island

We thankfully got our flight back changed (it included a 15 hour layover this time in Banjul…) and were able to spend a few extra days hanging out in Dakar. On our last full day there, a few volunteers and I traveled to Goree Island, a World Heritage Site known for its “Door of No Return.” The island was a slave trading port and has been visited by both Obama and Mandela which is pretty neat. It was definitely a bit surreal being on the other side of the ocean to see where a large portion of slaves were shipped through (though there is some contention as to whether Goree Island was a final destination for slaves on the way to America).

Overall, the boot camp was an amazing experience. It was extremely motivating and gave us a ton of new ideas that we hope to implement within the coming year. If you’re interested in a more visual representation of the boot camp, Mary and I threw together a quick video about the boot camp which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN8kNfHK7G0

Inquisitive child on Goree Island

Maile’s Malaria Program

A student group's skit

After getting back to Sierra Leone on the 16^th, I hung out in Freetown for a few days. On the 20^th, Maile – the recently anointed head of STOMP for Sierra Leone – held a desensitization on malaria in her community which I was lucky enough to attend. The program lasted a few hours and involved a short, visual demonstration on how malaria is transmitted followed by a skit competition between two local schools and ended with the smashing of a piñata in the shape of a mosquito. The program drew a large crowd who seemed interested and who were active in learning the material. As mentioned before, having school children create skits is wildly successful as both the kids creating the skit and those watching it are much more engaged in the learning process – those creating the skit learn through hands on application of malaria knowledge and those watching learn though relating to their peers. The program as a whole went really well and is something I hope to eventually implement within my community at some point next year.

Smashing the pinata

4th/GBV

After Senegal and Maile’s program, I tried to spend as much time as possible at site as I had been away for over three weeks. Sadly, this only lasted about two weeks as I was asked to attend a gender based violence (GBV) workshop in Freetown with a one of my community members. I believe I’ve mentioned his project here before, but as a refresher I’ll outline it briefly here again.

Sunset at the western most point in Africa

When I first got to site, a community member who used to work for the NGO Concern approached me about the possibility of doing a project centered on gender based violence. He had been trained in creating workshops around the idea and wanted to start a three-day training centered on the role men play in GBV. Instead of just coming to me with the idea and expecting me to take on the project, he typed out an extensive, nine page grant detailing all the specifics of the program he hoped to implement. On top of this, he has been actively working with the police over the past few months here in my village and the district capital to modernize their records in order to provide up-to-date statistics on how prevalent GBV is within our district and town. Because of all of his hard work, I mentioned him to our training manager back during the BCC training and he eventually was invited to the program this past week in Freetown. His GBV program is currently looking for funds and while our post may be able to fund it, I might have to put up a grant that you can all donate to (if you’re so inclined) to get the project off the ground within the next few months.

                

Cute kids at the malaria program

Anyway, because my counterpart and I were invited to Freetown, I decided to get an early jump and head to Bo for the annual 4^th of July celebration with the new volunteers. A large number of the Salone 3s (the group before ours) and Salone 4s (our group) went and it was fun getting back together with a large group of volunteers after not seeing some of them for quite some time. The 4^th celebration also served as sort of last-hurrah for the Salone 3s as most are finishing their service this month or in early August. On top of that, we got to meet some of the new group of volunteers which was fun as well. It was interesting to see what we likely looked like to the Salone 3s just a year ago. The new group is big (I think 57 volunteers?) but the few that I got the chance to talk to seemed like they’ll get along just fine in Sierra Leone.

Goree Island's beautiful streets

After the 4^th a group of us headed out to Freetown to prepare for the GBV conference. I didn’t have too big of a role – in fact I was the only one invited who isn’t on the gender equity committee (thanks counterpart!). I helped out where I could but spent most of the few days in Freetown enjoying the delicious food and occasionally fast internet. As for the program itself, it went really well. Besides PCVs and three counterparts, a representative from Concern, PLAN, and the Ministry of Education all attended and had great things to add to our discussion. The program was much more of a conversation than a lecture and it allowed the counterparts to really get involved and provide some great input.

