I figure as much as quasi-experimental designs and the nerd level discussions on the amazing profession of public health appeal to a small population, more writing on the country itself and my adventures in it would appeal to that wider range (you know, that 95% of you). So for every work-ish or nerdy post I write about peanut butter I will do my best to write one about Haiti itself. Although I have only been here a week I have gotten to explore and have a few adventures already and gotten right into the groove that is working in Haiti.
Language: Haiti has two official languages; French and Creole. While French is mostly spoken in Port-au-Prince (or so I’ve been told) I have been able to speak it to most anyone here which has helped me in work as much as getting moutard from the boutique. Haitian Creole does use a number of French words, and while they may not be spelled the same (for example, every letter you write in Creole you say which makes complete sense) the pronunciation is so similar. For example; l’ecole (school in French) becomes lekol in Creole. I have been able to understand a bit of Creole and I actually think my “dirty” French helps me because I don’t always use correct grammar and can pick up on Creole words easy. Anyways, the language is really interesting and I’m excited to be learning it.
Apartment: I have a place to live! And it is not full of termites or scorpions or toads or has a mamba that hangs out back! And a working toilet…indoors! Seriously, I knew that I would have an apartment when I got here and that it was considered “really nice” but Haitian standards. However, I was not expecting how truly nice it is and it feels like a little oasis. It’s breezy and cool; I have a little kitchen area complete with fridge, oven and sink and a balcony that has quickly become my favorite spot.
Market: I was expecting something similar to our lumo days up north or the market I frequented in NDioum where everyone is calling out to you and it is crowed and overwhelming. However, the small market that is nearest my apartment is quite lovely. Yes, it can be crowded at times, but I haven’t felt rushed or overwhelmed yet. Although I have yet to figure out the real prices for things.
Driving: The roads here are currently getting a huge makeover because Carnival will be in Cap this year instead of Port au Prince. This means that there are construction crews out constantly paving, rolling, hammering away and usually during the rush hour traffic. Though it isn’t anything I’m not used to (reminds me a lot of the Ponty in Dakar) there are always surprises. Like the recent installment of four traffic lights throughout the city, one on a street with no intersections. Traffic is more polite here though and I’m not in constant fear that we will either hit a goat, a cow, a child, another car, or the person sitting next to me in the back.
Beach: The beach, the beach, the glorious beach. Just a short drive away from the city is literally paradise. Just drive up a mountain and down the other side and bam- right there is a long beach with clear blue water, a waiter that serves you the beach rum drink you will ever have and a lounge chair that you won’t want to get up from. I never knew this about Haiti- it has great beaches and some beautiful landscapes and I can’t wait to find more!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
What's in a study?
Arrived in Cap-Haitien late Sunday afternoon and despite the seven hour delay I couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful my first glimpses of the country were. We flew in a small prop plane and so we were not as high up as we would have been had we been in a jet. Haiti is extremely mountainous but I was not expecting the mountains to greet me as we descended. The literally rose right out of the water and into the clouds and as we landed in Cap, flew between them. Of all my descents and flights, this is definitely in the top three for its sheer beauty.
Come Monday morning, I got right into the swing of things and visited the schools we are partnering with. These schools (six total) are throughout Cap and cover students from first grade through sixth, although a few schools also have the equivalent of kindergarten as well. Like Senegal, these schools operate with very little resources and I am always amazed at the teachers who are dedicated to work within these obstacles - many of whom have not been paid for several years. But the children love school and they love learning - it is so easy to see that on their faces and the pride they take in wearing their uniforms and caring for their textbooks. Each of the schools are very different, for many reasons; some are in the city center and are smack in the urban chaos while others are more on the outside of the city, able to enclose a larger area for the kids to play. Some have electricity (though very limited), some have separate rooms for classes while in others classes are all taught in one large space. Nonetheless, every school has been more than gracious and cooperative in letting us constantly disrupt classes in order to conduct this study.
