Monday, November 15, 2010

Home again

I got in last night around 9:30pm. The family was there to greet me but my luggage was not. Luckily there isn't anything that I absolutely need in that bag and they were able to confirm that it was still in Amsterdam and that it should arrive here sometime tonight.

The last few days over there were somewhat hectic because of the impending departure of three volunteers (myself included) and the upcoming celebration which effectively will shut down the project for five days or so. Those who remain there will be able to get all the data and records organized which will be very helpful.

Many things went very well during the last week. A few different groups visited our operation and they were very impressed with the work. Other groups were in the villages collecting blood lead data and doing other testing which is outside the scope of the remediation but very helpful in identifying what is going on with the lead in the villages.

The lead contamination in the villages is huge and off the scale of anything that has occurred here in the states with the exception of some superfund sites. The official numbers of deaths reported are likely low based on what we have heard in the villages. Many children have died and many are still sick. Kids in the villages have blood lead levels in excess of 100ug/dl which is way over any regulatory limit you will find in the states. So the damage has already been done to those kids. The work going on over there is to stop more damage from occuring.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read this blog. I want to go back to be part of that work and part of that team. It wasn't scary at all, well except for the driving... The villagers were very friendly and helpful. The workers from the various groups in the country were all very talented. There is just no way to describe it all adequately. However, I came back with some Nigerian currency (naira) and as I was showing it to my family, I caught a whiff of the odor coming from the bills. Yep, I brought back the smell of Nigeria.

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