Notes from the chat with Katarina

Over spring break, we spoke with Katarina, one of the women who is partially in charge of the L-W/Drew Senegal trip. She was super helpful in narrowing down our project, and also knew lots about the subject at hand: malaria nets. Here are the notes from what we talked about:

PAST SYSTEM OF NET DISTRIBUTION:
-Katarina would buy the nets upon arriving in the village, from a nearby pharmacy (not that efficient, can't buy nets in bulk)
-nets usually cost $3/$4, but sometimes up to $10

ISSUES:
-mosquito nets are not actually that cheap
-kids fall asleep outside (too hot in houses/don't always know the dangers of sleeping without a net) --> perhaps education is needed
-some houses don't have beds --> no easy way to set up net
-many people sleep in one bed --> hard to set up net
-parts needed: hook, string --> too expensive

THINGS TO LOOK INTO:
-assign team of students on Senegal trip to distribute/set up nets (need to talk to people in charge of trip, get their opinions)
-companies/organizations that make/sell nets

Then, today, we spoke with Mr. Kleindolph about these ideas. We learned:

-Upon arriving in village, American students set up nets in their own rooms, whether or not one was there before.
-However, Mr. K's been going on this trip for a couple years, and every time he goes back, the nets are usually not up.
-This suggests that for some reason, villagers are taking down the nets. Katarina mentioned that villagers sometimes sell the nets (for example, to get money to buy food), but Mr. K thought perhaps there were some cultural implications around the nets...
-Is it annoying to sleep with a net around you? Annoying enough to take it down, given that it could potentially save you from a fatal disease!?
-So, given this new information, we plan on talking to Youssou (woodshop teacher at Lick) and Daouda (teacher at Drew; one of the organizers of the Senegal trip), both of whom are originally from Senegal.
-We're hoping they might be able to enlighten us as to what people actually from the village think about mosquito nets. After all, it's not much use taking the time and effort to set up nets in a bunch of houses if the villagers just take them down...

So! That's the update for today.