Journée Mondiale de Lutte Contre le Paludisme

Journée Mondiale de Lutte Contre le Paludisme

April 25^th is World Malaria Day. 

For my health club at the CEG, April was our Malaria month. 

Week one, we reviewed how malaria is transmitted. Week 2, prevention methods. And Week 3, why it’s important to receive proper treatment. 

Week 4, we painted a mural, planned a skit, and on (what was supposed to be Friday, April 25^th) hosted a community event to celebrate World Malaria Day. 

This would be their first presentation and they’d get to wear their new health club shirts (courtesy of Wharton Rotary Club). 

It went.. well. But I definitely learned a lot about event planning in West Africa..

This thing was planned to a “T”. I don’t know where that expression comes from, but it’s appropriate here. 

LESSON #1: The more you have planned, the more you have to go wrong.

Besides prepping the health club, I had a few more things up my sleeve (not really sure where that expression comes from either… magicians maybe?) 

I had bought tons of needles and thread to make a bed net repairing station. Complete with a sign, illustrated with pictures and why repairing your bed net is important. 

I asked the dispensaire to borrow their buckets and key to the pump for water to set up a net washing station. Also complete with a sign, illustrated with pictures and why washing your bed net is important. 

I even bought string to tie up in between all the trees so that people could hang their nets to dry in the shade (direct sunlight is bad for them). Plus tape that they could write their names on and use to label their nets so they didn’t get mixed up. 

I made small demographic sheets to give to the ASCs (community health workers) so that they could help me count the number of people attending. Each would have one sheet and be responsible for the people attending from their quartier (neighborhood). This would also give me an idea of how the event location related to the event audience. 

I planned to buy a trashcan worth of tchouk (that’s a lot). Every person that brought a bed net would get a ticket for a free calabash. It provided motivation and allowed me to count the number of bed nets brought. I’d simply pick up the tickets from the tchouk lady after the event. 

I planned to give my health club kids questions to ask the community after the presentation was over. If they got the questions right, they got a ticket to go in a drawing. After 30 minutes, we would take the tickets and draw for prizes. This way I could see how many people took away the important information from the event. 

I had spoken with the director of the CEG 2 weeks prior to the event to see if we could host the event on the actual Africa Malaria Day – April 25^th. If not, we’d have it Saturday, April 26^th. 

I was told we couldn’t have it April 26^th because that was a day reserved for killing cows (the fete du boeuf mentioned in my last blog post: Fetes on Fetes on Fetes). The director said he’d be willing to move devoirs (homework sessions) from that afternoon to a different time so we could have our event then. 

Great. All the preplanning was complete. Time for execution. 

I printed and sent out invitations to all the notable people in village and told the ASCs (community health workers) to spread the word. 

If only it had been that simple…

When I returned the Monday before the Friday of the event to remind the director, he had completely forgotten. (Reminders, calendars, scheduling notebooks, those aren’t really a thing here..) He told me they scheduled a BEPC (middle school exit exam) practice that afternoon and couldn’t cancel it. And Saturday was, of course, already out of the picture because of the cow party. He brought up the next Monday, but that would require moving devoirs again. He finally suggested Wednesday, April 30^th. There’s no school Wednesday afternoons so it wouldn’t have any scheduling conflicts (well.. ideally anyway)

I was a bit worried that it was market day, but he assured me if we started inviting people this week, every one could plan there market time around the event.

LESSON #2: Never. Ever. Have an event on market day. 

I “knew” that. But didn’t really “know” that until the day of the event. We’ll get to why in a bit. 

I spoke with my homologue and we decided to have it at noon. Just when kids got out of morning classes so that the health club could stick around for their presentation before continuing on with their day. We also figured noon was early enough that people could go to the market afterwards.

I asked him if I needed to print new invitations and he said not to worry about it. He would inform the people of interest about the changes. 

LESSON #3: If you’re making changes to written, distributed information. Write it and distribute again. Word of mouth is great at the moment, but when people forget what they talked about 2 days ago, they read whatever is right in front of them. 

I continued on with my week. The health club got more practice time for their skit and I finished some outlines on the mural. 

The original Friday date came and went, with everything in place for the next Wednesday. 

After church on Sunday several people stopped me to stay they came by the CEG Friday but no one was there. I apologized profusely and explained the new date and the reason for the change. They said they understood and they’d come out on Wednesday.

LESSON #3: If people make the effort once, they’re not going to do it again. It’s like the boy who cried wolf. But they only needed once false alarm to be too wary about the second one to make the trek.. especially in the midday sun. I’ll jump to the conclusion: they didn’t show. 

I set a time with my homologue to meet up Wednesday for set up. Event was at “noon” so we’d meet at 11am. The music guys would be there by 11:30. Class would get out at noon and the dispensaire would close at noon, so by the time people showed and we get the desks out of the classroom, it’d be more like 12:30 by the time we started. 

