Bahai Beach 47

Bahai Beach 47

Sancho Yoda in town

February 27th, 2007

With the arrival of Yolanda form Holanda, Brahim, Sacho Yoda it seems Bahai is brightening up again. Only dark spot is Audrey leaving on an expedition to find Gelato Baboons in the Simian Mountains, but I am sure she will be back soon. The big gorilla in the mean time is eagerly awaiting some slam dancing & fish eating in N’Djamena. Over the past 8 months I have met plenty of people who are stationed in N’Djamena but have visited Bahai. Time to harass them!

I wonder who has figured out yet who was our mystery guest? Next week I shall reveal…
What I can say is that all our visitors are genuinely impressed with the resilience of the refugees living in the camp. One could imagine a group of repressed, sad people but as I have written before they are a mighty bunch. Super heroes.

No not always easy to work with and for but worth every single minute.

The most interesting moment of the day for me came when we were discussing female genital mutilation. As to assure that the tradition was kept alive a trick procedure has been devised. Instead of cutting the clitoris and the labia a small incision is made so the girl bleeds and then the older women confirm that the girl is now ‘proper’ and circumcised. I was surprised to hear such a brilliant solution. Ancient culture respected and no harm done to the girl. And the men suckered. Discussing this practice our Health Officer mentioned that it is not an Islamic practice (found in the Koran) and therefore the roots of this practice are cultural.

Remember the boy I mentioned a couple of blogs ago who was tied to the wall. Well SOS Kinderdorf has returned and they have a special unit to take care of mentally challenged children. He will be the first to be consulted, to be given walking practice daily (he has contractures because he always squats). He will come for play therapy and the family will be explained that our young friend needs stimulation. The positive thing is that when you do stimulate him he responds instantly.

On arrival home I was pleasantly surprised with a local treat: locust. Yummy they taste great. Tomorrow I will serve them to my buddies in the compound to see who likes them and who does not. Another thing lined up for tomorrow is a visit to the school in zone A so finally all children there can be examined for the severity of their ringworm. It will mean seeing up to 500 kids tomorrow. Well all the more fun.

And some more good news; drugs are arriving and have arrived. Hopefully all we are missing presently is in the boxes. Although in the end of the day most of the essential drugs are available in both the hospital as well as the camp
Bye the way does anyone know how to fix a fridge? After 6 months ours is still broken. Finding a mechanic is impossible and even after an extended visit to Abeche (for our fridge) it is still not cooling. The irony of the country is that a new fridge needs to be bought when it breaks down. Sad but Chad.

Catch you later,

Hasta la pasta

Ashis