Aug 4. 2014. Monitor your health for 21 days

First day in World Vision Tanzania Central Zone!

"Korea is a country?"

I caught a look of surprise on his face. I was also greatly surprised on the first day of WVT Central Zone that some WVT staff assume Korea is part of China. 

This is a common misperception about Asia and Africa. There are about 50 countries in Asia, and also more than 50 countries in Africa. There is no single country that represents this whole continent; however, anywhere I go, people assume that I am from China. You may already get bored to hear that because I have already talked about it hundreds of time in the blog. People here say that Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino all look the same. Absolutely, it is not true! Their facial feature, appearance, attire, hairstyle, atmosphere are all different. What about Africa? I was startled to see that Tanzania is well-developed country; it is quite the opposite of what I thought about Africa. I might also generalize Africa that all people in Africa would be black and they all look very similar. But I realized that Sierra Leoneans and Tanzanians do look different! Of course, it may take time to have confidence to distinguish; if you bring me one Sierra Leonean friend and one Tanzanian friend and ask me who is from what country, I may have hard time to answer it. However, one thing’s for certain: Tanzanians have not experienced civil war in their history, so it might affect people to have their own personality; the first word I attentively want to say is peace! I also see their difference of features and expression by now.

What about Ebola? Ebola news has been throwing the people into a state of terror; mass media aggravates people’s emotion by emphasizing death toll from Ebola. CDC issued highest level 3 Travel Warning to Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone on July 31, because 1320 cases have occurred and more than 725 people have died of Ebola in these three countries. A friend of mine wants to come to Africa, but she is afraid of doing so because of Ebola. I know Ebola is a deadly disease that has no vaccine and no cure, but it is not a widespread epidemic to all African continents. I, myself also still worry about suspicious maximum 21 days of incubation period, the duration from the first exposure to when symptoms appear, because CDC says so. But I want to objectively look at the Ebola epidemic. Something must be in the range of the fallacy of hasty generalization.

“Monitor your health for 21 days. Watch for fever (temperature of 101°F/38.3°C or higher), chills, muscle aches, severe diarrhea, vomiting, rash, and other symptoms consistent with Ebola.” - CDC

Does that mean I might be contagious if I were in incubation period? Since I relocated to Tanzania last Wednesday, it has been only 6 days since I left Sierra Leone. To find out I am really free from Ebola, I need to monitor my health 15 more days. Nevertheless, Ebola is not contagious during its incubation period. Of course, it does not prove 100% that we can meet random people on the street, because we never know who are sick. Sick people may not even know they are actually sick, or they trifle with their cold or cough that would actually be Ebola initial symptoms.

Nonetheless, I wanted to deliver positive message for today; the power of optimism will contain Ebola epidemic soon.

<Why You Shouldn’t Freak Out About Ebola Patients Coming to the U.S.>

http://gizmodo.com/why-you-shouldnt-freak-out-about-ebola-patients-coming-1614788513

“…it can spread from person to person, especially among health care staff and other people who have close contact with an infected person.”

What does “close contact” mean?

“…Close contact does not include walking by a person or briefly sitting across a room from a person.” - CDC

Ebola is not actually touch & die tomorrow disease; rather, consistent caring and living with patients or direct contacting with blood/ body fluids of an Ebola patients cause Ebola.

No more hasty generalization! Africa is actually a good place to live. It is not that scary or hard that some people worry about. Africa is just one of the continents where people with different skin live by different cultures. There should be no mysterious, arcane, or unknown continent of Africa any more. People in Africa are suffering from hunger and disease, but on the other hand, not everyone is defenselessly exposed to these risks in Africa. Ebola is definitely scary disease. Cases of Ebola virus in Africa have already been found in many different countries – Congo, South Sudan, Gabon, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Uganda, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria – since 1976, for 24 times throughout the history on Earth. It could have been more cases even before 1976 because people might have been died of Ebola, but they did not even know what that was. The only difference between Ebola case in the past and now is that the current epidemic is the most serious and spreads to multiple countries. 