LESSON #4: Everyone is late. To everything. 

Another thing I “knew”, but didn’t really “know” until this event. 

I show up at 11am with my buckets and baskets, full of nervous excitement. I figured my homologue would be 10-15 min late so I’d do what I could without him. That took all of 5 minutes. I really needed help hanging the string in the trees because I was too short. 

11:30. No sign of him. 11:45. Nothing. No music guys either. 

Ben shows up at noon. While kids are already leaving school. Music guys show up at 12:15 to set up. And we are done setting up the desks outside by 12:45. Dispensaire staff shows up at 1. 

So an hour later, where’s our audience?

Because they certainly weren’t at the school. 

I had 35 faithful, blue outfitted, health club kids there and two adorable little old women with their bug nets in hand. 

Even the community health workers (ASCs) were absent - the people who were supposed to come help me keep track of the population. Though, I guess it would have been pointless since there wasn't exactly one to be kept track of..

I think the most disappointing thing was that none of my close friends in village came. If I can't expect the people I spend the most time with, who know my efforts better than anyone else, to care about my work, how can I can get anyone else to?

LESSON #5: Know the soccer schedule. Apparently there was a game at 4pm that day. So.. everyone we expected to go to the market after our event, went during it instead so they’d be back for the game. 

LESSON #6: Know the Togolese holidays. May 1st, Premiere Mai, is a HUGE holiday in Togo. The day immediately following our event. People were gearing up for that and had no interest in attending a malaria “party” when they’d have a real party the very next day. 

The universe had conspired to make Wednesday, April 30^th, to be THE ABSOLUTE WORST DAY to plan a community event in my village. Between the market, soccer game, and the day before a holiday, it’s no surprise the turnout was so poor. 

LESSON #7: No one tells the Yovo (foreigner) anything. IF I HAD KNOWN ALL OF THOSE THINGS I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DUMB ENOUGH TO PLAN AN EVENT FOR THAT DAY. I was already skeptical about market day. I certainly wasn’t on an event suicide mission. 

It’s like when church is cancelled and I show up anyway. Or when I hear drums one night and the next morning people ask why I missed the fete. Or I show up to work at the dispensaire and the staff asks why I missed the polio vaccinations the day before. I am not God and all knowing. Nor am I Togolese. YOU GOTTA TELL ME THESE THINGS, PEOPLE.

Despite the poor turnout, the event went as well as anyone could have hoped. My homologue gave a brief introduction about why we were having this gathering. My health club performed their skit and presented their mural. The major of the dispensaire gave a causerie on malaria and I got to wonder around and take pictures. Plus, with so few people, everyone got free tchouk!

In the end we had about 40 people show up -- some of the other school kids who had left returned, a few parents of the health club students showed up late, and every one within earshot of the microphone being used at the school walked over to see what was going on. 

We washed 10 nets that day and I personally repaired 3. 

It wasn’t the “party” I was hoping for, but it was something. I really wanted it to be a huge success and something that my village would adopt for every annual African Malaria Day. I guess those expectations were a little too high. 

LESSON #8: Celebrate the small victories. 

Really I was just worried about my kids. They had worked so hard. They had these snazzy new shirts that made them the envy of every kid at school. And they painted this amazing mural and planned a hilarious skit. I just wanted them to feel like what they had learned really mattered and be proud of presenting it to a big group of people. 

In the end, I think they really really enjoyed the experience. Even the kids that act like they’re too cool for the club (though they show up every Wednesday) turned out to be some of the club’s biggest assets that day. They asked to keep the shirts for the holiday the next day and I agreed (The shirts are property of the school, not the kids. That way as the health club continues each year, they won’t have to have a Peace Corps volunteers to buy them new shirts). 

That’s when they planned their surprise for the Premiere Mai parade (also in my last blog: Fetes on Fetes on Fetes). 

Things here aren’t always going to turn out like I expect. Or ever like I expect. 

It’s easy to tell yourself that, but it doesn’t mean you don’t still experience the disappointment when that proves to be true. 

I feel that’s one of the biggest challenges of Peace Corps service -- comparing what you want the results of your efforts to be to what they actually turn out to be, and accepting that there’s almost always going to be a deficit. 

But surprises by my health club, having people beam with gratitude at the one big hole in their bed net being repaired, and watching teenage Togolese boys, who don’t seem to have a sense of responsibility for anything, man a bed net washing station without being asked are the things you don’t expect. 

And the things that make it all worthwhile.

(And I've been sick in the med unit for 3 days with time to do THIS. Finally, some visuals to bring life to all these words...)

Thanks again to the Wharton Rotary Club for their contributions after my presentation back in March. Their support bought the supplies for the mural and the shirts for the kids. (If any of you read this, my mom should have emailed you a picture…)

To the little things! (a cliché phrase that is often oh-so-true)

Kumealo