Bensenville woman gets lessons from Tanzania
After graduating from college, most young adults spend time looking for a job. Maybe they take some time off to travel a little bit.
Bensenville's Amanda Leipold spent the last eight months washing her clothes in a bucket, existing without electricity and living next door to a witch, who also happened to be her landlord.
She tried valiantly to save a young child's life, and when that failed, organized seminars for mothers to prevent similar deaths.
Since January, Leipold, 24, has lived in Tanzania, working with a group trying to make a dent in the overwhelming AIDS crisis in the country through public health education. On her monthly visits to a nearby village where she could access the Internet, she kept friends and family back home apprised of her exploits through a blog.
Leipold's winding down her trip, preparing for an early September return, but she exchanged e-mails with the Daily Herald about her adventures. Here's an edited transcript of the exchange:
Q. What led you to go off to Tanzania?
A. I've wanted to go to Africa for a long time. In college I led the student organization Action in Sudan. We worked to bring attention to the genocide happening in Darfur. I would have studied abroad in Africa but I didn't have the money. After college I started looking for a volunteer opportunity in Africa. I felt ending extreme poverty and the AIDS pandemic in Africa are the causes of my generation just like the civil rights movement or the anti-war movement was for previous generation.
I felt the need to contribute to a solution in person, on the ground, elbow deep in the problem. The Students Partnership Worldwide Kijana ni Afya (Healthy Youth) program put me in the center of the AIDS pandemic in Tanzania. The region I worked in has one of highest infection rates in the entire country. The national infection rate is 7 percent. The infection rate in my region is 13.4 percent.
Q. Would you like to wind up working in the public health field?
A. Yes. Before I came to Tanzania I was working for a political action committee helping to elect progressive candidates to local office. I loved the work, but I knew I wanted a change. I just didn't know what that change would be. My experience here has helped me realize what I would like to pursue.
I've seen the poor, particularly women and children, get treated horribly when it comes to health care. We have the technology to prevent or cure the diseases they are dying from, but the system is broken and those who really need it don't get the care available. I want to help change the system. I now plan to go back to school to get master's degrees in public health and law.
Q. I know you're there to work on AIDS prevention, has your role stayed true to that or has it morphed into something different?
A. I definitely stuck to teaching sexual reproductive health and HIV prevention for the most part. The program asks us to do a lot of work that has specific goals and timelines. I stayed busy doing the assigned work. I felt like most of the time that work was making a difference.
The thing is that HIV prevention is a very broad. We not only taught the biological aspects of sexual health, we taught life skills. We emphasized self-esteem, especially, among young girls. We taught girls their bodies belonged to them and no one else. We practiced being assertive with them. We made sure they know how to say no and where to go for help. These lessons weren't technically sexual reproductive health, but they were imperative in giving young people the tools they need to protect themselves.
Q. What did you expect the village to be like, what is it really like and what was the biggest surprise?
A. I expected a big bonfire with everyone sitting around and an old man telling ancient stories about the forest and the animals. What I got was a fairly modern place with electricity in many places, buses running to and from main town centers every hour of every day and a bar constantly playing action movies on the DVD player.
Q. What was it like going without the modern conveniences?
It was surprisingly easy to go without modern conveniences. It's amazing how quickly one adapts to living without electricity and running water. I learned to carry a bucket of water on my head and walk about a quarter-mile back to our house. My arms and back got really strong. My head lamp was really indispensable in the dark house. Besides that it was nice going to bed just a few hours after the sunset and reading every night instead of watching TV. When I did go back to town and have a hot shower and watch a movie it was that much better because I had not done those things in so long.
Q. Did you ever expect to encounter a witch?
A. I actually read about the witchcraft tradition in Tanzania on the blog of another SPW volunteer who was here the year before me.
When I got here I talked to the Tanzania volunteers and they all said witchcraft was widespread in the villages. There were even articles in the local newspapers about witches who had fallen from the sky while flying. I knew there would be people who believed in witchcraft and that there might even be people who practiced it. I did not expect that person to be my next-door neighbor and landlord.
Q. Was there any one experience that served as a turning point for you?
A. Another SPW volunteer and I came upon a mother and child on the village road one day. The baby was very sick and the mother needed help. We took them to the local hospital. The baby was extremely dehydrated and malnourished. The mother's husband refused to pay for the baby's medical care. We paid to have the baby admitted into the hospital and cared for, but the baby died a few days later.
Before that I didn't even know malnutrition was a problem in my village. I had seen the malnutrition ward at the local hospital but I just thought these children must come from other poorer villages. We have plenty of food here.
After the baby died I asked one of the nurses how many children she had seen die of malnutrition in the hospital. She said five. I said, "Five this year?" She laughed and said, "No, five this month." The whole experience made me feel powerless. In response, the other SPW volunteer and I set up a two-day women's seminar with the help of the hospital.
We talked to young mothers about family planning, a healthy pregnancy, malnutrition and women's rights. We got a great response and many of the women asked questions. I'll never forget that baby and hopefully our efforts in the village will save another baby from his fate.
Q. How do you think this whole experience will affect you once you return to the States?
A. My guess is there will be a little bit of reverse culture shock when I go back to the U.S. at first. My mom would send me fashion magazines while I was in the village. They were the same magazines I'd been reading happily for years back home. But as I was sitting in the village, cooking dinner on my charcoal stove and reading by my kerosene lamp, all I could think is, "What is wrong with these people?" After living out of a backpack in a house furnished solely by two beds, four chairs and a table, I also have the urge to give away all my extra belongings and live simply. Mostly because now I know I can, and maybe even because I think I'll be happier living that way.
• To check out Leipold's blog, visit amandaintanzania.blogspot.com.