January 18
Update on our current “evacuation” situation—
So, we have been moved to a lodge in Blantyre which is much better for us because not only is it a nicer place, but we are also able to go into the city during the day to keep us entertained. Peace Corps obviously pays for our lodging and also for breakfast/dinner at our lodge. Thankfully they just pre-reimbursed us for lunch, so each day we get to venture out into the real world for one meal. The only major issue is the lack of water in most of Blantyre! So yeah, we have toilets and showers now, but nothing works! We can’t even wash our clothes which are dirty at this point since we didn’t bring enough to be out of site for this long! The electricity is also in and out, but it’s not been too big of a problem for us since almost all of us are used to living without it anyway. We have our battery packs, and we know how to conserve our laptop and phone batteries. We have definitely been watching lots of movies though! I know we’ll all be happy to get back to our sites despite the luxury of being all together and having lots of time in the city.
We don’t have much information on what’s going on in our villages besides what we might hear from our counterparts. Every time I’ve called mine, he says that things are fine, and also that my house is holding up just fine (from what can be seen from outside anyway). However, Peace Corps is worried about the long-term implications of the flooding —safe water and food supply at markets. Another issue brought up is the worry that since refugee camps have begun to spring up in many churches and schools, that we will be expected to aid those people even though we have not been trained for refugee/emergency aid. The last issue I’ve heard is the worry that we might be targeted for theft if we return to our homes. There are a lot of displaced and desperate people in our communities now which could obviously lead to increased crime. Some of these issues make me nervous to return to site, but I am also just itching to get back. I had so many events and meetings planned in my community that have had to be postponed or cancelled.
I guess the issue when I return will be trying to find the balance. Obviously the projects I was doing before (cooking demonstrations and professional trainings) might not be as important to the community who are more worried about their crops, feeding their families, repairing homes, or preparing for future rains. There have also been concerns about cholera outbreaks and increases of other water-borne diseases. During rainy season in general, bacteria and feces from pit latrines or open defecation flow into water sources (boreholes, rivers), so it’s a bad time for water-borne diseases. This intense flooding will definitely amplify the situation causing increases in water-borne diseases in the coming weeks. This, in turn, leads to more deaths of children under 5 years old because when/if they get diarrheal diseases, they are much more likely to suffer from severe dehydration and die (giving them more contaminated water isn’t going to help!) So, I’m sure my counterpart and I will need to shift our focus to more applicable projects such as sanitation and malaria prevention when I return such as. Maybe (if there are refugee camps in my village) we can take advantage of a negative situation and use it as an opportunity to reach people with health messages. We will see. As for now, we are just trying to be as flexible and patient as we can be with all of this disaster happening around us.
Thanks to all of you who have reached out and checked up on me. I appreciate the thoughts and the love! I know these floods have apparently become an internationally covered topic on new stations, so I appreciate the concern. These blog posts are my attempts to calm any nervous friends & family. We are safe!
xo
