On the fourth day, Tom and I headed out with the team from Le Korsa which is an NGO that does a lot of work in Senegal.

Our first stop was to visit a community garden outside of Tambacounda. Le Korsa was able to provide the piping and the well for the garden that it is run by a woman’s collective from the local village. One thing that struck me when I first saw it, was how lush it looked in the midst of such a dry and arid landscape.

Sweet potatoes growing in the first garden we saw

A bounty of very large sweet potatoes

One interesting fact: the food in the garden is used to feed the village and what is left over, is sold. When the men are not working during the rainy season, the women lend them money until they go back to work and are able to pay them back. Never under estimate the power of a working woman!

The women’s collective from the first garden

I took a picture of this woman in the garden and then I saw her take my picture a few minutes later.

Then we took our pictures together!

Everywhere I went, I was taken by the warmth of the Senegalese people. They were always welcoming and happy to show the work they were doing.

The second garden we went to was started by a spinoff of the first garden. There were too many women in the first garden so the second group started another garden in another village. This garden was larger and had slightly different crops.

Peanuts which are a staple of Senegal, getting ready to be harvested.

Most women had at least one child working with them

The women of the collective saying goodbye to us

As someone said, water, garden, women’s collective equals power!! I agree. It was great to see. More to come on the second part of our day.

We began our day at the hospital regional de Tambacounda. This hospital serves as the regional hub for all the outlying villages and is very busy for this reason.

The first stop was a meeting with the Chief du Service and Financial Director of the hospital, Khalifa Fallou. He was so happy that GoDocGo has returned for their sixth visit to this hospital. It has helped to establish connections with the doctors and midwives and to have continuation of treatment.

The GoDocGo team with the Financial Director of the hospital and Dr. Deme

The next stop was a presentation about the LEEP machine that Maggie gave in french, no less, to the OBGYN doctors and midwives. There was a large turnout with much interest. The highlight of the presentation was being able to practice with the machine on an uncooked chicken. Everyone got a better understanding including me!

Maggie demonstrating how to use a LEEP machine

The patient for the demonstration was an uncooked chicken

Dr. Deme practicing and me being an assistant

What is interesting to observe is the camaraderie of the midwives and their eagerness to learn.

The midwives and doctors who attended the presentation

The purpose of our visit was to do follow up screenings where there had been questionable results. There were several midwives as well as Dr. Deme and Maggie and me in one of the exam room with the patients.

Maggie and Dr. Deme working with the midwives

The rest of the day was filled with screenings and treatments. Of 38 women screened, eight were positive and most could get treatment. Without this type of work, many women would not have access any treatment. For some, it will save their lives. Previously in Africa, women were not screened for cervical cancer and many died from this disease that is easy to prevent.

Dr. Deme, an OBGYN doctor, performs a LEEP procedure on a patient

The day ended with a visit to the Foyer de Jeunes FIlles in Tambacounda which houses 184 young women from age 11 to 20. These girls are sent there by their families so that they can continue their education away from home. The Foyer allows the girls to live in a safe place that is part dormitory, part community and part supplemental education. Girls come to live there from outlying villages in order to continue their education and not marry at such a young age. The Foyer is run by the NGO Le Korsa which is actively doing a lot of outstanding work in Senegal. GoDocGo works under an arm of Le Korsa.

Tom Meyer beginning his class at the Foyer

Professor Tom Meyer from SUNY New Paltz, has come on this trip to teach a writing class for any girls from the Foyer who wanted to participate. They chose to come to his class at 5 PM after a long day of school. When the girls first arrived, they were quiet and shy. Over the course of the two hour class, a transformation took place. By the end, many girls were enthusiastically choosing to share their writing in the author’s chair. The class was a success and the girls will work with Tom through Saturday.

We are staying in Tambacounda where we have had spotty internet and it has been hard to post anything. I now have a wireless hotspot that should help this process along because there is a lot more to come!!

We are having a great trip. The only problem is the internet. I hope to be able to get access tomorrow afternoon. With any luck, I will have a few posts to share!!

After a smooth seven hour flight, we landed in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, at nine this morning. It was good to be back and step out into the warm sun. There were six of us on the flight. Dr. Maggie Capenter, the founder of GoDocGo, Patricia Bacon, GoDocGo program director, Dr. Kristen Austin, Dr. Tom Meyer, Allegra Itsoga, Director of Le Korsa and Julie Stevenson, GoDocGo board member and resident blogger.

Dr. Maggie Carpenter, Dr. Kristen Austin, Pat Bacon, Julie Stevenson and Tom Meyer – Allegra took the picture

Vieux Toute is the In-Country program director in Senegal here with Dr. Kristen Austin

We did not linger in Dakar. The GoDocGo team headed three hours east to the Hospital Regional de Kaolack and worked with Dr. Sy and two other OBGYN colleagues. The GoDocGo team had been to this hospital in June to do screenings and training. Today we brought a LEEP machine which can burn away any legions that appear on a women’s cervix and can cause cancer in the future.