We, human beings, will not surrender ourselves to Ebola. Human beings have existed for thousands of years and been always inventive and adaptable. The most important thing to remember is that we have always contained this disease. So, don’t be scared! I visualize the positive future that before long, we will develop the treatment and vaccine for Ebola, and all people happily live in the beautiful continent, called AFRICA! 

Ebola Outbreak in History (1976-2014) - CDC

August 3. New Sunday in Tanzania

I have met New Sunday in the new place. I was supposed to go Catholic church with Lydia and Denice, but I was left alone, so I had to find a way to attend a Sunday worship. Where do I go? Pastor Licky came across my mind. He is a WVT staff as well as a pastor. I was surprised again that some WV staff here in Tanzania are also pastors, like I saw them in WVSL; they do not say “I am a pastor” first, which means I have to kind of being aware how other WV staff talk to them. When Lydia and I were walking to Denice’s home yesterday, we came across pastor Licky on the street. Lydia called him “Mchungaji!” I asked her later what “Mchungaji” meant, and she said it is “pastor.” That was how I noticed Licky is a pastor, and I have started calling him “Pastor Licky” from that moment. I am just wondering how WV staff those who are also pastors manage their time to do office work and church work at the same time. Is it like I am a public health something worker as well as a professional salsa dancer in the future? Oh… I cannot do both.

It was early in the morning, 7:30am, but I called pastor Licky that I wanted to attend his church. He gladly invited me to his church, and Sampson came to Calman Lodge, the place where I am staying, to pick me up. The funny thing was that Sampson had been waiting for me outside of the lodge for 50 minutes while I had been waiting someone (whom did not know at that point) who would collect me for 50 minutes at the reception desk. Neither of us had even tried to push/pull the entrance door almost 1 hour. I have to take a good look at myself; in spite of myself, I might already have begged the question that Africans are usually late for appointment, so I vaguely kept waiting. Pastor Licky said someone would pick me up before 10am, but I did not quite know what before 10am exactly meant and waited even until past 10am. There is no more stereotypes for anything, from this point.

The service that I attended today was pentacostal church. It was brand new church experience for me. It emphasized testimony – person’s experience of God – more, so people willingly shared their last week experience with God in front of audience. Pastor Licky was so kind enough to translate all Swahili to English for me during the whole 4 hour-service; his kindness actually quite abashed me because I was worrying his whisper might disturb other people around us. The characteristic of African pastor is to say it out loud into a microphone so close, so I could not even hear pastor Licky’s real-time translation well, and my ears were so confused what I needed to hear. I was amazed that people were praying so hard, and one by one fainted and were led away by colleagues. More people surged up their emotion as a pastor kept saying something dramatic yelling that I was really, really eager to know what that meant. The African church was filled with purity, passion, and zest that I have never saw in South Korea or the U.S.; I am the one who have always kept the unnecessary decency and worried how other people look at me if I pass out or cry during prayer.

When all is said and done, African hymn is the most beautiful sound that I wish to store them in my ears forever. So I secretly recorded them. Some other day, when I miss African hymn, I would listen to these recordings. Even now, I miss Louisa’s voice. Should I go back to Sierra Leone to listen her hymn? I thought her voice was emblazoned deeply in my memory, but I have bitterly become numb with my blurred memories. Even if I might encounter the moment in the distant future that I am confused whether I really heard her heavenly voice, I will never forget this emotional zenith that I had the privilege of being blessed from hymns in Africa.

Dodoma local market

On the way back to my home, I texted Denice how she was doing. We met to walk around town. I went to the local market for the first time, and tried to go to WV office through a different route. And we went to New Dodoma Hotel coffee shop, and had some tea and coffee.

“What are you planning to do for this week?”

I asked Denice because I was not sure what I have to do this week. I am getting way behind with my schedule, and I do not even know what the deadline is. What about you, Denice? Same as me?

I do not know what my familiarity is in Africa. What is my habitualized daily life here? Tomorrow, I will walk to the office from my new lodge, find the new devotion place, have self-introduction time, memorize staff name, find my place to work, have new lunch at new place, and learn Swahili.

