The Swamp

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Today was a great day. Rounds in the hospital went much more smoothly. We spent the second half of the day going into the market and making the tailor busy until Wednesday. We came back for supper and Stephanie and I walked down to the swamp behind our house. I love going down there. It is so lush and green and beautiful. It reminds me of the jungle in Belize. It makes me wonder what Africa is like in the rainy season. 

But for now, during the end of the dry season, the swamp is the only thing left with water and people scavenge to get what they need. People go there to bathe and do laundry and to tend their crops. They also go to fetch water to drink and cook with. (Or if you are like the children that we were with, why fetch it when you can just scoop it up and drink the dirty bath water right there??)

This sometimes presents a problem since the water if often contaminated. Dr. Karen says that cases of typhoid (from Salmonella enterica (typhi), a bacterium that grows in contaminated water) are increased in the spring months at the end of the dry season because water is so hard to find. It's hard to believe that something that provides so much life can also cause so much harm.

After dinner we enjoyed a nice game of “Apples to Apples” with Jacob and Samuel and even though it is very much an American game, they did really well. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end an amazing day.