A window across the ocean

After the end of the program, we said our goodbyes to our guests and headed to the US Embassy for a quick meet-and-greet with the 2^nd lady – Dr. Jill Biden. Apparently she has been traveling with the US ambassador of women’s issues and the director of USAID to a few African countries to talk about GBV and we were somehow invited to attend. Meeting them was rather anticlimactic as we waited a good hour and a half just to take a picture with her, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. I also spent some time talking to a member of USAID’s Guinea team who came for the visit and happened to be a RPCV who had a lot of good advice on life after Peace Corps.

Last night in Dakar, Senegal

Since then I’ve been back at site hanging around for the closing of school (which officially happens on the 18^th). School is largely functionally over, we’re just compiling grades, but 8^th grade is still in attendance due to the fact that their high school entrance exam has been pushed back to sometime in August because of Ebola. In about two weeks we have our MST (or MSC or whatever acronym they’re using now) and from there I’ll be headed out to Paris, France to see my sister and eventually back to the States for the majority of August. Definitely going to enjoy my site as much as possible before heading back, but looking forward to seeing you all once I’m back in the US. Again, thanks for reading! See you all soon!

Back at site

Catching Up, Part 1

Hello again Mr. Blog, it’s been quite some time since we last talked… no, no – it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been busy… Well, not too busy, but too busy to blog anyway. Still, I’m sorry, I’ll try my best to keep you updated more often in the future.

Anywho, there is a lot to catch you all up on from the past few months, but I’ll do my best to update everyone on what’s been happening in Sierra Leone since the holidays.

Part 1:

View of Tokeh Beach from across River No. 2

Term 2 Break

After Christmas break, I didn’t do a whole lot of traveling. Instead, I tried to focus on teaching and staying at my site. I love my site – it’s a great place to spend time, but sadly it doesn't illicit stories that are interesting as leaving site which will be most of the focus in the post below.

At the end of March, I headed to Bo to participate in a behavior change workshop put on by STOMP Out Malaria. The workshop focused on how those around us shape our behaviors and what prevents us from changing said behaviors. While it was specific to malaria, the program applied broadly to all types of behavior change that we might pursue within our communities. In addition to being an interesting topic in general, the structure of the program was rather unique. Instead of simply having one person lecture the entire time about BCC, we worked in small groups to develop our own programs based around the concepts we were talking about. In doing so we immediately applied these ideas and concepts which helped to concretize the abstract elements we were discussing. In turn, making these ideas much more memorable and applicable to our sites.

"Picturesque" Bureh Beach

After the behavior change conference term 2 had ended so I headed out to Freetown to celebrate a volunteers 30th birthday. The celebration was ridiculous but a ton of fun. It was interesting to see the nightlife in Freetown which obviously is a bit different than the nightlife in the smaller villages… A few friends and I decided to head out to Bureh beach the morning after the party. I’ve written about Bureh beach in the past on this blog but the place still blows me away every time I go. Anyway, we took a different way around to get to Bureh beach this time which gave me the chance to explore some of the other beaches along the Freetown peninsula. First stop was in River No. 2 which is one of Sierra Leone’s better known beaches. It’s a beautiful white sand beach but it seemed a bit touristy (as touristy as a place like Sierra Leone can get). The place was mostly full of people from abroad. Likely because of this, the place was also far more expensive than some of Sierra Leone’s other beaches. From River No. 2, we took a boat across the river to Tokeh beach, which is basically just a long extension of River No. 2. It too is a white sand beach and was a bit more reasonable in terms of prices. The place was largely empty however. Beaches here are a bit different than they are in the US in that they’re typically empty outside of big holidays. Anyway, we walked the length of Tokeh beach to a village where we got transport to Bureh beach. While at Bureh, we spent a good amount of time playing jenga with the local surf club guys and hanging out with friends who also decided to spend the holidays at Bureh.

