Oranges, Camels, Satellite TV

Vaccinations – Profiling ‘Halima’ – Oranges, Camels, Sat TV

I have spent the last week back up in the Jebel Marra mountains. The purpose of my visit was both to assist with our vaccination campaign and also train the local health workers. It is a beautiful place to visit and I probably won’t get another chance to stay there so I have come away with loads of memories. So join me now visiting some villages, meeting the locals and seeing some funny sights.

Vaccination Campaign
The vaccination team was up at dawn and ready to hit the road with Landcruisers piled high with all the equipment needed to vaccinate a small town. Today the destination was Buldong – a 45 minute drive from our Kutrum base along a series of dusty, rocky tracks in some of the most beautiful country on earth. Along the way our ‘town-crier’ hung out the window bellowing into a loudspeaker reminders that today is vaccination day. The community had already been saturated with news of this with local sheiks, imams, teachers and other leaders spreading the message for weeks prior. Indeed, half the people we passed were heading to Buldong especially for the vaccines – children on donkeys, babies strapped to young girls’ backs, family groups walking briskly in a cloud of dust.

On arrival we met the rest of the team who had made their own way from their respective villages. Already a couple of hundred brightly clad women were sitting in the morning sun with their children awaiting our arrival. Today we would vaccinate around 1000 women and children – a big organisational task. But it was the third and final week of the vaccination campaign so the team was well-oiled and leapt quickly into their respective roles – registration clerks, nutrition screening attendants, crowd controllers, vaccinators, cooks, drivers (whose first job of the day was to slaughter the goat that had been brought for lunch).

Before starting the vaccinations I joined the campaign supervisor, Mama Joanna, in telling everyone about vaccinations and thanking them for coming. I then took the opportunity to spread some health messages about nutrition and hygiene, which were listened to particularly attentively (though I am sure the oddness of who was delivering the message will be remembered much longer than the message itself). Then the women and children all filed through – polio drops, Vitamin A capsules, iodine, measles and pentavalent injections. It took us until late afternoon to finish up and by the time we returned back to Kutrum the sun was sinking below the dusty horizon. It was a good day. After a cold shower I sat down to eat and play cards before retiring early for another early start tomorrow.

The vaccination week finished up successfully and will be followed up in January with a final round to complete the campaign. Vaccine preventable diseases (e.g. measles) are among the biggest killers among displaced and war-affected persons, and in the past couple of years a number of epidemics have swept through Darfur. Since the Jebel Marra villages are all under rebel control there are no government health services – including no immunisations. So the MSF vaccination campaign this year has been a valuable addition to our regular clinic services.

Profiling ‘Halima’
Halima Isak Esau, 23 year old woman from a remote village in the Jebel Marra.

Halima has known war for as long as she can remember, but it was in her teens that she noticed things really changing. Her family is from a village just west of the Jebel Marra and they lived a relatively luxurious life as farmers and traders. Halima remembers market days with pleasure, when visitors would come from all over the region to trade. She particularly loved seeing the Arab nomads who would ride in on camels wearing such exotic clothes and jewellery.

Halima’s father was good friends with one of the old Arab men called Sheik Ahmed. Each week she would see Sheik Ahmed come and join her father to drink fresh milk, eat stewed meat, share stories and laugh loudly a boisterously. One day Sheik Ahmed gave her a purse made from goatskin. She was so delighted that she decided that next time the Sheik visited she would give him some beads that she was putting on a string. But that was the last time she saw Sheik Ahmed. When she asked her father why, her father explained that some bad things had been happening and it was not safe for Sheik Ahmed to visit anymore.

Those bad things would soon come to Halima’s town and send them running for safety. Unlike most of the displaced villagers, who sought sanctuary in the larger towns, Halima’s family fled deeper into the Jebel Marra. This was much less safe – indeed it was the frontline of the war – but Halima’s father believed that they would be better off staying in the mountains. These mountains have now become the heart of a rebel movement that would quickly grow stronger and more organised. Indeed, all of Halima’s brother would end up joining the rebels, growing their hair long with dreadlocks (like their hero Bob Marley), toting old Kalashnikovs, and wearing the SLA badge proudly (which is simply Sudan’s flag upside down).

I met Halima while doing some village visits spreading news about the vaccination campaign. Her family heard brought me to see her after she had been in bed for 2 weeks with fevers and skin sores. After ducking into her hut it took a minute for my eyes to adjust and what I saw was quite shocking. Halima lay in bed with her whole body swollen and seeping with pustules. She was boiling up with fevers and must have been in dreadful pain. After chatting and deciding that she could return with us to the clinic we helped her into the Landcruiser and slowly bumped back along the road.

Three days later she is much improved. The fevers have gone, her skin is healing, her face is showing human features again and she can give me a smile as I say salaam. If Penicillin had a face I would kiss it, such are the miracles the simple antibiotic can produce. She is much better, but still needs follow-up, not least because she was diagnosed with leprosy in the past and it seems she may not have completed all her treatment.

By chance I met one of Halima’s brothers later in the week. He came to the clinic with a group of SLA members to seek treatment for one of their wives. It was after nightfall so they joined us to eat some bread and honey. As we chatted Halima’s brother introduced one of the other guys as a ‘Janjaweed’ and laughed. It turns out that this guy is one of the Arabs who have switched sides to join the SLA against the government. I wondered if he could be related to the Sheik that Halima remembered from her childhood. It is indeed a peculiar world!

Oranges, Camels and Satellite TV
It was Eid holidays this week, and since I was in Kutrum I trotted around doing the obligatory house calls after work each evening. I met lots of beautiful people but a few scenarios stand out.

One evening we walked through the lush orange orchard that is owned by one of our watchmen. It is ironic that his son was treated for malnutrition when their farm is so productive – perhaps a result both of market forces (the best produce is sold) and simple lack of understanding about nutrition. The Jebel Marra is probably the most fertile ground in Sudan and its oranges are particularly famous. I am told that oranges from the Jebel Marra even adorn the tables of the President.

After returning from the orchard we called in to see our triage attendant. As I entered I noticed a huge homemade satellite dish propped against the wall and thought it kinda odd since there was not even electricity here. But after handing around dates and juice our host treated us to a full display of his satellite television setup. For electricity there were two solar panels lying on the grass roof of his hut, alongside a tray of dried tomatoes – both now soaking up the moonlight. He brought the TV outside and propped up against the fence, then proceeded to unroll the electricity and satellite cords over the gravel. After playing around with the set-top box the TV flickers to life and Al-Jazeera news channel shines with crystalline clarity. I am suitably impressed. The entertainment soon draws some neighbouring children, while a curious camel pokes its head over the fence to catch the sports headlines.

I have been continuously impressed with how well informed the people here are about what is happening in the world. Politics is a topic of hot discussion and I am sure that some of the villagers here could outgun our supposed expert foreign correspondents in their commentary on African affairs. They have certainly taught me plenty!