Volume 9
August 19, 2004
Hi, everyone.
It's been an eventful week so far in Garsila, Allyson says. Not eventful in a bad way, but eventful nonetheless. Allyson was in MSF's office in Garsila earlier this week when the satellite phone rang. The call was from a woman named Joan, a Scottish nurse who works with MSF's staff in a refugee camp in Mukjar (or Mugjir), which is south of Garsila (see map). Mukjar, Joan reported, was being attacked. "I thought to myself," Allyson wrote, "'Why did I have to get this call?'" But it turns out that there was no attack. Instead, a rumor had circulated throughout the refugee camp that the Janjaweed were on their way to attack. This created, as you might imagine, some hysteria among the refugees. And the local police decided that the best way to calm them down was to fire their guns into the air (a questionable tactic, at best), which is what led the MSF nurse to call Allyson and say they were under attack.
The good news is that MSF acted quickly and in the interest of the safety of its staff, and promptly evacuated MSF staffers to Garsila. It's reassuring to me -- and, I'm sure, to you -- that they act this way at the slightest hint of trouble. After all, if they don't take care of their people, their people can't take care of the refugees. The bad news is that the house Allyson lives in is now, in her words, "full to bursting." They've pitched a large tent out back to create temporary sleeping quarters for the extra folks.
Allyson had been telling me in e-mails about her work at the hospital and at the feeding clinics. I asked her to give me a little more detail, so I could share it with all of you, about what goes on at the feeding clinics. Here's what she sent:
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| Allyson and her staff at the TFC |
"The main feeding clinic is for the more severly malnourished, and they receive frequent meals. Usually, the meals include milk, if the mothers and children can stay in our daycare. For various reasons -- the need to be plowing fields, other children to care for -- some mothers can't stay. If they can't stay, they are given a supply of Plumpy Nut, which basically is really nutritious peanut butter. It has so little water content that it never spoils. The SFC, or Supplemental Feeding Center, is for the more moderately malnourished. People come once a week. Girls on Sunday and Monday, and boys on Wednesday and Thursday. They get a check-up and are weighed and given a ration of sorghum, oil and sugar to supplement the child's diet. Often, for various reasons, this food gets shared with other family members, and they child ends up back in the main feeding clinic."
Ally is caring now for another child with malaria, which, she says, makes her very nervous, given her experiences with the 4-year-old Naiema (see Volume 7). The kids with malaria, she says, "are so tiny and become dehydrated so easily." At night, she says, they move the sicker children from the feeding clinic into the hospital, and Allyson goes over after dinner to check on them.
On a lighter note, Allyson wrote on Tuesday about her latest trip to the souk: "Monday and Thursday are the big market, or souk, days. Yesterday, I went and there were tons of camels in the souk! I even know the going rate for a camel now, about 400,000 Sudanese dinar, which figures roughly to $800! Quite expensive, those camels!"
I know my wife pretty well, and I wouldn't be all that surprised if she brings one home with her. I'm happy to clean up after Chester. But a camel? I'm not so sure ....
Chuck