Triatix and Tilapia

So sorry for my lack of posting. My delightful students have been running me ragged :)

Let me catch you all up a bit on what we have been up to. Here we are at an orphan program doing a little a little deworming. For those of you who are not ascariasis savvy, this is not a very technical manueuver- it basically involves giving them a pill:).

 

Now this albendazole was in a container that made the gutsy claim that they were chewable. What I am now pondering, is what qualifies it as chewable? Apparently the only qualification is that it's not hard as a rock. In small print it said "mint aroma". Note: nothing was mentioned about flavor. So, being the great pediatric nurse that I am, I thought we should try it before we give it to kids.

And it was absolutely wretched. I have never chewed on a piece of chalk......but I think it was pretty comparable. To counteract this foulness we got candy to administer immediately after the chalk tabs. No one gagged, so I have counted it a success.

We also treated their feet for jiggers, which are nasty little buggers that like to dig into feet and rip them up. Treatment involves soaking their feet in Triatix, an insecticide, to get rid of the parasites. It's not pretty, bit it works. The tricky thing was all the kids were barefoot, which makes it rather difficult to assess the bottoms of their feet when we can't see them through the mud. Hence the foot washing station was started. This is Sam, washing children's feet.

 

 

For an interesting cultural experience we went down to the hotels (sidenote: restaurants are called hotels here, and hotels are called guest houses) on lake Victoria for some fresh tilapia. As I anticipated, it was slightly alarming to some of the students when they were given the whole fish to eat, especially considering that they were not given any utensils. But true to form, they jumped in and gave it a try. And if we're all really honest, who isnt dying to try eating with their hands anyway?

Xoxo

Jessie

And no, Sam does not know I posted this picture of him :). Let's just keep it our little secret.