rain!

It’s finally here: the rain! Pouring like an open faucet above our camp. We should have anticipated that. I can't say how many days it’s been raining now. For sure it’s a big difference with Santa Fe. Anyway, the mission moves on. Alex and François are working night and day. I don’t know precisely what they are working on. Pierre and take care of the children. They look so cute and bright and reactive. The little Yuly (I’m fond of this name) strikes most of our attention. She’s got a persisting fever that hasn’t been dropping since days and we are all clueless about that.

settled

We have finally settled. Eight people are part of the mission. Alex and I are the only ones coming from North America. Marie is a French biologist (and Professeur Malud’s partner too), Konstantin is German and in charge of telecommunications and logistics, Will is a French ethnologist and Francisco is an Italian naturalist. He came with his wife Francesca who is supposed to cook for all of us. I’ll look after the children of the village with Pierre, the French pediatrician of the team and finally, Alex will be working with François. This melting pot is really a stimulating environment and it does feel so good to have a new opportunity to speak French again. What we could call our house is modest to say the least: we’re going to share a room with two other people. It’s not going to be easy! The biggest building has easily been cut in half: one side is hospital, the other side is the lab. The village inhabitants are wondering who we are and what we do… It’s quite understandable. I can’t go out walking in the village without having a growing bunch of kids running around me like buzzing little bees. They follow me everywhere I go and they seem fascinated by my blond hair. François told me that till today they had never seen a white woman with blond hair...

suffering from the weather

This place is so hot and damp that it can get suffocating. Alex is more uncomfortable with this than I am. I guess we need some time to adapt. We’re doing as well as we can with what little we have. The inhabitants of the village are really unique and Alex seems just as fascinated as I am. He ran a lot of tests with them and made quite a interesting discovery? All of them have incredible eyesight. I mean their vision is simply perfect - had they something to read, they certainly wouldn't need glasses, even the elders. I have never seen that before and Alex is trying to understand what he calls the “little miracle of French Guyana”. As for me, I’m wondering what am I going to do those boxes full of reading glasses we took with us? It seemed to be such a great idea when we left the States. Anyone interested? Just let me know :o)

all packed up

We packed all our stuff. At home the atmosphere is tense. We’re eagerly waiting for the departure day. We’ve checked a hundred times all the medical equipment we might need but the point is that we have no idea of what we are to except down there. Matthew even offered Alex to take away some of the Laboratory equipment with him. In return, he made him promise to go on with the research and send him monthly what he calls a state of advancing report. God! As for the Indian reservation we're leaving, I finally met my substitute. He looks smart and I'm sure he will do a great job. So here we are, no going possible now!

YES! leaving for french guyana

Here we are, it’s a YES! Alex and I will be leaving Santa Fe for French Guyana by the beginning of January 2007. I’m really excited and so is Alex. It’s like, I don’t know, as he looked younger and more passionate than ever, exactly as he was when we first met during our resident medical internship. Matthew doesn’t seem to share this point of view. But never mind, this trip is a new start. Perhaps everyone may have to leave everything sometimes in order to find out who we really are. Perhaps…

a new job?

We exchanged a lot of emails with Professor Marlud. And it looks like it could be a yes! The professor is really interested with our two medical profiles. As geneticists (even if I took a pediatric orientation for the last 3 years) we could be a real added value to the mission. Alex spoke to Matthew about this project. He seems to have agreed that the lab can do without Alex for six months but I believe he has something else in his mind, and probably expect Alex to do research for the lab right there in Guyana, among the Preserved indian population. What they actually have in mind, I don't really want to know, I just trust Alex and that's enough for me. On my side, I already took contact with an association of voluntary doctors to find who could take my job in the reservation. I feel a little sad when I think I’ll have to leave the people I took care of for the last six months of my life for I have grown very fond of some children and elders herre.

seminar with professor François Marlud

Last week while attending a seminary we met a French and brilliant Medicine Professor. François Marlud is his name. He’s organizing a six months mission in French Guyana and more precisely in the South of the equatorial forest. Doctors, physicians, biologists, geneticists, specialists of nature and environment will join this mission. From what I understood, they’re all fairly well known in their fields of business. The mission’s objective is double: studying the local environment (flowers, plants, animals…) and bringing healthcare to a population isolated on a vast portion of the Equatorial forest north of the River Saint-Laurent, close to the border with Brazil. We have had endless talks about this mission with Alex. I believe that it would be a great opportunity for the two of us and I think I managed to convince him. We don’t know yet if the mission is finally on its way and what the consequences would be for us.