“Usiku mwema”

Lidya texted me. Of course, I had no idea what that meant, but Denice told me a useful tip; let’s use Google translator! Ah ha, that meant “Good night.” So I texted her back, “잘자요.” She might see some cartoon or drawing by now.

Polee dada and polee kaka… My new Sunday in Tanzania, in this way, is about to pass through midnight, to hand its day over to the new Monday in Tanzania.

“Usiku mwema,” “잘자요,” and… “Good night.”

August 2. Uneasy Peace

I thought I was finally free from Ebola. Tanzania is located at the eastern extremity of Africa continent, so there would be almost zero possibility to find Ebola case in Tanzania. Am I happy now? Not yet. I do not want to be irresponsible person who celebrates successful evacuation and forgets about Ebola. WVSL, MSF, local medical doctors and nurses are still desperately fighting against Ebola. I could not help watching and reading Ebola news even though I have been relocated to Ebola-free area.

A lot of sad news about Ebola continuously has been reported through CCTV America and BBC news. Sadly, leading Ebola doctor Sheik Umar Khan from Sierra Leone has been dead age 39 from Ebola disease. He had treated more than 100 Ebola patients and saved their lives, but he had contracted this disease himself and died on July 29, 2014. The death of national hero must be national tragedy, and I was shocked that even Ebola expert could not avoid this deadly disease. I express my deepest condolence to his sacrifice, and we should ensure that his life-risking effort and death would not be wasted.

<Profile: Leading Ebola doctor Sheik Umar Khan>

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28560507

I never met Suzy in Sierra Leone. She is the one who told me the country name, Sierra Leone. She had been doing her Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, and I took courage from her to take the risk of coming to Sierra Leone, in the beginning of Ebola epidemic from the border. She decided to extend her service one more year, which will be 3 years life in Sierra Leone, and that made me really surprised. I wished I could meet her to share our Sierra Leone story, but this exigent circumstance made hundreds of Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa evacuate to the U.S. She may stay in Salt Lake City indefinitely until Ebola outbreak is contained.

Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency, 60 to 90 days, to fight against Ebola, and World Health Organization would launch $100 million response plan to take the new level of response to Ebola. I suddenly worry about Nicole, who is my fellow colleague in Kenya. Like I took Kenya Airways from Sierra Leone, Kenya is a central hub that most of airplanes from West Africa pass through. I left Sierra Leone at the right timing, so I did not meet surveillance for detecting Ebola at every entry, a strong checks to every passengers has been strengthened in the airports to quarantine suspicious Ebola patients.

<Ebola virus: the tiny airport in Sierra Leone that has direct link to Britain>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sierraleone/11004343/Ebola-virus-the-tiny-airport-in-Sierra-Leone-that-has-direct-link-to-Britain.html

In the meantime, I have to eat something. Worrying about epidemics does not resolve the problem. Denice invited me to lunch, so I would eat a lot! I went to Denice’s guesthouse with Lydia and Modest, and we cooked food from noon to 4pm! (I have to admit that I only washed vegetables…) I consider myself a good cook who can make food for survival, which means, I do not much care about the taste or shape of food because any food would end up being digested in the stomach. My cooking philosophy is to complete the main soup and rice within 30 minutes and eat all up in a twinkle. This 4-hour nicely prepared meal with love and sincerity is undeserved treatment to me. I do not know why, but I always miss meals in military, especially combat ration. I periodically used to have intake of combat ration because they have to be consumed by soldiers before 2-year expiration date would have passed. This food is of course, incommensurable with 전투식량 in military. Anyway, regardless of the taste, the best food is always the one that I have when I am hungry.

This is an uneasy peace to me. Although I am in quite, calm, and peaceful country, Tanzania, I am still doing Sierra Leone AIM-Health project evaluation. Ebola must be outside Tanzanians’ interests because it is not their reality. People in Freetown are still afraid of shaking hands with others, to be sure, and hesitant to even take a taxi. I ate a lot and took some rest in Tanzania today. My body took advantage of some leisure, but my mind still stick with Don't touch! or you will die disease.