The government of Haiti (Ministries of Health and Education), as part of their child nutrition initiative is looking to add a school snack component to schools. As several of the kids I've met do not get to eat breakfast and are maybe given enough money to buy a bonbon at school (think processed, sugar and no nutritional value) it is important that the school snack be up the upmost nutritional value while being low cost to produce and distribute. There are three groups for the study, two schools in each group. As the study is quasi-experimental, it is important that the schools get matched and paired as equally as possible so that any noticeable difference between the groups can be identified and should the study be effective, reduce bias and strengthen validity. One group is our control group where they carry on business as usual with no specific snack or snack time. Although this group is not getting one of the two snacks we are studying, I feel that these groups are the most important in getting a picture of the school lifestyle that these kids encounter as well as getting an accurate measure of the nutritional status of these kids. The second group is testing a granola bar made from peanuts, oats, sesame and honey. While it isn't fortified with any micronutrients, it does have a decent amount of nutritional value for the kids. It is currently being made in Haiti and is very affordable. The third group in the study is receiving Mamba, a fortified peanut butter and soy bean blend. It is jam-packed with micronutrients and while slightly more expensive to make, would cover a child's nutritional needs for the day. So that’s a basic overview of setting up the study and the different between the three groups.
So the study is currently in it's implementation phase. This means that all of the children have gone through baseline measurements; their height, weight and hemoglobin have been recorded before the start of the study. This gives us a base from which to compare our mid-line (to be conducted in March) and end-line (to be conducted in June) data with, highlighting any changes in growth and iron content. While we are taking anthropometry measurements (height and weight), changes to these are harder to contribute to our study as kids naturally grow over time and it is affected by lots of outside forces (ie, genetics). However, where we hope to make the biggest impact and record the biggest change is in iron content in the body. Iron is just one of several micronutrients that significantly impacts anemia rates. Improving micronutrient status like iron is important for fighting infections, addressing diarrhea and improving cognitive development. Should the Mamba product we are studying be significant in improving rates of anemia, there is potential further impact child nutrition throughout a child’s life. During implementation, the children in the granola bar and mamba groups receive their snack everyday during the school week that they are present. So if there are present everyday, they receive the snack five times a week. The control group does not receive any snack but as I said before, it is common that the children are given a little money (usually about one Haitian dollar) to buy something.
What I'm doing now is visiting the various schools during snack time and in the morning to help with and observe snack distributions. Are the kids eating the snack? Do they like it? Do they eat something afterwards? How do the teachers think the snack impacts the children? Do the teachers like the snack? These are all qualitative questions that I ask that will give me a deeper understanding of the snacks' impacts beyond just what the data says. I’m also assisting in getting all of the baseline data entered and organized so that we can conduct a descriptive report of the kids as a preview of things to come.
It has been a busy first week in Haiti, but a great one. The schools have been so much fun to visit and learn about and I have gained a wealth of insight from the teachers, our enumerators (who distribute the snacks) and the kids themselves and look forward to work every day as I know it brings something new for me to learn and experience. Stay tuned for more!
Peace,
Jaime
Also- if you are more interested in learning about fortified peanut butter projects in Haiti, check out a few old stories on NPR
Come Monday morning, I got right into the swing of things and visited the schools we are partnering with. These schools (six total) are throughout Cap and cover students from first grade through sixth, although a few schools also have the equivalent of kindergarten as well. Like Senegal, these schools operate with very little resources and I am always amazed at the teachers who are dedicated to work within these obstacles - many of whom have not been paid for several years. But the children love school and they love learning - it is so easy to see that on their faces and the pride they take in wearing their uniforms and caring for their textbooks. Each of the schools are very different, for many reasons; some are in the city center and are smack in the urban chaos while others are more on the outside of the city, able to enclose a larger area for the kids to play. Some have electricity (though very limited), some have separate rooms for classes while in others classes are all taught in one large space. Nonetheless, every school has been more than gracious and cooperative in letting us constantly disrupt classes in order to conduct this study.
