Death

So yesterday I heard wailing and crying. If I hadn’t been so sick I would have wandered out to see what was going on. I was pretty sure somebody had died and then I saw members of my friend’s family walking by my house with mourners whose faces were covered with scarves.

Today my homologue came by and told me that it was Aissatou’s (one of the girls I took to girls’ conference) dad who had died, up in Guinea-Bissau. Her brother, Alpha, a good friend of the last volunteer, was there when it happened and sent word to someone in the big city south of us who brought the news here. Apparently the man had been sick for a couple of years so it was not completely unexpected, but still a sad event. Apparently Aissatou has gone au village for mourning. Tomorrow if I feel better I am going to go over and offer my condolences to the rest of the family. I feel bad that I didn’t go today but after my homologue left I was puking in my bucket again because I just can’t stand for very long. Or at all.

I’m supposed to go do the other beds of Gmelina at the pepiniere with my homologue tomorrow but I think I will ask if we can push it to Wednesday because even if I feel better it’s good to give it a buffer day, you know?

Also apparently the new Sous Prefet moved in yesterday. Haven’t met him yet. Too sick to go greet. Same as giving condolences, if I feel better tomorrow I will go do it.

October 15 is Global Day for Handwashing with Soap. The need for this? Unlike in the Western World, here in the Developing World people barely even wash their hands with water, let alone soap (fact made worse that their left hand is used for wiping after going to the bathroom). In fact I don’t even know if you can buy soap in my village (other than the dish/laundry soap)! If you can’t, that’ll be one of the goals, to get a boutique owner to start carrying soap. I am going to do events with the school and the health center. Any suggestions for specific activities? One thing I want to do is set up public hand washing stations at the two places (school and health center). I can also teach the “lave tes mains” song (which goes to the tune of “Frere Jaques”. I also had the idea of giving away bars of soap as prizes, but for what? I know I have a lot of creative friends out there, so send me any ideas you have.