The pics that didn't publish

For some reason the internet cut out yesterday, as I was trying to upload my pics. Here are the pictures that go with yesterday's blog post:

I'm back!

Dear all,

First off, any apologies for not updating the blog is over a month. Roughly a month ago I had an auto-electrical issue with the car, which took a week to resolve. I was stranded outside the village (in a beachy surf town, so it could have been worse) waiting for the repairs, and have been busy since I got back. The more time that elapsed between blog updates, the more daunting the task of actually updating it became. I've finally decided that I have no hope of filling you in on the events of the past month, so I'll focus on little snippets of the past couple weeks.

The biggest news is that I have substantially changed the nature of my volunteer job for the local NGO in a way which is very exciting for my research. I'm now working with the local Community Health Worker to do an in-depth qualitative and quantitative profiling of all the families in the village. The profiling schedule, guide, questionaire, survey (whatever you want to call it) was designed by me, with input from the NGO director and the Community Health Worker's. I've shamelessly included questions which will further my research, but I've been transparent about it. And I'm now out in the community A LOT, which is fantastic.

The only downside to this new activity is that the challenges faced by some families in this community are more in-my-face than they were before. My medical anthro/public health friends would be particularly appalled by the unacceptably poor medical care that is available at the local clinic. By way of example: two weeks ago I visited a family, and the first thing the mother of the family did was explain that she's having problems with her TB medication. She'd been on treatment for active TB, and had gone to the nearest clinic (across the river, in the next village) to get more meds. She could tell that she'd been given different medication than the last time she went, however, and was concerned that her new medication wasn't working; she was coughing up blood again. I asked her to show me her new medication. It turned out to be vitamin C (it said so right on the package)! This woman is illiterate, so she couldn't read the packaging. Now she probably has antibiotic-resistant TB, and has likely infected the rest of her household. Sigh.

On a more positive note, this past weekend was an exciting one in the village. Five young initiates (basically, young men who have gone through ritual circumcision and three months of preparation for adulthood in seclusion from the community) returned to the families. This was a cause for great celebration, much beer-drinking, and, for the younger men, stick-fighting. The whole extravaganza lasted all weekend, and all the women turned out in their best head-wraps, beads, and facepaint for the occasion (see photo of perhaps the most dignified of grannies. She was very excited to pose for the photo).

Also, the weekend before went to Port St John's, a small town a few hours up the coast. These lovely signs were on bottle stores where we (as in, myself and other guests at the backpacker lodge where I stayed) stopped to buy beer en route to some waterfalls.

Finally, the school term ended last week, which means my after-school program is on haitus until the kids return to classes in late July. The picture is of my grade 5s, showing off these woven plate things that we made.

More updates to follow! xoxox