Friday

We had another good day working at the Manna School, screening the remainder of the kids from the school as well as other children from the village. Each day we have diagnosed between 5 and 10 kids with malaria. We treat them with medication - usually a course of Quinine along with one other medication that I can never remember the name of. There is also a Chinese herbal treatment that has been very effective but we are not currently treating them with this. Mike, the physician in our group, would like to figure out a way to start growing it in the village so they can produce their own herbal medication for malaria treatment. I think that would be awesome.

This afternoon we stopped at a pharmacy in town to stock up on malaria medications as well as antibiotics and de-worming medication for the next village we are working in starting tomorrow. They sell every kind of medication over-the-counter, including some that are actually considered controlled substances in the United States. There are no prescriptions or MD orders required to get the medications. We walked in and there were about 50 people bellied up to the pharmacy counter buying medications. It looked like they were sitting at a bar drinking, but instead they were getting medications for their ailments. They decide what they need and self-medicate themselves. It's craziness! Anyway, we paid about $50 for a ton of medications - it was fantastic! We will be able to treat many kids with malaria and worms, etc. for so little money!

We had an extremely warm welcome when she arrived at the school today. We thought yesterday's welcome was a good one, but today was even better! All the kids came running around the building to greet us (there are over 200 school kids) and the elders of the village were sitting in front of the school waving and yelling "Welcome! Welcome!" I had one lady grab me and say "Welcome! You are my friend! I love you!" It was insane.

By the time we left, however, the elders of the village had become angry at us because apparently someone told them that we were dispensing "free medicine" to them today. We aren't sure why tehy were under this impression. In fact, Bridging the Gap has tried very hard to keep their program focused on treating the children of the village for malaria and worms and supplementing them with vitamin A, rather than getting into treating adults too. This is simply because of the limited resources of the organization and the desire to remain focused on the primary goal, which is to improve the health of children through malaria detection and treatment, de-worming, and vitamin A supplementation.

As we walked out of hte school to get into the van, the women were grabbing us an d saying things in Igbo. While I couldn't understand what they were saying, I could definitely tell that they weren't happy like when we had arrived this morning! They were yelling and clearly upset. Eventually, one of the women went up to Queen and Queen was told that they thought they were getting free medication from us today and they wanted to know why we were "breaking our promise." Queen explained to them that it was never our plan to give out medication to them and that they had been misinformed. We got into the van and as we drove away less than 60 seconds later they were smiling and waving once again, shouting "goodbye!" It was so bizarre how quickly their emotions toward us changed! But I'm glad it ended the way it did. For awhile there we thought there might be a riot!

On our way home, we stopped at a museum for Nigeria's war history. It is near where Queen lives. It costs 100 naira (Nigerian money), which is less than 1 U.S. dollar, to get in. Queen went up to pay for our admission and they crossed out the price on 4 of the 6 tickets and wrote "200 naira" instead. The cheaper tickets were for Robert (an African American guy that is on the team) and Queen (obviously black because she's Nigerian) because they are black. Us caucasian people had to pay twice as much for admission to the museum! Queen was very angry that they charged us more and she was quite vocal about her opinion. She's a feisty Nigerian, that's for sure. (-: It was kind of funny. It's typical to get ripped off and charged more in these places because we are from the U.S. and they think we have money to spend, but I've never had them be so blatant about it!

Now we are back at Queen's house where we will be staying again tonight (thank goodness). Queen knows a lady that wants to make us traditional Nigerian clothing before we leave. We just finished getting measured by they lady and she will go to the market tomorrow to pick out material for it. I'm excited!

I hope all is well at home. I will try again to get some pictures on the blog tonight after others have used the internet for email, etc. Have a great night!!

Love,

Erin