The internet has been down because the company has been on strike, along with the fighting in the Ivory Coast which has control over most of the West African internet hubs, so I am sorry for the interruption in the blogging but I really can’t control it.
Yesterday, I had a fun adventure; Mirablle and I went downtown to find some cloth, for me to make the African dresses I love so much! It was my first time, downtown, downtown so I was excited to see the buzz of it all. The second we get off the bike people are coming up to me…need a watch, a mango, underwear? If I don’t say anything they say to each other that I don’t understand, which for the most part I don’t, but I know that if I keep on walking I’ll lose this guy and meet up with the next one step later. Mirabelle has a shop she goes to for cloth so after turning a corner we walk into a big room filled with cloth, owned by Arabic men. It’s always been the hardest viewing something out of context, and especially when it comes to cloth. Here people prefer to wear the most colorful, and frilly outfits possible, while this might be attractive here, it draws a little too much attention back home, so you need to be careful. I grabbed only a few pieces because its coming to the end of my trip and I don’t know if ill have the time to get things made, but I grabbed some festive pieces.
We headed back to IRD to try and find someone who knew a good sewer. Fatou has a man but she is sick with malaria again, so we couldn’t ask her but we found someone who knew someone else. The last time I got a dress made in Africa the man made it 4 sizes too big for me, so it took three extra weeks to get it to fit. I explained to the man this time, TIGHT, which I would never say in the US but their tight is our loose. I got one shirt and one dress made, and he said it would take a week, so we will see if he is any good in a week and maybe get a few more pieces. For two pieces to be hand made to my body plus the fabric cost a total of $17, not too bad! The mans shop was at the side of a road shoved into a little corner, just Mirabelle and I going into the shop made it cramped. I drew on a piece of paper what I wanted my dress to look like, but I wasn’t much of an artist... He attempted to speak English but I have no idea what he said. He had just two little sewing machines in there so in 6 days we will see his work!
Today Mirablle and I went over to the hospital again to watch the sensiblization lectures they give every Monday and Friday morning to the pregnant women. We listened and then one of the members at AEM said she could be interviewed at the hospital. In an interview that usually takes 30 minutes to one hour depending on the person, this woman’s interview took two hours. Not because she was talking the whole time but she saw patients while we were interviewing. She works with Saint Camille with helping women use condoms after having a positive HIV status, because most women think you cannot use condoms if you have HIV and continue to get pregnant because of it. One girl who came in had a one-year-old baby and she was not a day over 17 years old, it was very difficult to watch. After the interview we went to talk to the midwives because I wanted to know if it was possible to ask the pregnant women who were getting tested for HIV why they were getting tested, as well as the women who were not. Mirablle told me before that people are very uncomfortable with other people talking to patients so it probably wont happen, so I was prepared for the worst but when we asked the midwife was thrilled and even offered to be a translator for Mirabelle in the local language. So on Monday we are going to give it a go!
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