“Malaria? It’s not that big of a deal”

Being on duty I got to spend a lot of time in the student dorms. The conditions are quite tough. Me and my roommate Z were both sick by Wednesday from the meh in the air. One thing I noticed was the beds. I was surprised to see maybe 15 out 1000 students having bed nets. With how much money Rwanda takes from foreign aid, I thought everyone in a public school would have one. I had an unusual amount of students absent from class and when I asked where they were and if they were ok, it turned out that four of them had malaria. Curiosity killed they cat and with 10 minutes left in class I had to know their thoughts on malaria. I have seen countless students who were just in bad shape from malaria and I wanted to know what they knew and what they thought about it.

I asked if any of them had malaria before and was practically laughed out of the room. I knew a lot of students got malaria but it turns out that every single student has had it before and almost all have had it multiple times. After a full thirty minute conversation I got the full run down.

Bottom line is this, malaria happens. My suspicions about Rwanda’s aid and malaria was correct but it turns out the follow through is a problem. All the students know that they can walk down to the local hospital about 6 km away and pick up a free bed net. These nets have a horrible reputation though. They are sprayed with permethrin, a chemical that keeps mosquitoes away and gives you bad rashes if you touch it. It seems like many of the students had given the free nets a chance but quit using them after a couple nights of tough sleep and a body part accidently touched the net and left a nasty rash in the morning. Awesome use of aid money right there huh?

That’s not really the point of the story though. Most students just don’t think malaria is a big deal. It’s a part of life. Many sleep under nets at home and just don’t want to bring their nets to school. They all see malaria as just a way of life, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. They hate it when they have it and do get really sick but know that there is a cure. If they just go to the hospital and get diagnosed it cost around 20¢ to get the treatment. They feel horrible for a week and then it’s done, they’re back in school.

When I asked if I knew anyone had known anyone who had died from malaria, I was surprisingly answered with almost all yeses. It turns out that many people who live in rural rural areas still believe in witchcraft and when they get malaria, they go see a shaman who spends days trying to heal them and end up dying from malaria. They don’t trust any modern hospitals.

I know Rwanda is an exception with how much aid money it takes in but is the fight against malaria you pictured?

(This is Elias, He has malaria right now and is out of school. I especially love this kid one because he tries really hard and two his name is Elias which I am particularly fond of because of this: