Friday: Part 3

 Part 3: Gadyen Dlo Employee Training

After getting back to Matana, we had to grab our computers and head back down to Petersen’s house, so Liz and I could conduct our new employee water training.  The day before we had found some training materials that use pictures to help explain the hydrologic cycle and how waterborne diseases are spread through human and animal excrement in waterways, lack of hand washing, etc.  And, I had simplified and translated to Creole one of my Gadyen Dlo powerpoints from last semester to show the boys and use for this training.  I was so worried that when I was explaining the way that bacteria, passed through water is responsible for much of the diarrheal diseases affecting the people here, that they would essentially be thinking “duh, everyone knows that.”  Instead, it was the opposite, and the best moment for me was when Petersen and the boys started to understand that the purpose of adding Gadyen Dlo solution to the water, was to kill the “mikwobs” that Liz and I had been talking about for the past two hours.  

The new Gadyen Dlo employees from left to right: Santho, Watson, Rolax, and Petersen.

While my practicum was originally supposed to be to evaluating the Gadyen Dlo system as an up and running program, a few days before my trip I learned that the former employees had all been fired because they weren’t actually selling Gadyen Dlo to the homes, or recording anything, etc.  So, that was why it was necessary for us to do this training, and we have about 2-3 more training planned for early next week.  In order for me to evaluate how well our trainings are going, I asked them to answer a few questions before the start of our day’s lesson, and then I’ll ask them the same questions on Monday to see how their answers differ.  Examples of the questions we asked: “Why is it important to treat water?” and “List all the ways you know of to treat water.” 

After the training (which ended up lasting around 3 hours) and was very exhausting in part because we are not sure how accurately our translator, John (sitting next to Liz), was translating.  Another factor was that Santho, my translator from the other day (moto riding) was also there as one of the employees, and doing his own translations for Watson and Rolax.  And, just overall it was incredibly difficult trying to teach the concepts of waterborne diarrheal disease to people who have grown up thinking you get sick because “God willed it” (or someone sent a curse to you or your family) not because of mikwobes (microbes is the best general translation to mean bacteria, pathogens, germs, etc).  BUT—that being said, this was one of the coolest experiences of my life, and the times when I could see that they were understanding, and that it actually made sense to them that not washing your hands after elimination, then going in and cooking dinner could spread mikwobs to your family, was indescribably rewarding for me.  

So, when we were done, we bought everyone a cola (or a beer if they preferred), and then had a mini-dance party (Petersen turned on the generator for music).  This was on Petersen’s beautiful, private, patio (that's where the pictures are all from).  The best part was that whenever we'd look towards the main gate, several little tiny hands would shoot up from underneath the metal and wave to us—apparently the music attracted an audience of petits (kids).  It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.