Maggie and Kristen preparing

The purpose of our visit today was to train the doctors on how to use the machine and to treat ten women who needed to be rescreened due to some concerns. We also brought a thermal ablation gun that can be used to remove very small legions. At the end of the day, two of the ten women needed treatment that we could provide. The others were either normal or needed treatment that we could not provide.

The doctors practiced using the new machine on a chicken.

Drs. Sy, Sene and Bakhoum work with the GoDocGo doctors

At Kaolack, Allegra and Tom continued on the journey to Tambacunda where we all met later in the evening. Starting Wednesday, Tom will be teaching writing to young women who go to school in Tambacunda.

More to come today. Internet problems yesterday!!

We made it to Dakar, Senegal this morning after a smooth, seven hour flight. It has been a busy day and I do not have good Wifi. More to come tomorrow when I can connect.

On Wednesday, we began in St. Louis, Senegal, moved onto Dakar and by Thursday morning, I was back in New York. A real whirlwind for sure. It started when we left St. Louis on Wednesday morning in our two vans and worked our way back to Dakar.

This time, the luggage stayed in the car but as we drove along, we saw roof racks packed with all sorts of things.

As we left the cities in Senegal and drove by the villages, we could see that there is not very much there. It is mostly huts on the side of the road, some of them selling vegetables and fruit, others selling peanuts (they are from Senegal). You see many horses hauling carts laden with all sorts of things inside of them. As a horse person, it made me sad to see that many of the horses were skinny and many were lame. I am not sure how the lives of these horses can be changed. They are a needed part of the work system in Senegal. Very few people can afford cars or trucks so the horse and donkeys fill in. That being said, not all horses were in bad shape. We did take a carriage ride with a horse named Michael Jackson. He goes as Michael for short. It was good to see that he was both well fed, not lame and had a fancy head of hair. He did not wear a white glove.

At the end of the day, we arrived in Dakar at a hotel near the airport. Five of us left to head home and on Thursday, Maggie and Pat left with the team from Atila to the Gambia for another screening and training.

It was a great trip. I feel lucky that I got a glimpse into the lives of those who live in Senegal. I have a more detailed understanding of the work of GoDocGo and Le Korsa. Le Korsa is an NGO that works to improve lives in Senegal through health care, education, agriculture, and the arts and GoDocGo works with them while we are in Senegal.

For me, it was an incredible opportunity to be able to go into the hospitals and meet the doctors, mid-wives and the patients. It was inspiring to see all that has been done to move the mission of GoDocGo forward. Maggie Carpenter has created something that there is a critical need for not only in Africa but around the world. Now she is not seeing through her vision and making it come to life. She is really the go in GoDocGo.

Thanks for following along. It was a lot of fun to have the time to take pictures and write what I was seeing. Stay tuned for the next adventure!!

We are back for another day of screenings at the St. Louis Regional hospital.  

Today began with a presentation by Youxiang Wang about the Atila Biosystems Ampfire HPV testing unit and the benefits of early detection with HPV. Providing this technology enables this hospital to screen, see results and treat on a timely basis. This has never been done in Senegal before.  

Our trip has been running smoothly except yesterday there was one glitch. The Ampfire HPV machine that had been sent to Senegal had arrived but it had been stuck in customs for three weeks.  Senegal time moves a little slower than regular time but this was really slow!! Dr. Faye, who lives in Dakar, was finally able to free it and then bring it to St. Louis  The good news is that Dr. Wang and Dr. Chen will be able to train the lab technicians on how to use the equipment so that the hospital can screen many more women and get the results quickly, reliably and inexpensively.  

One of the women who tested positive yesterday came back today for thermo-ablation. This is a procedure that destroys the abnormal cells using heat and thus prevents the development of cancer.  If she was not treated, chances are that those cells, over time, could develop into cancer.  The good news is that she will come back in a year to be checked and in most cases, she will be ok.  

Today we are seeing more positive results and treating them. Again, because GoDocGo has donated the equipment, we are able to treat these positive results while the women are here.  I continue to be impressed by the work and mindfulness of the midwives.  They are businesslike, kind, smart, funny and warm, all rolled into one.  Really amazing people.  It has the feel of a medical carnival. I feel lucky to be able to be a fly on the wall here in the exam room.  I am getting a firsthand glimpse into another culture that I would not be able get in most cases, certainly not in the United States. 

What is also amazing, is that the screenings and the procedures that the women are receiving are free. Again, this goes back to the money that GoDocGo raises to be able to buy equipment and supplies and bring them with us when we come. It also happens because GoDocGo trains the doctors and mid-wives how to use the equipment so that screenings and care can continue when we are not here.

