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I spent two weeks working on Hithaadhoo with my teammates Katie and Shah. We showed up to learn that the island already had three community health workers who went out and surveyed the island in about a month. We met with them right away and saw that they had great data sheets in use already and that they did go out to check homes on a constant basis. Our goal was to help them improve their methods and gain community support so they could cover the island in just two weeks. The island council president Yusuf was very willing to work with us and wanted to see the project succeed.

After presentations to students at the school we had a steady group of student volunteers coming out each day to help us survey the island. I actually grew pretty close to two girls and looked forward to working with them every day. At the end of the week they gave me a traditional Maldivian lacquer box and said they would miss me. They were both sweet girls and I’ll miss working with such great kids there.

On our last day on the island we had the community health workers survey homes on their own while we finished up final meetings. Both teams did a great job at it and we felt confident that they would be able to carry on the project once we left as long as they had consistent volunteers to help them. Trudy and Shah worked on a procedure sheet with directions on how to survey homes efficiently so if more people do volunteer and break into teams, they will always have something to guide them. Coming to an island that already had a consistent team going out and checking homes for mosquito breeding was something new for me.

It was awesome to see a system that was already in place and to work with members of the community health center to improve it. Together we worked as one team drawing upon experiences from both sides to come up with a system that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

A much delayed entry after not having access to wifi for a while but working on Maalohos was a great experience. Our last day was spent discussing finances needed to continue the project as well as what steps would be taken by the community to keep the survey doing on a regular basis. The island council president, Suja seemed very ready to commit to the project by working on better improving community participation. The turnout for the clean up the next day was mostly children but as a team we managed to clean out all of the island’s dump and bag about 300 bags of trash as well as several jumbo bags of recyclables all in the pouring rain. We ended the day with swimming in the ocean with the girls who were helping us all day and then with jumping into the water from the jetty with the rest of the kids. Overall, a great week for Katie, Piko, and myself.

Over the course of one week (Sept. 25-29) Piko and I helped the community of Fehendhoo sort and get rid of a giant trash pile which had been sitting and breeding mosquitoes for an entire year. Our mentors Syd and Lira, both of whom had been to this island last year, aided us in the process and helped motivate the community. While the work was tedious at times, it felt worthwhile. By removing this trash pile, we helped the community eliminate a major breeding site and they are that much closer to successful mosquito control. We were able to recycle a large amount of the trash, mostly bi-metal and aluminum, while the rest went to Thilafushi.

Waste management in the Maldives is an issue that interests me greatly, especially since it is so integrated with mosquito control. It is a very large and complex problem and I have not been able to think of any simple solution. However, I am confident that, like all of the other big problems throughout the world, it can be solved. I think that a crucial first step would be more education about the effects of trash on the environment.

Day one: This came in handy later when it started pouring rain!

 

Day three: The Fehendhoo community really stepped up to support the cleanup!

 

Day six: An incredible difference after a week of work. These bags made it off the island before we left!

 

 

 

Two weeks ago, with a shuffle of the teams and a massive assembly of gear, we took off to the Goidhoo Sub-Stoll for the second session survey. After sleeping nine men to a room the first night at the guest house, we set out in an over-weighted boat to our respective islands. The Goidhoo Dengue Destroyers was assembled into what you might call a dream team, consisting of Dan..and I. Our mission: tackle mosquito survey of the small town and give some hope for the large island, large swamps (AKA “mosquito factories”), and long-term sustainability of mosquito reduction. Hopped off the boat onto an empty jetty, only to be startled by the realization that some miscommunication meant only two people on the island even knew we were coming! We called up the island health officer, Wisham (excellent man) who, in the span of ten minutes, assembled the leading members of every organization on the island. We went over our project plan with them, asked for and offered resources, and ten minutes later had reached agreements on how the whole thing was going to flow (initially, headed up by the health center). We all piled into the community van to visit the jungle breeding and tour the town. The worst was the seasonal brackish pond, three hundred feet across, hot as tea, breeding millions larvae. It had it’s very own coconut and crab-hole breeding as well!

“People come in with big plans….Then they see this.” they told us.

I’ve gotta say the jungle was pretty intimidating. The willingness of the community gave us hope though. The next day we got survey going in the town, and started training health workers and community members in our control methods. There was plenty of enthusiasm for this particular problem! The following days we would arrive early, only to find fifteen-plus people already there, a fresh bucket of fish collected for the day. The larvae in the town didn’t stand a chance; we finished the first survey in about two and a half days. The five community teams quickly took over from us, and even lead most of the town recheck in the problem areas!

Needless the say, the first week left us pretty hopeful for the Goidhoo project. We even completed a survey of the many farming areas on the island, and with the help of the ambulance and about five members, collected thousands of Japan fish from island wells to battle it out with mosquitoes in the swamps!

Mosquito control is deeply entangled by community wide processes: the social, political, and environmental.

Over the last two weeks our teams have examined the nature of this work by living on two sets of local islands.

The second democratic election for the Maldives will be held tomorrow, September 6, 2013. For the last two weeks, the team staying on Fulhadhoo of the Southern Baa (Goidhoo Sub-Atoll) have lived in the no man’s land between to warring political parties, or at least to their volume buttons and commitment for redundancy through political songs. Turned to face each other and centered over the Fulhadhoo Guesthouse roof, the unintelligible songs would begin in the morning and end as late as 12:00 a.m.