Our Health

OUR HEALTH

            Since we told people back home about our decision to join the Peace Corps, most congratulated us, although everyone expressed some concern about us maintaining our health overseas, particularly in Africa.  To date, we remain relatively healthy, thank you very much.

            Peace Corps is very much concerned about our health.  We had to undergo several medical and dental exams before departure, and we had to prove that we had current resistance to various diseases, like polio, measles and mumps.  We had to be current on all recommended procedures for our age, like (ahem) colonoscopies.  Our physician, Neil Markwith, and our dentist, Richard Vachon, cooperated to the nth degree with all of the forms and reports needed.

            During training in Kanye, we received a number of briefings from Peace Corps Botswana’s full time physician and nurse on a variety of topics.  We learned about self-treatment for the most common afflictions that affect volunteers, diarrhea being tops on the list.  We got to see a power point presentation on STDs, complete with graphic photos.  We learned about food safety and the risks of eating uncooked vegetables and dairy products that use unpasteurized milk.  We had a lengthy session on malaria and another session on other parasites, including schistosomiasis, colloquially referred to as “schisto”.   Since our class of volunteers is all assigned in the southern half of Botswana, we are in a malaria-free zone and so do not need to take anti-malarials except when we travel.  We each received a medical kit which includes everything from two diarrhea treatments to wound dressings to topical disinfectants to, yes, condoms.  We received no training at all on poisonous snakes, which reflects the low nature of that threat here.

              Also during training, we received a number of inoculations against various conditions including rabies, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningitis (we also got a yellow fever shot before leaving home). 

            We get good medical care here, and it is all free.  We will get a medical and dental exam after one year of service.  We can call or SMS the Botswana Peace Corps medical office to discuss any medical problem we may be facing.  In emergencies, we can call the doctor or nurse any time of the day or night.  If we need to be seen, then we generally are expected to travel to Gaborone.  Some conditions can be diagnosed over the phone and arrangements made to deliver a prescription to us.  In emergencies, we are told to speak with a medical officer before going to a local clinic or hospital.  Some medical facilities meet Peace Corps guidelines and some do not.  Our local hospital passes muster for emergencies, but we are expected to deal with our Peace Corps medical staff otherwise.  In case we need hospitalization, we may be evacuated to facilities in Pretoria, South Africa, or even to Washington, DC.

            So how have we been feeling?  I have had two colds since I arrived.  Each one eventually settled in my chest, where it remained for a week or more.  The medical office supplied me with an expectorant, which helped.  Stephanie inherited my second cold, and it also settled in her chest.  She has now just gotten over it.  The extreme dry weather here seems to affect the course of a cold.  Stephanie also had some diarrhea a couple of weeks ago.  I did not get it, which is interesting because we eat pretty much the same food.  We have speculated on what food likely caused her ailment.  She thinks it was a Russian (a popular type of hot dog from South Africa) served on a bun.  We bought it from a vendor at our local bus rank.  He was cooking them on a gas grill.  But I think she may have gotten it from feta cheese (a real rarity here) that I bought at a somewhat upscale supermarket on a trip to Lobatse.  I had to bring it home on a one-hour mini-bus ride on a really hot day.

            So, it seems likely that we are going to be able to survive here just fine.  By the way, the leading cause of death of Peace Corps volunteers is – traffic accidents.  To curb that, Peace Corps instituted 20+ years ago a no driving/no car ownership/no motorbike ownership policy.  The volunteer death rate supposedly plummeted as a result.  That means we are reliant largely upon public transportation, like most people here.  This is a big country (the size of Nevada, with only two million people) so there are few vehicles on the road.  Public transport will be the subject of another blog entry.