The government of Haiti (Ministries of Health and Education), as part of their child nutrition initiative is looking to add a school snack component to schools. As several of the kids I've met do not get to eat breakfast and are maybe given enough money to buy a bonbon at school (think processed, sugar and no nutritional value) it is important that the school snack be up the upmost nutritional value while being low cost to produce and distribute. There are three groups for the study, two schools in each group. As the study is quasi-experimental, it is important that the schools get matched and paired as equally as possible so that any noticeable difference between the groups can be identified and should the study be effective, reduce bias and strengthen validity. One group is our control group where they carry on business as usual with no specific snack or snack time. Although this group is not getting one of the two snacks we are studying, I feel that these groups are the most important in getting a picture of the school lifestyle that these kids encounter as well as getting an accurate measure of the nutritional status of these kids. The second group is testing a granola bar made from peanuts, oats, sesame and honey. While it isn't fortified with any micronutrients, it does have a decent amount of nutritional value for the kids. It is currently being made in Haiti and is very affordable. The third group in the study is receiving Mamba, a fortified peanut butter and soy bean blend. It is jam-packed with micronutrients and while slightly more expensive to make, would cover a child's nutritional needs for the day. So that’s a basic overview of setting up the study and the different between the three groups.
So the study is currently in it's implementation phase. This means that all of the children have gone through baseline measurements; their height, weight and hemoglobin have been recorded before the start of the study. This gives us a base from which to compare our mid-line (to be conducted in March) and end-line (to be conducted in June) data with, highlighting any changes in growth and iron content. While we are taking anthropometry measurements (height and weight), changes to these are harder to contribute to our study as kids naturally grow over time and it is affected by lots of outside forces (ie, genetics). However, where we hope to make the biggest impact and record the biggest change is in iron content in the body. Iron is just one of several micronutrients that significantly impacts anemia rates. Improving micronutrient status like iron is important for fighting infections, addressing diarrhea and improving cognitive development. Should the Mamba product we are studying be significant in improving rates of anemia, there is potential further impact child nutrition throughout a child’s life. During implementation, the children in the granola bar and mamba groups receive their snack everyday during the school week that they are present. So if there are present everyday, they receive the snack five times a week. The control group does not receive any snack but as I said before, it is common that the children are given a little money (usually about one Haitian dollar) to buy something.
What I'm doing now is visiting the various schools during snack time and in the morning to help with and observe snack distributions. Are the kids eating the snack? Do they like it? Do they eat something afterwards? How do the teachers think the snack impacts the children? Do the teachers like the snack? These are all qualitative questions that I ask that will give me a deeper understanding of the snacks' impacts beyond just what the data says. I’m also assisting in getting all of the baseline data entered and organized so that we can conduct a descriptive report of the kids as a preview of things to come.
It has been a busy first week in Haiti, but a great one. The schools have been so much fun to visit and learn about and I have gained a wealth of insight from the teachers, our enumerators (who distribute the snacks) and the kids themselves and look forward to work every day as I know it brings something new for me to learn and experience. Stay tuned for more!
Peace,
Jaime
Also- if you are more interested in learning about fortified peanut butter projects in Haiti, check out a few old stories on NPR
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Peanut Butter Haiti Time!
The blog is back! Although, no longer a Peace Corps blog, I figured I would keep up to date on the latest gypsy adventure, Haiti. With any luck, this will be updated much more regularly and contain progress and highlights of my work and not the ramblings of a country girl suffering from constant heat rash and heat happies. With any luck, but no guarantees.
First off, I should explain what I am doing in Haiti. One of my dear professors at Wash U is a leading expert in undernutrition and has done work in Haiti and Kenya for several years. She’s currently heading several research projects in Haiti around fortified peanut butter (Nutributter, PlumpyNut are some of the more recognized names of this type of food). This pb has been shown to be effective in combating child malnutrition among young children under 24 months. The project that I will be working on is an expansion of sorts to school age children to see if similar fortified pb can impact growth and diet diversity (aka improve nutritional status).
So I am part of the Wash U branch of this project (research, data collection, analysis) which is just one branch of the project tree. Meds and Foods for Kids, a ngo based in St. Louis, acts as the organizers of the project (coordinating with other partners, managing project staff, distributes the pb). This is who I will mostly be working with, though I’ll also be working with the other partners from time to time. Edesia is a company that developed and designed the package design of the pb (aka branding the pb). The National Soybean Research Lab was responsible for early acceptability of the project. The Ministry of Education in implementing the school feeding programs which feeds into the the Ministry of Health’s role in implementing national scale nutrition initiatives. So, needless to say, there are a lot of players involved.
