BAMM - Blog About Malaria Month

BAMM – Blog About Malaria Month.  So I got a late start.  No surprise there.  But I’m on it now.  Actually you might remember I had malaria just a few short months ago.  I blogged about it so in a sense I was ahead of the BAMM game.   Go ahead High-5 me!  Because I just did!

World Malaria Day is April 25^th!  I am having a WMD event and will let ya know how it goes.   Watch for that.  You best believe I’m coming at malaria with a vengeance.  It did a number on me.  Many of you have continued to ask how I’m doing and let me assure you that I have been back to 110% for a while now.  Enough about me; lets talk malaria.  Stick with me on this. 

Malaria is caused by a parasite that is passed from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. After infection, the parasites (called sporozoites) travel through the bloodstream to the liver, where they mature and release another form, the merozoites. The parasites enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells.

Symptoms

-Flu-like symptoms – to the max! -Anemia -Shaking Chills -Coma 
-Convulsions -High Fever -Headache -Muscle pain –Nausea –Sweating -Vomiting

I’m not one for throwing out statistics.  I don’t like how it reduces a person to a number.  But I am about to list stats because I want there to be a grasp of the situation at hand. 

The CDC estimates that there are 300-500 million cases of malaria each year, and more than 1 million people die from it.

On average, 1,500 cases of malaria are reported every year in the United States, even though malaria has been eradicated in this country since the early 1950's.

3.3 billion people (half the world’s population) live in areas at risk of malaria transmission in 109 countries and territories.

35 countries (30 in sub-Saharan Africa and 5 in Asia) account for 98% of global malaria deaths.

Malaria is the 5th cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide (after respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis).

Malaria is the 2nd leading cause of death from infectious diseases in Africa, after HIV/AIDS.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Kenya and it kills an estimated 34,000 children under five in Kenya every year.

77% of Kenya’s population lives in areas where the disease is transmitted.

25 million out of a population of 34 million Kenyans are at risk of malaria.

An estimated 170 million working days are lost to the disease each year in Kenya.

The most vulnerable group to malaria infections are pregnant women and children under 5 years of age.

Malaria is preventable and treatable

An estimated 655,000 people died of malaria in 2010

Malaria deaths have fallen by more than 25% since 2000

Malaria costs Africa $12 billion annually

Malaria is a huge burden on a community.  It steals time, money, and lives. 

Peace Corps has 3,000 volunteers in 23 countries working to end malaria.

A pretty awesome group of kids I used to work with back in the States will be learning about malaria and raising money to purchase malaria nets during VBS (Vacation Bible School) this summer.  I am partnering with them and will be buying and distributing malaria nets to members of my community in Namboboto.  I will say more on this to come in the summer. 

When you see this…

I don’t care how you get rid of it…stomp it, squash it, smack it, slap it, crush it, spray it, mash it, punch it, end it. 

Stats and information came from these sites. 

cdc.gov

USAID.gov

Malarianomore.org

Healthnytimes.com

All Work and No Play...Or Quite the Opposite

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been living the life and have been spoiled for the better half of the last 2 weeks.  During the last week of March - Four of us Public Health volunteers spent 3 days in a workshop, in Nairobi, with members of the PC Staff to refocus the Public Health Sector.  We also spent a chunk of time planning the next PST (Pre-Service Training) for the next group of trainees coming in June.  (Wait!  That was me a year ago…has it already almost been a year since I was worrying how in the world I was going to pack for 2 years in under 80lbs.!?)

Let me define spoiled for you.  King size bed, hot shower, delicious food – salad with lettuce (haven’t had that since the States.) Steak and cheese subs, Meat skewers, and yes Bacon Cheeseburgers!  My stomach hurt after every meal.  Worth it every time and I’d do it again.  I’m just not used to eating this food anymore. 

A lot of Mango iced tea was consumed.  I was nearly teary eyed when there was ice in my iced tea!  (It had been 10 months since ice and I had met last.)  It’s the little things in life. 

The planning sessions went great and I was glad to be a part. 

I then traveled to Nanyuki, near Mt. Kenya, where a handful of us went to an animal orphanage.  I’m gonna be lazy and let the pics tell you about that…

During Easter, 20 of us traveled to Uganda to take on the Nile – rafting and bungee jumping!  I don’t know if I’ve ever been so scared in my life while having so much fun.  Rafting was a blast. And the Nile is no joke. 

 Sure there were parts where we cruised along, sprawled out on the raft to sun bathe, jumped in and splashed around allowing the Nile to carry us.  And then…come the rapids.  At one point our guide told us to paddle, close our eyes, continue to paddle and then open our eyes.  When we opened our eyes there was a 90 ft rapid in front of us.  Ok I’m exaggerating on that but here was a ginormous wave crashing down on us.  It was wicked awesome.  Our raft together decided at one rapid that we wanted to flip.  In fact it was known that if we went down this rapid called the bad place we would flip.  All of us wanted to do it but would question the others to make sure they wanted to.  What we were doing was looking for an out, but none of us wanted to be the reason we didn’t do it.  We all put our brave faces on and pulled up our big girl panties.  Normally our guide Cam, who we at first thought his name was Camel and yes we were calling him Camel,  (c’mon he loved it) normally he told us to hang on to the raft and don’t let go.  At this rapid he instructed not to even try to hold on. 

Not even 5 seconds, ok maybe I lasted 2, but I was thrown from the front of the raft to the middle and on the opposite side taking out another girl.  In the next 20 seconds the rapids tossed and turned me, threw me, churned me and mostly dunked me.  The Nile had its way with me that’s really the point here.  When the safety kayak took me back to the raft I climbed in with a bruised and swollen foot. 

Backing up a week, I had already injured this foot.  I wish there was a good story that I kicked a rock and made water flow from it or that a motorcycle ran over it.  Not the case.  I tripped while walking and twisted it.  Leaving me with an over-sized foot and swag in my step.  Update: I still have swagger when I walk but the swelling has since peaced out and the bruises are nearly gone. 

I’ve been rafting a few times before and typically I would say ah I’ve done that before let’s do something new.  But the Nile -  I would raft that again in a heart beat.  It’s intense.  And in this picture little did we know this part was just for babies, but great introduction by the Nile. 

So bungee jumping hasn’t ever been on my list.  I figured I crossed off skydiving about 4 years ago.  But I will be anxiously waiting the next time I’m harnessed in and get to jump again.  The scariest part was climbing the steps and then inching towards the ledge with your toes hanging off.   The comes the 3-2-1- countdown and everything shuts off and you just jump for it.  For the next few seconds you are trying to figure out what in the world is going on as you are springing up and down and then you are hanging there until you are in the raft getting unstrapped from the equipment and you wanna jump again.  (At least that was my go of it) It was insane and my thrill seeking days have been reborn with this weekend.

After jumping, I got a massage and sat in the steam room.  It was nice being pampered for a little while.  Quite a change from village life.  Then a group of us took a boat out to the source of the Nile.  It was a good time jam-packed with friends, GOOD food, being scared out of my mind, ya it was a relaxing time. 

Now it’s back to the village and back to playing…or the opposite!