Every day I go to my Health Post and sit there from 9am-2pm. People come, I register their name, age, symptoms and the medicine we give them. We see mostly cases of malaria and diarrhea. There are days when it’s just me and about 20 children at the Health Post, who come to watch the “Toubabou” (white person) and so I give them health and hygiene presentations. The other day I gave one on hand washing. This is something that we are used to doing, but here it isn’t done--especially not with soap. So I ask the kids, “When do you wash your hands?” After I get some answers or tell them the right answers, we all wash our hands with soap and water. Then we get back together and I ask them again, “When do you wash your hands?” I will be giving presentations to adults, as well, on hygiene, family planning, nutrition, malaria prevention, diarrhea, and AIDS.
Melissa Albert serves in Guinea as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Public Health
Caledonia native serving in Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa
By Melissa Albert
Special to The Argus
Bonjour family and friends! This is Melissa Albert writing from Guinea, West Africa, where I am currently serving as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Public Health. As a 2002 graduate of CHS and a 2007 graduate of Winona State University with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation, I thought some of you may be interested in my journey and experience halfway around the world.
It all started the summer before my final year of college. I was getting ready to graduate and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I had been intrigued by the Peace Corps since high school so one day I just decided to apply and see what happened. I use the term “one day” loosely because it took me over two months to gradually fill out the application and fulfill the requirements. But a year and five months later, I stepped off a plane in Guinea with 36 other people from all over the United States. That was December 2007, and if all goes well, I will serve 27 months and return to the United States sometime in March 2010.
My assignment for the first two months was simply to acclimate to the culture and my surroundings. In order to do that, I lived with a host family where they taught me what I needed to know about daily life in Guinea. There were things I had to adjust to, like hearing a goat bleating outside my window in the morning and eating it for supper that night; spiders as big as my hand carrying dead baby mice across the floor; riding with ten people in a taxi or biking everywhere; and trying to get my point across without speaking the language. For two months, we had intense language training (the national language is French, but there are many different dialects) and we received specific training for the sector to which we were assigned. Along with Health Education, the other sectors are Small Business Enterprise and Agroforestry. There will be an Education sector arriving in mid-July.
During the first two months that I lived with my host family, I had a brief visit to the village that would become my permanent home. When I arrived via taxi with my counterpart, the man I would work with daily, almost the entire town was there to greet me. There was music and dancing and I was given gifts of oranges, bananas and kola nuts as a sign of great respect. Then the time came for me to see where I would be living for the next two years. We walked through the village with everyone carrying something of mine, even my water bottle, and came to a stop in front of a huge, round mud hut with a thatched roof and a big fenced-in yard. This is the place I would call home. All the excitement and seeing it for the first time brought tears to my eyes. All I could manage to say was “Je suis tres content,” “Ï am very happy.”
After living with a host family for two months, I moved into my one-room mud hut with a diameter of about 15 ft. which is where I now live by myself. I spent another three months integrating into the community and gaining their trust. I was both surprised and pleased one day when I found out we were granted permission to open a Health Post right here in the village. The nearest health facility is 6km away (about 4 miles) and in Guinea, especially the villages, people don’t own cars. They walk, bike or take a taxi everywhere.
My village has about 3,000 people, no electricity, and no running water. Every day, I walk 50 yards from my hut to a pump where I fill up my container of water. I use this water for drinking (after it’s been through a filter), cooking, doing dishes, laundry, and my bucket bath (which is just what it sounds like—a bucket of water dumped over my head). I do all my laundry the old fashioned way (by hand with a washboard); I cook on a gas stove and my shower/bathroom is in a roofless, enclosed area in my backyard. The closest other PC volunteer to me works in Agroforestry and is 27km away (about 17 miles). We bike to and from each other’s huts about once a month. On her last visit here she helped me plant my garden. We planted beds of tomatoes, carrots, corn, potatoes, parsley, cabbage, lettuce, pumpkin, cauliflower, and watermelon. There are two seasons here in Guinea, the dry season and the wet season. We are now in the wet season so I don’t have to water them, just have to weed every few days.
Every day I go to my Health Post and sit there from 9am-2pm. People come, I register their name, age, symptoms and the medicine we give them. We see mostly cases of malaria and diarrhea. There are days when it’s just me and about 20 children at the Health Post, who come to watch the “Toubabou” (white person) and so I give them health and hygiene presentations. The other day I gave one on hand washing. This is something that we are used to doing, but here it isn’t done--especially not with soap. So I ask the kids, “When do you wash your hands?” After I get some answers or tell them the right answers, we all wash our hands with soap and water. Then we get back together and I ask them again, “When do you wash your hands?” I will be giving presentations to adults, as well, on hygiene, family planning, nutrition, malaria prevention, diarrhea, and AIDS.
During these presentations, I need to have someone translate for me because very few people in my village speak French. Their native tongue is called Malinke. So that is another challenge for me to overcome. But I like the Malinke language and am learning, as with everything else, “donin donin”--little by little.
I am truly happy to be here. I absolutely love my village. The work is hard--not physically, but emotionally, and I’ve had my share of ups and downs. I have days when I question my reason for coming here and then days that question is answered.
I have access to internet once every month or two and am able to get mail once a month. If you feel like writing, I would love to hear from you. Mail is one thing we all look forward to receiving—we are hungry for news from home. An international letter costs 94 cents for one ounce.
I love and miss you all. I think about home but know this is where I should be. I have never felt so right about a decision in my life. Take care and as we say in Malinke, “An be kofe” (on bay kohfay), “See you later.”