Like I said before, my roles is primarily research and working in the implementation of the program (assisting in trainings, data collection, analysis and reporting). We are working with six different schools across Cap-Haitien…
…allow me to take a slight tangent…
I won’t be living or working in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti but a slightly smaller city in the north called Cap-Haitien. It’s located right on the coast and I’m told has lovely beaches for what it’s worth. Google earth actually has a number of great photos of the city should you be of the satellite stalking kind.
…back on track. So we are working with six different elementary schools, three of which will act as the control group (not get the pb) and three will be the experimental (get the pb). Not all kids at the schools are enrolled in the program but we hope to maintain our 1200 participants (aka kids). Kids getting pb will get it every day for several months. Each kid is measured three times (before the project, midway and at the end).
So that’s the project and the reason I’m in Haiti in a nutshell- more to come as I get in country and started with my work!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
and the mystery is solved...
remember nessie? i think about her everytime i go swimming in the river (because the hot season decided to come two months early this year) as i swim farther away from the beach i can't help but wonder what exactly is below me. it doesn't help when i see a six foot eel with teeth the size of a bear claw for sale at the market. being sold by a lady from the village right next to mine. whose husband fished it out of the river that very morning. now between thoughts of nessie swimming slowly and gracefully below me i have thoughts of the screeching eels slithering closer and closer to my toes which look oh so edible. but still, it's hot and the river is blessedly cool. and so i go swimming.
two weeks ago while i was in dakar for our cos (close of service!!!) conference nessie made another appearance in the village. my brothers rushed to tell me this when i got back home. now one sighting is cool, but two? does that mean nessie's made a home? with male-nessie? and nessie-pups? i needed to know what exactly nessie was. is she safe? does she like meat? what would she feel about the pale figure who doesn't stay close to the river bank? so i hunted down my friend oumar who is often not in the village but working in a different one. he speaks english like i speak pulaar; one part cave-man, one part three year old adolescent so i felt that he could answer my nessie dilemma. i find oumar and make him sit down and tell me about this creature, my dictionary in hand. one way or another, nessie's going to have a name. we flipped through a few names to try to match the word with what i remembered and what oumar knew of nessie, because, as he put it, it's a big blobby thing that swims. they're very special.
so i started saying every single word i knew for things that lived in the river. i started small. minnow? no. fish? no. eel? wait, what did you say? no, not eel. but close. hmm...okay... catfish? no. human? idiot who doesn't know how to swim? no, banel. you think of the darndest things. hippo? no. yes. well, not a hippo. it swims. but is big like a hippo. okay. so what is something that is like a hippo but swims instead of walks? think, banel, think. (the would-be marine biologist of my third grade youth would have known this right away.) wait a minute.... and then i drew it out. is this what it is oumar? yes! that's it. very good. how do you say it in english? well, funny you should ask oumar...
manatee.
nessie is a west african fresh water manatee. there have been many sightings of them this past year because of the very successful rainy season. one was accidently killed near the city of bakel, which on the map is as far inland as you can get in senegal, right by the mali and mauritanian border. how freaking unblievably cool is it that i have manatees in my river? soooooo freaking unbelievably cool.
in case you're curious, a bit on freshwater manatees via wikipedia:
West African
They are found in coastal marine and estuarine habitats, and in freshwater river systems along the west coast of Africa from the Senegal River (AKA RIGHT OUTSIDE MY HUT!) south to the Kwanza River in Angola, including areas in Gambia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They live as high upriver on the Niger River as Gao, Mali.
Communication
They emit a wide range of sounds used in communication, especially between cows and their calves. Adults communicate to maintain contact and during sexual and play behaviors. Taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, may also be forms of communication.
Diet
Manatees are herbivores and eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. An adult manatee will commonly eat up to 10% of its body weight (approx 50 kg) per day. Manatees have been known to eat small amounts of fish from nets.[12]
Predation
Manatees have few natural predators (sharks, crocodiles, orcas, and alligators.) Predation does not present a significant threat to their survival. Humans do.African manatee's only significant threats are due to poaching, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts. They occasionally get stranded as the river dries up at the end of rainy season and are cooked for a meal.
