59th Stop: New York City, NY (Part 2)

Louis was en route home and I was en route to meet up with my new host John Raekwon in Manhattan. Little did I know, however, that Raekwon was an alias from the famous rap group Wu Tang Clan...

When I got to John’s place and asked the doorman to ring up John Raekwon, he looked at me puzzled. “Are you sure about that name? The only Raekwon I know is the rapper!” Luckily, John called me at that instant so I handed over the phone to the doorman and was eventually sent upstairs.

John on the left next to friends

John was waiting there with his Swiss roommate and a friend. We chatted briefly about John’s work as a research scientist at Rockefeller University and then went to a gourmet potluck house party in Brooklyn. The host had one of the most impressive whiskey collections I’ve seen in a long time... in his bedroom closet! Thanks for the tasting and the party!

On Saturday, I made a tomato, sausage, and meatballs pasta dish that we greedily devoured after an early evening workout at the gym. Later that night, we went downtown to meet up with an old friend of mine from Brandeis University, Jason F., thanks to Facebook: you never really lose touch with your network like we did in the past. All you need is a name and a few other details to reconnect after 10 years... It was great meeting up with Jason and reminiscing about our freshman antics. He reminded me of one particular story that involved trapping a fart in a snapple bottle and sharing it with some unfortunate soul several hours later.

I had a fantastic time over the weekend with John, hearing a lot of interesting stories and laughing quite a bit. I definitely found a good friend and also the first member of the new CouchNetSurfers team. John will be eradicating malaria by couchsurfing throughout the year. Thanks again John for hosting me and for being a part of this initiative!

To be continued...

20th Stop - Douala, Cameroon, part 2

Malaria prevention

Nothing too exciting these past few days. I finally got a cash infusion from Western Union, my debit cards having arrived in Casablanca a couple days after my departure. Next stop, the pharmacy.

First off, thanks Valérie for the info about what anti-malarial medication to get. She recommended either lariam or malarone. I had the box of lariam in my hand and looked at the price tag: $100! No wonder why this is not a long-term solution to malaria prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa (in addition to the potential side effects of taking it for too long). For 56 days of protection, that’s $1.78 per day. That may not sound like much for some readers, but for people surviving on less than $1 a day, this price makes it unaffordable for those who need it most.

Bednet for Annie and Ghislain's three boys.

Now, lets compare this with a bednet. One bednet can protect 1 to 4 people (depending on how many people are sleeping under it) for up to 5 years. Five years is 1,825 days. If a bednet costs $10 to produce, ship, distribute, and teach people how to use it, that makes $0.005 per day. Lets say there are 3 children sleeping under it, that means it will cost less than $0.002 per day to protect them from contracting a malaria for up to 5 years.

This illustrates why there is so much effort and energy being devoted to the bednets campaign. It is one of the most simple, cost-effective solution for saving lives. Remember that every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria and that children under 5 are most at risk. This also costs Sub-Saharan Africa $12 billion in lost economic productivity and represents about 40% of the continent's health expenditures.

If you want to protect someone’s life over the next five years, you can buy a bednet or two today by clicking here. It will end up costing you less than $0.005 per day. A special thanks to Magali G. for pushing us over the bar of $3000 raised for 300 bednets!

Thanks again to everyone for your support. There are more adventures to come--tonight we celebrate Ghislain’s birthday!

20th Stop - Douala, Cameroon

Avoid the equator during the rainy season

I started to worry at the airport, “What if they realize I left my car here? Will they prevent me from leaving?” No problems, made it through customs. I think I was having another bout of good luck, this time brought on by greeting everyone with “salem alikum” and a smile. I even got an exit window seat on the plane to Douala.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I got to the airport. Germain from JCI Cameroon had helped me make a hotel reservation for my visa back in May. But I was showing up earlier and really hoped to stay with and meet some JCI members. So a week ago, I sent a message to Roland Kweiman, this year’s JCI world president who is from Cameroon and told him about my project. He initiated a chain reaction of email forwards until Ghislain, a local president in Douala offered to host me. This chain reaction took some time and nothing got nailed down before I got on the plane, meaning I didn’t have Ghislain’s number nor address and had no idea how to find him once I got there. Stay positive, right?

I got my bags and made it through customs without having to pay an “expedited” service charge to a local entrepreneur whose brother or sister works as a customs officer. It was 5:30 in the morning and when I got out to the taxis and didn’t see anyone holding a sign with my name on it, I started to think about what to do next. Just then, someone approached me, “Are you John?” Yes! Thank you ever so much Ghislain for coming to the airport to meet me! It turns out, Ghislain had been there since 2 am and had no idea what I looked like. When my plane arrived, he saw looking a little dazed and confused and when I looked closely at the sign someone was holding, he said to himself, that must be him.

We took a taxi back to his place and as I put my things down, Ghislain asked, “Do you play ball?” Meaning football, or soccer. Of course I do. “Great, we got a game going in less than an hour, get laced up!”

Generally 2, sometimes 3 per bike

We hopped on some motor bikes and went to the soccer field. Ghislain plays with the Veterans, an older men’s league for locals from the same neighborhood. This league is actually an association of about 40 members who play against each other every Sunday. There was a great warm-up and stretching that reminded of high school soccer days. We played for a couple of hours, then went for a lunch of hare, chicken, rice, and macuba with Hervé and Achilles. The food was delicious.

Our day with the Veterans had just begun, however. After lunch, we went to the réfuge, or clubhouse, to talk about the game and other pressing issues the association had to deal with. Oh, and sing a modified version of the Marseillaise and drink some beers (Allons enfants des brasseries / Le temps de boire est arrivé / Nous buvons jusqu’à la dérive / Nous buvons jusqu’à la dérive / Le temps de boire est arrivé / Le temps de boire est arrivé / Buvons... Chantons / Jusqu’au matin / Le temps de boire est arrivé...). After a while of listening to everyone discuss health insurance issues, it became clear that the Veterans could benefit from a training on parliamentary procedure. This would help them take democratic decisions in a timely and efficient manner. I proposed a resolution to do this training with Ghislain next week and it was unanimously approved... Rendez-vous next week for more soccer, training, singing, and drinking!

Les Amis du Dimanche

The general meeting ended around 3 pm, so we went back home, showered up and went into town for another meeting. This time with the Amis du Dimanche (Sunday Friends). This is another association similar to the Veterans but whose main function is to provide solidarity among members in times of need. Every week, members meet and pay dues. Then they discuss what is going on in the neighborhood and how they can help each other. They also share a meal and drink together. I told everyone about why I was in Douala and they were very happy to hear about what I was doing to help fight malaria.

After the meal, we excused ourselves to go to Ghislain’s mother-in-law’s home. She lost her husband last year and the entire family was there for the one-year anniversary of his death. My sincerest condolences to her, Annie, Ghislain’s wife, and the rest of their family.

Storytelling with the Amis du Dimanche

It was getting late and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep my eyes open. We took motorbikes to the main road, then got in a cab and I fell promptly asleep. I didn’t even realize when Ghislain stopped to buy some fish for dinner. We also got some insecticide to spray around the apartment. Hopefully, this will keep the mosquitos at bay until I get my hands on some anti-malarial medication.

One last delicious fish meal with fried plantains and it was time to hit the sack.

To be continued...