For two whole weeks in the month of December, I was the
luckiest spring chicken west of the Sahara because I was one of 30-ish Peace
Corps Volunteers representing 13 African countries invited to attend Stomp Out
Malaria Boot Camp in Thies, Senegal.
For two weeks we were put to the test with malaria
life-cycle drills, behavior change exercises, skype dates with world renowned
malaria experts, inter-Africa collaborative idea-exchange sessions and skills
building activities. All of this was conducted under the strict but tempered
eye of our sergeant, Stomp Out Malaria in Africa Coordinator, Matt McLaughlin.
And boy did it get me in shape. Not any sort of physical
shape mind you, except that of some sort of amorphous blob after stuffing my
face non-stop with the magnificent, protein packed, vegetable filled, divine, delectable,
overly abundant food provided at the Thies Training Center (we had two
pause-cafés a day with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juice, bean sandwiches, and
beignets spread out before us like a feast in the Hogwarts Great Hall in addition
to three exceptional meals!).
But it got my head in shape. In fact, my mind, that may
have been before like some partially-inflated balloon, perusing through,
ruminating in and toiling over a variety of ideas without any really taking
root and developing, is now on the brink of bursting.
I have so many ideas!!
I won’t bore you with the details as of now (I’ll leave
that for a future post in which I can write rules for a drinking game and
insert dirty jokes to help get your through it). But I assure you, they are
there. And their timeliness was impeccable.
Before Malaria Nerd Camp, uh-hem, I mean, before Malaria
Boot Camp, I was in a bit of a slump. Around six months in, many volunteers
experience a bout of homesickness (our medical officers call this the
“Rollercoaster”). This got jumbled in with my general fall nostalgia and the realization
that most all the projects I had been devoting time to thus far were beginning
to finish up without my having any specific idea about what I would do next. I was in need of some inspiration.
And Malaria Boot Camp provided that.
We began by bringing in the USAID/President’s Malaria
Initiative representative to give us the low down on all the big profile
players in the malaria “in crowd”. She scrolled through slides of each organization,
offering information on location and current activities, a bit like I imagine
an FBI briefing to infiltrate a big organized crime ring. We were each equipped
to be able to identify them on sight, know how to approach them and subtly suggest
ways we could work together.
Later we skyped in a medical entomologist at the CDC. He
got so excited about mosquitoes that he started bugging out and put his open
hands up on either side of the his mouth to flap them together, demonstrating
mosquito eating behavior. We got to hear
all about the world of mosquito control – what’s out there, how it works, what
flies and what doesn’t. Safe to say he
got us buzzing.
A representative from the PATH, an international NGO head-quartered
in Seattle, came online to introduce to us the next Big Kahuna in malaria
control: the first ever malaria vaccine. While a variety of different vaccines
are in the works, there is one undergoing final efficacy trials that is set to be
approved and become available to children all over Africa in the next year
(inshallah=god willing!). While it won’t
be 100% effective and isn’t meant for the entire population, it has tremendous
potential. There has never been a successful disease eradication campaign
conducted without an available vaccine (NOTE: the eradication of guinea worm is
very close but this is a rare circumstance made possible the largeness of the
parasite and the mode of transmission).
With USAID reps in Washington we talked about gender and
malaria; ways to ensure that our programs do not systematically exclude any
subsects of the population, particularly along gender lines.
With NGO reps, former Peace Corps volunteers and current
Peace Corps volunteers we talked about ways to made malaria education not only digestible
but delightful, such as using soccer analogies developed by Grassroots Soccer,
a South Africa-based NGO.
We even talked about making radio shows, taking pictures
and using different forms of media to get people interested in supporting the
fight against malaria.
But in all of this, perhaps what was most inspiring, was
the time spent with other volunteers. It is an inexplicably wonderful feeling
to be a part of a group of all like-minded people, engaged equally in the
intricacies of a subject that many people couldn’t care less about (is this
what going to band camp is like?). From dawn until dusk (and sometimes to dawn
again without sleeping), we shared stories of our generally comparable but
sometimes quite distinct Peace Corps experiences, as well as our experiences in
malaria-affected communities. We shared our thoughts about what does and
doesn’t work in the world of malaria prevention and where we think the future
of control efforts lies. And we shared our dream of working together during
Peace Corps service and beyond to see to it that this this larcener of lives, this
marauder of moxie, this despoiler of dreams, this ominous umbra darkening the
days of millions of affected communities not only in Africa but around the
world, is done away with once and for all – to see to it that in our lifetime malaria
is eradicated.
While I was sad to bid adieu to all of my new friends and
send them back to their respective African countries, I myself was genuinely
excited to go back to village and get back to work.
(I only had a 3-day detour on the way back that rerouted
me through Dakar for a TB test before I could get there. But don’t worry, it
was negative!)
And now that I have made it back, I’m ready to get back
to work.
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| My Fellow Boot Camp Nerds |
#StompOutMalaria
