IVORY COAST EXTRA

After reading my recent posting about my sister’s experience of meeting two gorillas while riding her bicycle on a narrow bumpy road I was asked what she might be doing on a typical day in these nearby villages around 20 kilometers from home. According to her book she was asked about everyday health problems. Many water holes or swamps were contaminated with guinea worm eggs, invisible except under a microscope. They ask how illness could be caused from something invisible and wind up in the body over two feet long. They feel it must be caused by someone doing sorcery against them. We told them to filter the water through a fine cloth that the eggs cannot pass through or else the water could be boiled to kill the eggs. The worm grows for about a year and when it wants to get out it begins to bore its way out of the stomach and works its way down into either a leg or arm. Slowly it winds itself up in the muscle and flesh until a large bulge is formed. It cannot be operated on surgically as it is entwined in the flesh, becomes very painful and the victim is unable to walk or to move the painful limb. The worm bores a hole to leave the body and takes ten to fourteen days to come completely out. Its body is carefully wound around two small sticks to keep it alive because if it dies in the process more problems ensue. Occasionally a worm can be pulled out in a day without breaking it.

Once the people heard that the white lady was able to pull teeth, word was spread around from village to village and people would come one by one all afternoon. A dentist from Alberta had given me a complete set of dental tools and I kept my forceps handy and with no anesthetic pulled the painful tooth. They would rinse the mouth with a salty mouthwash afterward. One man had a back molar which kept him from sleeping. I told him that would be very difficult but he begged me to try. My nickname among some of the natives was “the strong one.” I pulled with all my strength until I felt dizzy. He begged me to try again. I breathed a prayer and tried again and finally succeeded. A very happy man indeed with his mouth full of blood tried to hug me and utter Moslem blessings such as, ‘May Alla cause you to remain a long time in our country, - may you prosper, and may you have many children!’ For more than forty years I was the only one available to carry out pulling teeth duties. The government finally brought in a registered dentist that cost them ten dollars each. I felt so sorry especially for the little old women who would come to me for help. Finally I was told I could help those I knew did not have the money to pay.