In West African folklore, they were sacred and thought to have been once human. Killing one was taboo and required penance.
so now when i'm swimming i will think lovingly of the gentle giants who swim beneath me, munching on river grass and generally loving their beautiful african habitat.
i'll be thinking of them. and the eels.
two weeks ago while i was in dakar for our cos (close of service!!!) conference nessie made another appearance in the village. my brothers rushed to tell me this when i got back home. now one sighting is cool, but two? does that mean nessie's made a home? with male-nessie? and nessie-pups? i needed to know what exactly nessie was. is she safe? does she like meat? what would she feel about the pale figure who doesn't stay close to the river bank? so i hunted down my friend oumar who is often not in the village but working in a different one. he speaks english like i speak pulaar; one part cave-man, one part three year old adolescent so i felt that he could answer my nessie dilemma. i find oumar and make him sit down and tell me about this creature, my dictionary in hand. one way or another, nessie's going to have a name. we flipped through a few names to try to match the word with what i remembered and what oumar knew of nessie, because, as he put it, it's a big blobby thing that swims. they're very special.
so i started saying every single word i knew for things that lived in the river. i started small. minnow? no. fish? no. eel? wait, what did you say? no, not eel. but close. hmm...okay... catfish? no. human? idiot who doesn't know how to swim? no, banel. you think of the darndest things. hippo? no. yes. well, not a hippo. it swims. but is big like a hippo. okay. so what is something that is like a hippo but swims instead of walks? think, banel, think. (the would-be marine biologist of my third grade youth would have known this right away.) wait a minute.... and then i drew it out. is this what it is oumar? yes! that's it. very good. how do you say it in english? well, funny you should ask oumar...
manatee.
nessie is a west african fresh water manatee. there have been many sightings of them this past year because of the very successful rainy season. one was accidently killed near the city of bakel, which on the map is as far inland as you can get in senegal, right by the mali and mauritanian border. how freaking unblievably cool is it that i have manatees in my river? soooooo freaking unbelievably cool.
in case you're curious, a bit on freshwater manatees via wikipedia:
West African
They are found in coastal marine and estuarine habitats, and in freshwater river systems along the west coast of Africa from the Senegal River (AKA RIGHT OUTSIDE MY HUT!) south to the Kwanza River in Angola, including areas in Gambia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They live as high upriver on the Niger River as Gao, Mali.
Communication
They emit a wide range of sounds used in communication, especially between cows and their calves. Adults communicate to maintain contact and during sexual and play behaviors. Taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, may also be forms of communication.
Diet
Manatees are herbivores and eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. An adult manatee will commonly eat up to 10% of its body weight (approx 50 kg) per day. Manatees have been known to eat small amounts of fish from nets.[12]
Predation
Manatees have few natural predators (sharks, crocodiles, orcas, and alligators.) Predation does not present a significant threat to their survival. Humans do.African manatee's only significant threats are due to poaching, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts. They occasionally get stranded as the river dries up at the end of rainy season and are cooked for a meal.
In West African folklore, they were sacred and thought to have been once human. Killing one was taboo and required penance.
so now when i'm swimming i will think lovingly of the gentle giants who swim beneath me, munching on river grass and generally loving their beautiful african habitat.
i'll be thinking of them. and the eels.
Monday, February 22, 2010
saving the talies!
what is a talibe?
they are little boys (usually ages 5-15) who go to koranic school to learn the koran. most of these boys live at the school under the supervision of a imam or marabou (religous leader and teacher). during the day when they are not in class these boys will go throughout towns begging for food and money which is then given to the marabou and is (supposed to be but never enforced) used to clothe, feed, and raise the talibes. however, this is rarely the case, especially in large cities. marabous often take the money themselves and beat talibes who only bring back food or not enough money. (many talibes have quotas they need to fill by the end of the day). as a result, these boys are often the most malnourished and overlooked part of senegal. they sleep in overcrowded, dirty spaces and usually just on the floor with no mats or blankets. it's rare to see a talibe wearing shoes or clothes that properly fit them.
as a toubak, i have a huge target on my back for talibes, as does any visitor. this often means we get followed anywhere we go by one or two whenever we are in dakar, saint-louis, etc. it's frustrating because while you feel so incredibly bad for these kids who are forced to beg, you are also extremely annoyed because they do not leave you alone until you give them something. this is one of the many many many reasons it is hard for me to accept a culture that condones begging and neglects children.
