Wednesday: Don't Forget Us

Standing water in animal foot prints and holes in the muddy roads are havens for mosquito breeding. This is the rainy season, so puddles are plentiful right now. That was all too apparent at a village where an elderly woman invited me into her two-room home to talk.

The village has a rice paddy farm - a mosquito magnet. And there are puddles, big and small, everywhere - right outside the doors to their tiny dwellings. I walked gingerly trying to avoid getting muddier, and then I thought to reapply the DEET as it was near dusk and malaria-carrying mosquitoes mostly bite at night.

She talked about how she had bed nets, but I saw those were old and tattered. She said she could not afford to buy more on her $11-a-month income. That is what she earns with two jobs; her full-time farming job, then her side job of making jewelry. A widow of 15-years, she is raising her kids and several grandkids on that amount and emphasizes to my translator that she lives hand to mouth. She says fortunately, there is a clinic nearby where she can get free malaria meds for the kids. The grandbaby in her arms has already had it twice. It is common for Africans to get malaria several times a year if they survive it.

Later, as I started to leave the village, the woman stopped me. "One moment, I need to grab my translator," I said, gesturing because I knew she didn't understand me. The woman told the translator that she wanted to give me her blessings and that she liked me. Then she insisted on inviting me in her home again, mud-caked shoes and all tracking on her clean floor.

It was there that she presented me with a lovely, handmade beaded necklace. A gift. I thanked her and wished her well and told her I would not forget her. Then the translator said that she wished me safe travels, was praying for me, and that I should not only remember her but more so her children and grandchildren because she has lived her life. She hugged me and asked me to remember her story so that the world will know about the tragedy that is happening here.

Admittedly, I was a bit choked up as she looked me gently in the eye with her pleas. The Africans I've met are smart, proud, and want things to get better, they just need some help.

Related Topics: More than 10 Million Child Deaths Per Year, Preventing Infections During Travel

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