We were all sitting outside under the big neem tree, wishing that we had snacks to eat. One of the teachers brought out a bucket of shea fruit for us to snack on. I personally can't appreciate shea in any other form besides lotion, so I politely declined. The other teachers dug right in. The last teacher to join us was also offered some of the fruit to eat. He refused saying that when he eats shea fruit he gets malaria. WHAT?!
After some inner chuckling I look at him and asked him to repeat what he had said. He said "Chaque fois que je mange de karité je suis malade avec palu" (Every time I eat shea I get sick with malaria). The other teachers all seemed to agree with this statement. Wow. So I thought to myself, what a great time to teach about the real facts of malaria.
According to the World Health Organization-
"Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs."
*In 2010 malaria caused an estimated 660 000 deaths (with an uncertainty range of 490 000 to 836 000), mostly among African children
Malaria is preventable and curable!
I asked the teachers at my school to give me some examples of how they thought people contracted malaria. Some of the answers are as follow-
1. If you take a shower too late at night you will get malaria
2. Eating shea will give you malaria
3. Travelling at night will give you malaria
4. Too much sun will give you malaria
5. Rainy season gives you malaria- Bingo!!!
I decided to take this last fact and start from there. I am not the sort of teacher that likes to just give away answers so I asked questions to try and get them to arrive at the right answer
-Rainy season gives you malaria?
-Yes
-Why?
-Because there is a lot of water, when there is a lot of water people get sick with malaria.
-Ok...this is true. But what is there a lot of when there is a lot of water?
-There are a lot of mosquitoes.
Tah-dah!
I explained to them that rainy season is that time of year when most people get sick with malaria but they can get sick with malaria year-round because it's actually the mosquitoes that bite them. I picked up a stick and drew a picture in the sand of how malaria is transmitted. I explained to them the mosquitoes are the ONLY way to get malaria, that the teacher could eat shea until he turned into shea butter and that was not how he was going to get malaria. We went over all the myths that they had heard and we discussed why they were not true.
After talking about the ways that people contract malaria, it's EXTREMELY important to talk about the ways that malaria can be prevented. I told them that the easiest way to prevent malaria is to use the FREE bed nets that they get from the CSPS. Even if they sleep outside all they have to do is just hook it up and sleep under it. Also, removed stagnate water from courtyards and shower areas is an easy way to get rid of mosquito breeding grounds.
The teachers were all really engaged and asked a lot of questions. It was amazing. We made a plan for me to come in the each class and teach all the kids of the school about malaria and malaria prevention. I'm also going to get out in the community and let people know the causes and prevention methods of malaria.
Also side-note, I'm a survivor of malaria. I got malaria last year, I had it on my birthday (happy birthday to me). I was feeling sort of feverish one day while traveling to Nate's site. I kept taking ibuprofen to keep it down. It would go away but it would eventually come back. The next day I was just feeling sort of crappy still but didn't think anything of it. I just wasn't feeling myself and had no appetite. I told Nate that I was going to take a nap, 2 hours later I woke up feeling just horrendous. I asked Nate for a thermometer and some medicine. I took my temp and it was 103.2. Yikes! I took medicine and it went away. I went to bed that night and suffered all night. I kept getting the fever, my head was killing me. The next morning after taking my temp and seeing that it was 104.8 Nate's sister walked me to the clinic. Where I was diagnosed with malaria and given the medication for it. I spent the next 3 days in and out of sleep and throwing up everything I ate, and then my insides. It was the worst I've ever felt in my life. I developed anemia and had lost 10 lbs. in that week. I had no energy at all. It literally sucked the life out of me. Luckily I recovered and all was fine. Now I want to help others prevent that horrible feeling.
Hopefully this year there will be less adults and less children that get malaria this year.
