5/31/2009
I’m very quickly coming up on my first month in site. One down, only 23 left to go!! Doesn’t seem like much, does it?
Things have been going well up on the mountain, when I’ve had the chance to be in site! There is a lot of travel associated with various things necessary to getting situated here. For the first few weeks I was frantic to be in site, but lately things have calmed down quite a bit. I have been home enough to get to know my family and my counterpart really well, and I’m getting to know my neighbors, too! Language is still a struggle, but imiq imiq! People are very forgiving.
I’m also making a much more of a connection with my counterpart and am working on getting in touch with community leaders. Right now it’s a bit difficult because we’re getting ready for the community elections, coming up here on the 12th. The election that my community is dealing with is for the local commune, which is kind of like the town council. My counterpart says that there are a lot of problems in town right now that will disappear when the elections are over.
6/10/2009
It’s been a long time since I’ve really been able to sit down and write. No, that’s the wrong way to describe it. I’ve had the time, space, and motivation to sit down and write, but I’ve been experiencing a bit of writers block lately. Seems like everything I pull up this journal I get through a few sentences and then get distracted by something- a novel, solitaire, my maternal health book, or just sleeping. Maybe this is a result of my increased comfort in my environment here, because I certainly have started to feel much more involved in my community life. As a result, the things that I used to think of as fuel for these journals are now more just a common part of my life than something special.
However, that doesn’t mean that the magic of living here is gone. I’ve been reading a book called “The Traveler’s History of North Africa,” which documents life in North Africa from the time when the Sahara was either forest or grasslands, populated by giraffes, elephants, and many other species, many of which are extinct, through to Morocco’s last king, Hassan II. It’s an amazing book, and I am even more aware then ever of how amazingly lucky I am to live in this place.
Morocco has been touched by the influence of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Early Christian Byzantines, Arabs, conflicting Amazigh dynasties, and European colonial powers, most specifically those of France and Spain. And yet, through out that, the Amazigh people of my region have been constant.
There are Amazighren in the Sahara, still traveling ancient trade routes to West Africa. There are Amazighren in Libya who have resisted even the influence of Islam. There are people here who travel from Moroccan (Western) Sahara, up the Atlas mountain chains, and into Algeria on a yearly basis. Some of them are camped on the plain not to far outside of my site, and even more of them are living down in the valley around my souk town, selling wood most likely poached from the National Park.
I feel pretty lucky to be here. The more I learn about Morocco, the more fascinated I am. Even my little isolated mountain community has so much amazing history and tradition, stemming from conflict, struggle, success, and change. Perhaps learning Tamazight is not going to help me much should I decide that I want to go into some sort of international health organization. Perhaps the Islam that is practiced here is so dramatically different from that which is practiced in most other Muslim countries. But I have learned so much about people, about myself, and about both Morocco and the US already. And of course just the act of learning makes me more fit to participate in the global community.
6/17/2009
I got up early on Monday morning in order to join my counterpart and two other nurses on the equippe mobile trip. The equippe mobile is a traveling vaccination sensation. The goal is to vaccinate as many woman and children as possible in the outer douars. Most of these people cannot come to sbitar to get their children vaccinated, so we go to them. Birth control, vitamins (especially A- a pretty common deficiency around here), and some medications are handed out. They also tested blood pressure and did some very basic consultations. I didn’t do much except watch and chat with people, but I feel like I learned a ton.
Because this is obviously very time consuming work and the douars are fairly spread out, this adventure has lasted three days already and will continue tomorrow.
It has been interesting to scope out the other douars in my site. My site is technically all the douars served by the sbitar in my town. There are 13 all together, but one has it’s own small sbitar who does vaccinations there, so it isn’t on our list. My town is obviously the wealthiest douar in the area, but that’s not saying much. The same health issues that exist here are present in each douar. Almost all of the most common things stem from the lack of hygiene. Diarrhea, viruses, ear infections, infected wounds, and rashes are what we saw the most of. Also herniated navels in infants (they go away on their own), night blindness (caused by vitamin A deficiency), and slight birth defects that my counterpart says is the result of inbreeding. I saw one hairlip and one infant showing signs of birth defects, possibly caused by the lack of iodine in the diet of the mother while she was pregnant.
The other major issue we encountered was hypertension. A few women my counterpart obviously sees and treats regularily, but there was one new case that was pretty interesting. One of the mothers brought along her younger sister, was is three months pregnant. When the nurse tested her blood pressure, he found that it was unusually high. High blood pressure during pregnancy is a sign of toximia, which in turns become eclampsia. The woman was 20 years old, and had higher blood pressure than any of the older woman we saw in the day. The nurse made the sister go home to get the woman’s husband and made him promise that he would take her to the doctor in the morning. I watched the man start to complain that he was building a house, and the woman said she didn’t want to go on the transit because she might throw up. I don’t really understand what he said in response, but I think it scared them enough to go. I hope.
The other thing I was on the look out for was how I would be treated in these villages. In towns that are on the main paved road from, people showed the usual interest in me, but were not afraid or overly surprised that I spoke Tamazight. In the towns away from the road, children would run away or start crying when I said hello. Most woman, not expecting to be able to understand me, kept telling me they didn’t understand what I was saying, even though they often responded to my questions. In the towns by the road, girls and woman talked to me, let me hold their babies, and invited me in for tea. In towns away from the road, they spoke only to the nurses and looked uncomfortable when I was near them. I now have a better idea about what towns I can visit on my own, and which I will go to with back up.
Of course another goal of my equippe mobile adventure was to look into educational possibilities. There seemed to be plenty of time when woman and children are just standing around. The kids really like watching the vaccinations being given, so I think I could do a little session on why and what vaccinations are, as well as simple hygiene lessons and perhaps some pre/post-natal care for woman. One of our other equippe mobile adventures in the upcoming months will be for measles vaccinations in the schools. This will be another good time to do some teaching, I hope!
6/19/09
Since the end of the equippe mobile adventure, I have been glued to my notebook and copy of Where There Are No Doctors. My interest in translating the health survey has doubled. I am feeling really good about it all.
One of the major problems that Peace Corps volunteers face is a feeling like they do not have enough work to keep themselves occupied. I am not really worried that I will have that problem. I think one of the reasons is because I have been a health teacher in the past, and I know how slowly this type of education moves. Also, I did not come here with the expectation that I was going to need to have one big project to get done. I do not feel the need to build a new sbitar or completely change birthing practices in the span of two years.
However, that said, there are a couple of potential big projects. The first one relates back to the neddi. The last volunteer here got PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Program) money to build tables and purchase supplies for the neddi so Arabic literacy classes could be held there. Once the tables and other supplies are there, helping to get the classes started and continued will probably take a lot my time every week. If this works out, this could potentially be a very rewarding project. The health of the individual, the family, and the community are very much tied in with education. Literacy among rural Moroccan woman is less than 15%. In my conversations with my counterpart about the health issues facing the community, it is clear that the lack of education for woman is at the root of many of them.
There are potentially two water/sanitation projects that are already in motion with the community, but I may be asked to participate. One is getting running water to the houses in town. The other is getting a hammam built. These are both projects that have nothing to do with me, but if they ask for my help, I am so there!
So as far as work goes, I’m feeling good. Feeling pretty good about my integration into the community, as well. I have friends here. There are people who just skip the greeting process and get straight to chit-chatting. My language is improving at a steady pace, and I get along well with my counterpart. I have to go to my souk town on Sunday for my usual tutoring session, but I don’t want to go! I haven’t been out of site for two weeks, and yet I want to stay. That’s a good sign, I think.
