Page 78 - Tattnall County

and behave the whole time while they waited to be tested. The people in the villages who came out to be tested were polite, patient, and friendly. One day was set aside for several of the villages to come together, eat, and watch the Jesus flm, which was in the local language.

One of the “faces” of poverty is an attitude of “every man for himself”. Another goal of Nurses for the Nations is to encourage the Liberians to take care of each other, to be responsible to come together and help each other. There is a tendency for them to want outsiders to come in and do things for them that with some cooperation, organization, and a different mindset, they might be able to do on their own. The chiefs of the villages were given the responsibility of making sure the villagers used the mosquito nets that had been given them the previous year. Unfortunately, we saw no signs of mosquito nets being used. It was suspected that they had been either sold on the streets or cut up to be used for various other things.

The Liberians have many medicals needs. The villagers do not have access to medical care unless they can get into the city. Many times this is done by walking, hitching a ride or by wheelbarrow! Then they must pay for the care they receive and medications which they cannot afford. I wondered how many babies and children had died in the past year without medical care and how many people even knew of their existence? Was it even recorded anywhere? As for a clean water source, a few of the villages have had wells dug, but many relied on the streams and rivers nearby. We gave each chief a large supply of donated basic medicines and frst aid supplies and educated them on what the medications were for so they could dispense them as necessary. Each villager was also given a donated baggy with toothpaste, tooth brush, and soap. I wondered how the children drank milk as we never saw a cow or goat. The only animals we saw were dogs and chickens. Chicken and fsh (and hopefully not dog) were the main sources of protein. Fresh fsh was available in the market every day. The ocean was close by and I was sad that I never got to see it!

I left Liberia feeling like there was so much more we could have done with more time and resources. I also thought about the fact that all over Africa there were hundreds of villages just like the ones