so, lauren and i decided to do something for these guys. we had a few mosquito nets left over from our distributions and we decided to give these nets to the various koranic schools in podor. though podor is a smaller city (about the size of platteville) there are over 400 talibes, about two thirds are 12 and under. lauren went around to each of the schools, talked to the marabous and tallied up the number of talibes (aka the tali' tally) i came up for a few days and we were able to distribute to all twelve schools.
this was a great project for me for many reasons. not only were talibes given mosquito nets and now completely covered at night from malaria, but they were also given medicine for schistosomiasis from the health center at the same time. we got to spend time with each school, play with the boys, and talk to the marabou's about malaria and taking care of the boys. in general, the distribution went really well i think it will be a great help for these schools.
it was also really interesting to see the differences between the schools. there were a few school that were clean, had sleeping spaces for each boy, had a schedule for class, fieldwork, etc and the marabous knew each and every kid's name. then there were marabous who had no idea what kids were in their school, were overcrowded, dirty, didn't take care of their kids and even hit the kids in front of us. one even started pulling boys off the street so that we would give them more nets. it was so incredible to see such great differences between schools, even in a small city like podor. it was really obvious which marabous took care of their boys and took their job seriously and lived out the koran truely, while others just took advantage of their power position within their communities.
at the end, the boys were what really mattered and now when we're in podor, we are loved by the talibes and they no longer hassel us but follow us around because they're so thankful. it isn't much, just a few mosquito nets, but for these kids it made all the difference.
cheers!
they are little boys (usually ages 5-15) who go to koranic school to learn the koran. most of these boys live at the school under the supervision of a imam or marabou (religous leader and teacher). during the day when they are not in class these boys will go throughout towns begging for food and money which is then given to the marabou and is (supposed to be but never enforced) used to clothe, feed, and raise the talibes. however, this is rarely the case, especially in large cities. marabous often take the money themselves and beat talibes who only bring back food or not enough money. (many talibes have quotas they need to fill by the end of the day). as a result, these boys are often the most malnourished and overlooked part of senegal. they sleep in overcrowded, dirty spaces and usually just on the floor with no mats or blankets. it's rare to see a talibe wearing shoes or clothes that properly fit them.
as a toubak, i have a huge target on my back for talibes, as does any visitor. this often means we get followed anywhere we go by one or two whenever we are in dakar, saint-louis, etc. it's frustrating because while you feel so incredibly bad for these kids who are forced to beg, you are also extremely annoyed because they do not leave you alone until you give them something. this is one of the many many many reasons it is hard for me to accept a culture that condones begging and neglects children.
so, lauren and i decided to do something for these guys. we had a few mosquito nets left over from our distributions and we decided to give these nets to the various koranic schools in podor. though podor is a smaller city (about the size of platteville) there are over 400 talibes, about two thirds are 12 and under. lauren went around to each of the schools, talked to the marabous and tallied up the number of talibes (aka the tali' tally) i came up for a few days and we were able to distribute to all twelve schools.
this was a great project for me for many reasons. not only were talibes given mosquito nets and now completely covered at night from malaria, but they were also given medicine for schistosomiasis from the health center at the same time. we got to spend time with each school, play with the boys, and talk to the marabou's about malaria and taking care of the boys. in general, the distribution went really well i think it will be a great help for these schools.
it was also really interesting to see the differences between the schools. there were a few school that were clean, had sleeping spaces for each boy, had a schedule for class, fieldwork, etc and the marabous knew each and every kid's name. then there were marabous who had no idea what kids were in their school, were overcrowded, dirty, didn't take care of their kids and even hit the kids in front of us. one even started pulling boys off the street so that we would give them more nets. it was so incredible to see such great differences between schools, even in a small city like podor. it was really obvious which marabous took care of their boys and took their job seriously and lived out the koran truely, while others just took advantage of their power position within their communities.
at the end, the boys were what really mattered and now when we're in podor, we are loved by the talibes and they no longer hassel us but follow us around because they're so thankful. it isn't much, just a few mosquito nets, but for these kids it made all the difference.
cheers!
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