Hey there folks, sorry it’s been so long, but I’ve been in a bit of a transition. I’m moving from Ait Helouan to a small town far up in the Eastern High Atlas Mountains. Most other peace corps volunteers (PCV) have entered into their sites a week ago. But I still haven’t even set foot in my site. For the past week I have been coordinating with the local Gendarme (like the police but not, I’ll explain another time) to have much of my paper work processed, helped with a 5K in nearby Middlt (When I say nearby I mean 3 hours away) to raise AIDS awareness, and made my way to the large city of Khunifera to meet with the heads of the Khunifera health department (Khunifera is my province). I’ve been a busy man and am excited to get to my site tomorrow. But what am I going to actually do once I get to my site? That’s a big problem indeed. So let me deliberate a little as to what I’m thinking or at least have heard.
While in Khunifera, I met with several department heads and heard many different ideas of what is needed. It seems that there is a basic need to connect the people in these rural bled (country side) areas to the medical support that is available. For instance in my site there is a doctor and nurse, a clinic where I will hopefully work where pregnant women can be examined, children can be vaccinated, and pre/post-natal care can be delivered. But no one goes. Why?
It can’t be money because all the vaccinations and exams are free. The clinic is in site so transportation shouldn’t be such a large problem, although for some women in farther out cities this very well could be a complication. But from what I’ve heard from previous volunteers, a big problem is that these women don’t trust the doctors or simply don’t see the importance.
So my job is behavior modification, i.e. get these women to trust the doctor/nurse and to give a damn. But that raises another question, how am I going to change their behavior and get them to seek the health care they need? And is that the specific health care problem these people are facing? I don’t know. Hell, I don’t even know how to ask. So I’m going to do what every other health volunteer has told me they have done their first few months here, sit in a sbitar and talk until I just know. Until I know what people are saying, what they want, what they think, and what I can do for them.
Of course this is all if I can even get to my site. For the past two days I've waited for a big white and green cargo van called a transit to come rumbling down the street, driven by an old weathered Moroccan named Mustapha. Happened to finally meet Mustapha today as he rolled into town and I was told that he would be heading to Anemzi at 3:00. I waited from 2:30 until 5:00 unti outside a cafe with everything I own until I finally was told the transit left at 1:30. Enshahala (God willing) I will make it tomorrow. Looks like tonight is another night at my fellow PCVs' houses.
Peace America!
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