14
African memories
Field work in Gambo, Ethiopia
During 2013, I had the chance to spend the autumn in a remote area of South
Ethiopia. It was just after the main rainy season and the fields were surprisingly
green. People may think of the Horn of Africa as the unbearably hottest, driest
and most desert place on earth. Therefore, those who had not been there would
never believe how green and lush some parts of this region of Africa can be.
This is the case of Gambo, a small town of approximately 5,000 inhabitants
located in the highlands, at 2,200 m of altitude, 250 km south of Addis Ababa.
The economy of Gambo town is mainly based on agriculture which is highly
dependent on rainfall, comprising a period of about 4 months (June-September)
that alternates with periods of drought. The most predominant crops are wheat,
corn, barley, sorghum and teff whereas vegetation mainly consists of banana and
also eucalyptus from afforestation processes carried out during the 40s. The
course of the river Leppis falls near the town, and there are several sources of
groundwater.
In this rural area, there are no paved roads and the nearest town (Arsi-
Neguele) is 18 km along a forest track, so the way of living is completely
different from cities. Best houses are upgraded cement; however, most of the
people live in traditional mud huts with very close relationships with animals.
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In Ethiopia, there are
around 52 million people at risk of
suffering from malaria. The
transmission pattern is seasonal
and the greatest number of cases
occurs between September and
November, just after the main
rainy season. Due to the altitude
and climatic features, there is no
malaria in Gambo; however, the
Gambo General Rural Hospital
attends patients from the
surrounding villages where
malaria is an important issue. As
far as we are aware, the Anopheles
mosquito distribution in this highland area is unknown, so our aim was to
improve the knowledge on the malaria vectors in this isolated part of Ethiopia as
well as their prevalence of Plasmodium spp. infection. For that purpose, we
carried out an entomological field study covering several villages at different
altitudes (from
2,200 to 1,600 m).
Field work
in an African rural
area can be very
challenging in
terms of
infrastructure and
especially when
you have a tight
budget. Regarding
to transport, we
had to collect
mosquitos from
urbanized cities to
very isolated villages in the middle of the highlands. So, we took all the
available transports to get to our sampling places. Buses or motorbikes, when
there were accessible paths or even riding a horse or horse charts were the
chosen options in some occasions. However, most of the times we had to walk
very long hours carrying a heavy bag with the required equipment (mosquito
traps, batteries and GPS), through crop fields or hilly paths under a melting sun.
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Sample points were randomly
selected. Once we arrived to a selected
house, people usually came out
immediately to greet us. Greeting in
Ethiopia, is a very important tradition and
part of daily life. In these rural areas,
people were not used to having foreigners
in their own home, so after the long and
warm greeting of all family members we
first explained them in their local language
what we were intended to do, with the
invaluable assistance of our local translator.
Almost anyone refused to collaborate in the
study and people appeared to be willing to
participate. They were aware of the
importance of research on malaria to
eventually get rid of the disease. In fact,
neighbors would come out of their houses
willing to help and offering their homes to
catch “waba bimbi” (malaria mosquito in Amharic).
In the villages, people were extremely friendly and the poorest they were,
the most hospitable they showed. We usually reached the houses in the morning,
when people were working in the fields or were gone to the traditional market,
but still, there was always someone to help us out. We always received a warm
welcome, and were immediately offered to take a sit. Many times people offered
to prepare a coffee ceremony for us. This is a traditional ritual that consists of
roasting green coffee beans over hot coals in a brazier, grinding beans in a
traditional wooden mortar and pestle and boiled them in a beautiful pot (jebena).
The coffee ceremony is one of the most recognizable parts of Ethiopian culture.
The coffee was often served with popcorn and we were offered to try “the
injera”, a flat-bread traditionally made out of teff flour, which is the national
dish in Ethiopia.
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After placing the mosquito traps, everything was settled for the night
capture, and we said goodbye until the next day for traps collection. In our
experience, rural people were certainly much more generous and disinterested
than people in towns, what made our project much more pleasant there.
I would like to thank the Spanish Society of Tropical Medicine and
International Health (SEMTSI) and the Royal Spanish Football Federation
(RFEF) as funders, for giving me the opportunity to live this experience. It has
been very rewarding both professionally and personally. Field work was carried
out along with Laura Prieto and Corado Paulos, their help and effort was
essential for the success of this project. I also thank Moncho Pérez for his
cooperation, Jose Manuel Ramos for his guidance and coordination and
Guadalupe Martín for her support. Last but not least, I would like to thank in a
special manner all those Ethiopian people who have generously collaborated
with us in this project.
Ines Martín-Martín