Enjoying a Star beer as the sun goes down at Bureh

After Bureh I was convinced to check out a friend’s site out in Kono. If you don’t know, Kono is the region in which the vast majority of diamond mining took place before and during the war (and were some still takes place today, though on a much smaller scale). My friend’s site was a rather stark reminder of the war and the effects of the diamond trade. The place was a ghost town as the vast majority of the diamond mining had dried up. The one bright spot of the village was an extremely nice school, which I later came to learn was actually a RUF training ground. Sadly, I forgot my camera at home and thus couldn’t take any pictures. I only spent a couple days out there and then returned back to my site to spend some time with my friends here. Overall, it was a nice, relaxing break from school, but I was ready to get back to classes for term 3.

Chris (our helmet specialist) and I getting our bikes transported after the tour

Bike Tour

Term 3 turned out to be much busier than I expected. In early May, the STOMP Out Malaria committee organized their yearly sensitization bike tour in a number of towns in the south. The idea was to put on a number of skits and informal talks about malaria in an effort to dispel some of the persistent rumors and misconceptions about malaria. Malaria is by far Sierra Leone’s biggest killer – 40% of child mortality in Sierra Leone is attributed to the disease. In addition, malaria has untold effects on cognitive development and missed workdays that continue to hinder economic growth throughout the country.

Sean, Kim, and Gibbs acting out the malaria skit at school

Within many communities in Sierra Leone, malaria is largely seen as a mild annoyance. Many adults have been exposed to the disease numerous times throughout their lives and thus have built up a limited amount of resistance. Whereas their parasite load may kill a small child, elderly adult, or those not previously exposed to the disease, adults tend to develop mild to severe symptoms that they typically overcome with a few days of rest. Malaria is treated much in the same way that the common flu is treated America in terms of severity. However, this is a huge mistake as it results in adults going untreated who then pass the disease onto children, the elderly, or the otherwise immunocompromised which can have serious consequences for them.

A group of JSS girl (and Sean) during the tour

Regardless, the bike tour went well. While there were definite missteps in our approach that we will improve upon next year, communities seemed to genuinely enjoy our presentations and asked thoughtful questions throughout. We also had a few schools put on their own skits which turned out great. The kids really got into their acting roles and were much more effective at spreading the message than we could ever hope to be. Overall, we traveled about 50 miles on bike over the course of 6 days, stopping and performing in seven different volunteer villages. I attempted to bike the whole way down but only made it about a third of the way until my bike broke down which quickly became a consistent theme for me (and many others) throughout the tour. Thankfully, there are a number of skilled bike mechanics within our group who were able to keep the bikes up and running. Definitely looking forward to both improving the tour and next year’s trip.

Another picture of Bureh because, why not?

Temne Training
Towards the end of May, a number of volunteers and I organized a small weekend training focused on our mutual local language. The sessions lasted two days and involved a counterpart from our communities. Thankfully, here at site, I have an awesome teacher who sets aside a good amount of time to offer me informal classes in Temne. The program itself turned out to be a bit different than what we expected, though not necessarily in a negative way. We were hoping to really dig into the grammatical “meat” of Temne but instead we focused on how to use Temne to talk about issues within our communities. We covered HIV/AIDS, malaria, teenage pregnancy, and sanitation. While this threw a lot of the volunteers off, the counterparts really got into talking over the issues and discussing the correct way to pronounce things in Temne. It was great to see them so involved and committed to teaching out and preserving their local language. Hopefully we can organize something similar again in the near future that will focus more on grammar, but overall it was a good training and it got my counterpart really excited about teaching more Temne.

Sunset Soccer at Bureh

Marathon

Immediately after the language training, Street Child – a NGO in Makeni – put on a marathon to raise funds for their cause. The British NGO was founded to help children affected by the war but as slowly transitioned to making sure kids can go to school by paying for their school fees, uniforms, and books. The marathon draws runners from all over the world and is known to be particularly grueling due to the heat and humidity. Despite this, over two thousand people showed up to run. I chose to keep it simple and ran the 5k with some other volunteers. Two volunteers did run the full marathon (and a handful ran the half) which was really impressive. It was fun experience. Hopefully next year I’ll be so bold as to run a 10k or a half, but we shall see where I stand on that as time approaches.

Regardless, thanks for reading. Looking forward to seeing you all in a few short weeks! Stay tuned, I’ll post part 2 later today.