The night after my last post, we'd been "cordially" invited to Valery's 20th birthday celebration. The invite was hilarious. Within it were contained the lyrics to Happy Birthday! You have to see it, but there was a strict programme, starting at 6.
Tom and I foolishly arrived at 7. The room was completely empty, and we were showed to our vacant V.I.P chairs. We sensitively turned them down to sit outside.
The programme started with the "Welcoming of the celebrant", followed by the introduction of the V.I.Ps, us, as well as close family and friends. Following this was the "popping of the champagne" and the playing of "cool music". Cool music was mentioned 4 times on the invite!
Tom was asked to pop open the champagne, and I caught the fizz with a nearby glass and handed it to the celebrant. This went down very well with the locals! We were handed a copy of the celebrant's speech, which included classic phrases like "There are no fruits without the roots" and others gems straight from the phrase book.
The day after Tom was a little sick, so our day was suspended, but so far our days have been quite long and our data has been flowing. We are getting more efficient at feet inspection. Now that Claris has gone home for a few days to Buea, Tom and I are simultaneously inspecting feet while the others work on filling in the questionnaires.
Now that Isaac has gone back to Yaounde, we have been joined by two Cameroonian Medics from the University of Yaounde. They are both called Leo and are both 3rd year Medics. Good guys, that really get down to work, so they're a real asset to the team.
We've now got about 170 questionnaires filled in, with a prevalence a little over 50%. We have completed one village, Njimnkang, and are now nearly finished on Mbipgo.
Mbipgo has been an interesting village. The first compound we visited was full of annoying little children that took the mick out of how we spoke the language. Terribly rude. All we could think of to get them back was to steal their hat and hang it on a high washing line. Hmph. That'll learn them.
We started our second day in Mbipgo away from our abhorrent friends, but soon visited them towards the end of a long day. We were going to sit in on a meeting of all the big shots in the vollage. The fon's palace was full to the brim, and we all shared (my) ubiquitous palm wine. I gave a little speech thanking them for their cooperation, photos were taken and good times were had. But all in Limbum, so we had little idea what was going on. We were given a chicken to say thank you, which I think is tonight's dinner! Splendid!
Today we met an albino! Leo told us that they used to be buried alive with deceased fon, to keep him company, and to make sure all was well. Astonishingly, this was only ceased in the 80s!
I will message soon, but for the mean time, here is one photo! This is Tom and I with the Fon at Njimnkang!
http://photos-878.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v309/5/47/511649878/n511649878_574312_9180.jpg
7 comments:
Good to have the photo. Any chance you could put the Fon at the front next time as we know what you two look like!
Sounds as though you are getting into a routine and cranking out the data village by village. Gret news that you are getting it into Epi-Info on the computer - that will make it easier to manage later.
I am beginning to ask myself some questions. If Jiggers came from Brazil to Angola and then spread to the rest of Africa, exactly how far have they spread, and since when? It would be very interesting to track the spread of an invasive parasitic species like this. Secondly, where else have they spread to? I think they are pretty common in the Caribbean, but what about the Indian sub-continent, east Asia, Australia and the Pacific? In terms of getting rid of them, I suppose the problem is preventing reintroduction. Even if all adults wore shoes, children would not, and I guess they have jiggers. I wonder if there is a local insect repellant that people use for mosquitoes etc? If so, they could make up a concoction with it and wipe it on children's feet every morning and after their bath. Once in the habit this would not be difficult. Another thought was how to treat floors and verandahs. Paraffin would probably work, but is smelly and expensive. Insecticides might be too expensive. Again, I would have thought a natural repellant boiled up from local plants and sprinkled on the floors would do the trick. Has anyone tried this? I think it would be useful to put together some basic health advice.
On another matter, I wonder what the impact of climate change will be. The models show some areas getting wetter and others drier. presumably the Jigger would become more of a nuisance in drying areas. This could mean getting up to higher altitudes. It would be useful to think about this.
All the best and keep up the good work - you have a great team out there. Any chance of a team photo?
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Hello George, thanks for taking time to keep us all informed on your own and the team's progress. I can't ask the sort of questions that bloggerthis asked but I can certainly stand behind bloggerthis and would welcome some answers to the questions posed, particularly if that is part of your remit. You appear to be getting to grips with the task and balance this,it appears, with some fun times. Not a bad equation. Good luck and keep the press rolling. Grandadg (via bloggerthis)
Hello George, I've been having a problem trying to put my message through to you, so if you see a load of garbage on the line it is due to trying to correct the system. So hears hoping that I can recover the setup.
George - this is a test of my new blog name bloggeroff - Mumee x
Hi George - I have managed to leave a blog comment - how fab!
This all sounds great George, I am so pleased your research is going well. Who are all the people in posters on the walls of the houses in the photos? Tell us about your house and the facilities - what are you eating? Who cooks? What do you do in the evening? All of the visits to the chiefs sound fun, a shame the children laugh at you and Tom though! Keep in touch!
Mum x
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