Our work in St. Louis is done and tomorrow we head back to Dakar. Some of us will head home to New York and some for a quick trip to Paris on the way home. For Maggie and Pat and the the team from Atila, they will head to the Gambia where they will do screenings, trainings and delivering another Ampfire HPV tasing unit to the hospital.

After a nice break, we are back on the job at the Centre Hospitalier Regional de St. Louis.  It is a hospital that GoDocGo has visited in November of 2017 and again in June of 2018. This is our third visit here.  I am the roving photographer trying to give you a glimpse inside a day in the life of GoDocGo while on the road.

Today we are screening for HPV – Human Papilloma Virus in addition to using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) to screen for cervical cancer. HPV causes ninety-nine percent of cervical cancer.  

We have been joined by Youxiang Wang, the owner of Atila Biosystems located in Mountain View, CA, his son, Zach Wang and Xin Chen who is a scientist who works with Youxiang. Atila Biosystems has developed the Ampfire HPV testing unit and reagents to immediately read the results of the HPV test. 

There are over fifty patients here today for HPV and cervical cancer screenings. In addition to the patients, several of the midwives get screened as well.  The doctors are also administrating breast exams and showing the women how they can check themselves at home. 

GoDocGo has bought the Amfire HPV testing machine for this hospital and the team from Atila is here to train the doctors on how to use the machines. This is the first general hospital in Senegal to have HPV testing which is really amazing.

The benefits of HPV screenings are that if the results are negative, the women do not need a speculum exam and they only need to be screened every five years. If the results are positive, further testing is needed. 

Right now, Dr. Carpenter is checking a patient who tested positive last week and is being rechecked because the midwives wanted a second opinion while we are here. This could not have happened if we were not coming on a regular basis.  

This is a perfect example to see how the money that you give to GoDocGO is being used. It would not be possible for us to provide this machinery without your donations and it would not be possible to read the results of the swabs without the machine.  We have brought 1,000 HPV tests for this hospital and the tests cost $5.00 per person to administer.  So, you can really see your dollars at work.   We could not do it without our donors. Thank you!!

What I find truly different here in Senegal, is the feeling of empowerment that exists between the women.  There is a comradery between the midwives and the patients and the midwives and us. These midwives have come to know us and trust Maggie and the others on the GoDocGo team which is yet another benefit of coming back on a regular basis.  

It has been a full day.  For me, without a medical background, I am learning so much.  I think that I need to come on a more regular basis to awaken my French.  Right now, I am in the exam room and have been put in the role of translator. It is like opening a vault that has been sealed for several years.  First my mind thinks in English, then Spanish and then the French starts to come. Although each day, more French comes back which has been useful these days. 

Well, I think I must be in another movie!! We have arrived in St. Louis, Senegal and as far as I can tell, there is no arch here.

It is no easy feat traveling by car in Senegal. The roads are not great and once we left the congestion of Dakar, the traffic was caused by a wayward goat or donkey. We are traveling in two vans with very good drivers. The Senegalese take their speed bumps very seriously and have inserted them in the roads as often as possible so it is hard to get much speed going.

As we made our way along today, I was in the second van. We went over yet another bump and then next thing I know, we started to back up which I thought was perhaps speed bump enthusiasm. It seemed excessive. What I had not seen was the that the back of the van in front of us had flung open, sending a backpack careening out and landing underneath our van, while we were going over the speed bump!!

After some back and forth, we were able to get the backpack out and after shaking off the dirt, the computer inside remain unscathed. It was really quite amazing!! The drivers took it all in stride as if it was an everyday kind of thing, The rest of the ride remained uneventful in comparison and we arrived in St. Louis later in the afternoon.

It is the original capital of Senegal and sits on the Senegal River. Our hotel is on the water and comes with it’s own 75 year old tortoise whose name is Sony.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we will head back to the clinics to continue screening for cervical cancer. Stay tuned. More details to come.

Today is a holiday in Senegal celebrating the prophet Mohamed’s birthday. Given the festivities, we have not been able to work in any hospitals over the past two days. Instead, three of the other GoDocGo volunteers and I set out to Goree Island.

This is an island off the coast of Dakar where slaves were sent before being shipped to other countries. It was a study of contrasts, sobering and yet in a beautiful setting. The rooms where the slaves were kept were small and dark. The slaves spent three to six months on this island and were separated by sex and age while they were there.

Now Goree Island is a place where tourists go to learn about the brutal past. It has become a source of income for those people working on the island which I suppose, is a good thing.

Tomorrow the GoDocGo team heads to St. Louis which is up the coast from Dakar. We will be there until Wednesday and more pictures and news to follow.