Last week I stayed in the field for a bit longer than just half a day to say hello to important people. We (my colleague and I) spent two days in Os Gambos to prepare the Participatory Rural Diagnostic. For those who d not know what that is: It is a collection of methods to obtain a lot of qualitative information about an area. We discuss lots of issues with the people who live there, such as who does what and where, who is importnat and why who is rich and who is poor and how do you know, we talk about the past and together we draw a map of the area that indicates which natural resources are where. And of course we talk about the problems, let people prioritize the problems and talk about the cause of those problems. We talk to women and men separately.
To get some information beforehand, we talked to a biased sample f the inhabitants: those people who were trained as community based animal health workers by NGO’s. Although biased, talking to them does give you a good idea of what is happening and how large the gap between statistics and reality is.
In one case, the gap is unfortunately very small. Allmost everybody has many children, often more than 5 sometimes up to 10. And that suggests that some of the statistics are correct. And thos statistics show that over 50% of the populatio is younger than 14 years, about 10% is 15-20 years old and the remaining 40% is evenly spread over the ages 21-80. You do not need to be a mathematical genius to realise that the child mortality is frighteningly high.
The most probable cause is the lack of safe drinking water. In large parts of Os Gambos, rivers and manmade shallow dams are the only sources of water. Both are used by people as well as livestock and not just for drinking. So hygiene is awful and diarrhoea probably is a big problem and likely to be an important cause of child mortality.
The society is matrilineal and polygamy is accepted. Matrilineal means (in this case?) that the inheritance goes to the sons of the sister of the deceased. When she marries, a woman will move into the house of the man. Polygamy is not unusual, about 25% of the men have two wives and a few have three or even four wives
Many pepole, especially women, still dress in traditional clothes. That means a cloth around the waist and bits of string with beads and bones around the upper body. Women also cover their hair with a thick cake of yellow clay. I have not yet dared to make portraits yet, maybe later, when I know peopple better.
To get some information beforehand, we talked to a biased sample f the inhabitants: those people who were trained as community based animal health workers by NGO’s. Although biased, talking to them does give you a good idea of what is happening and how large the gap between statistics and reality is.
In one case, the gap is unfortunately very small. Allmost everybody has many children, often more than 5 sometimes up to 10. And that suggests that some of the statistics are correct. And thos statistics show that over 50% of the populatio is younger than 14 years, about 10% is 15-20 years old and the remaining 40% is evenly spread over the ages 21-80. You do not need to be a mathematical genius to realise that the child mortality is frighteningly high.
The most probable cause is the lack of safe drinking water. In large parts of Os Gambos, rivers and manmade shallow dams are the only sources of water. Both are used by people as well as livestock and not just for drinking. So hygiene is awful and diarrhoea probably is a big problem and likely to be an important cause of child mortality.
The society is matrilineal and polygamy is accepted. Matrilineal means (in this case?) that the inheritance goes to the sons of the sister of the deceased. When she marries, a woman will move into the house of the man. Polygamy is not unusual, about 25% of the men have two wives and a few have three or even four wives
Many pepole, especially women, still dress in traditional clothes. That means a cloth around the waist and bits of string with beads and bones around the upper body. Women also cover their hair with a thick cake of yellow clay. I have not yet dared to make portraits yet, maybe later, when I know peopple better.
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